Why Engineering Teams Love Integrated BOM and CAD Systems

There's a big difference between a parts list and a BOM for a PCBA. A parts list is a simple list of part numbers that will appear in the design. It doesn't become a BOM until some sourcing information is attached. Once you have a real BOM, you can go out and source parts from your vendors and start the assembly process.

At the end of the design process, a designer will need to attach that sourcing information to their parts list and turn it into a BOM. Sure, this can be added into parts in your PCB libraries, but most CAD systems force that to be static information rather than dynamically updating information. Supply chain visibility has been around for a long time, and it's very easy for designers to get that static distributor information into a library part.

The next generation of supply chain management for PCB builds started back when we introduced ActiveBOM and integrated parts data from Octopart. Since then, designers have been able to create dynamically updating libraries, where the supply chain data from preferred and secondary distributors automatically populates into a PCB library part.

This is one of many reasons why engineers love BOM management features in their CAD software. These features help engineers avoid that inevitable unsourceable part making its way into a project release.

BOM Creation for PCBs is Circular

The most common cause of project delays is finding unsourceable parts in a BOM. This causes what should be a linear data export process to suddenly become circular. Once parts are found to be unsourceable, out of stock, or obsolete, the process must be repeated.

The ability to get out of this cycle of repeatedly updating a design once it's been completed is the biggest reason engineers love integrated CAD and BOM tools. It saves a huge amount of time and headache, and it enables opportunities for BOM review that are extremely fast.

It Starts in Your PCB Part Libraries

The ability to export a BOM from your PCB part library data is not new. Your parts and your PCB part libraries can contain any number of parameters, but the most important parameters are the manufacturer part number and manufacturer name. Since PCB library parts are created manually, it has always been possible to add a supplier part number and supplier name into a PCB part library. You can do this for any number of suppliers, which makes it common for companies with well-maintained libraries to add in a secondary and tertiary supplier.

Even in 2024, static parameterization is still the common method used to attach supplier data to parts in your PCB libraries. All the major CAD vendors do this, and it has created more than enough inefficiency for design teams.

Part Choices Eliminate Manual Changes to Supplier Information

Wouldn't it be great if your library parts automatically updated their supplier inventory count and price? Now they can with integrated BOM and CAD tools.

Parts data aggregators like Octopart and parts distributors make this information freely available, but you don't have to copy and paste part numbers into Octopart to get this information. You also don't need to write scripts to make API calls to get this information. With the right PCB part libraries for managing parts, this information automatically updates in each component.

Now, when you're creating your libraries, you won't have to copy part numbers into a quote form to get parts inventory and cost information. It will appear right alongside the component.

When parts libraries are configured in this way, the same information gets imported into a BOM. This is exactly how ActiveBOM works in Altium Designer, and users can even add part choices or supplier links (for non-cloud part libraries) on the fly when they are creating a BomDoc file.

Once the BOM is finalized and exported, it can be used to build quotes with distributors as normal. This still follows the traditional path of exporting BOM and sending out RFQs for parts. Today, we have a new generation of tools that integrate CAD data and BOM into the same instance in the cloud.

Involve All Stakeholders Via the Cloud

Altium 365 now allows your BOM to be managed in the cloud and shared with all project collaborators. Altium 365 now includes the BOM Portal tool, which links cloud BOM management features back to your CAD system via access through Altium Designer, so you can still have full control over your projects. Once your design is released to procurement, the team can view supply chain data directly from the managed BOM and create parts orders with distributors. This is the last mile of integration between CAD, BOM, and the supply chain.

Instead of forcing users to manually update component libraries with sourcing information, Altium is taking a different approach with a set of tools that allow supply chain information to be automatically imported into your PCB libraries and subsequently into a BOM. If you're ready to learn more, open up your Altium 365 workspace and give the BOM Portal a try. We think you'll experience a seamless transition to a new workflow that expands your reach and capabilities.