Understanding a Bill's Structure

Before creating bills, it is important to understand how a bill and its components are organized. This organization is commonly referred to as the bill's structure.

In its simplest form, a bill consists of one or more components used directly to manufacture an assembly or finished product. If such a bill does not contain any other assemblies as components, it is defined as a single-level bill.

The following diagram illustrates the structure of a single-level bill.

BILL000

ITEM1

(1)

ITEM2

(1)

ITEM3

(2)

ITEM4

(2)

In this example, the parent bill consists of four separate component items. The numbers in parentheses indicate the quantity of each component item required to complete the bill.

A more complex bill can consist of components that are assemblies as well as inventory items. An assembly used as a component of another assembly is a subassembly. A bill containing one or more subassembly components is defined as a multi-level bill.

In a multi-level bill, each level represents a group of components and/or subassemblies that are subordinate to the preceding level.

The following diagram illustrates the structure of a multi-level bill with three levels.

In this example, the parent bill (BILL001) consists of two items (ITEM1 and ITEM2) and two subassembly bills (BILLA and BILLB). These components constitute the Level 1 components of the bill. The direct components of the first level subassembly bills constitute the Level 2 components.