Any two items that are of the same bill type can share common bills and routings. If two different items share the same bill or routing, you can define the bill or routing once and then maintain one copy instead of two.

The following notes apply to both bills and routings:

• You cannot reference another bill or routing as a common if that bill or routing also references a common. In other words, you cannot create a chain of common references.

• You can only reference another bill or routing as a common if it has the same alternate name assigned to it.

• If the current bill you are creating is a manufacturing bill, the common bill must also be a manufacturing bill.

Common Bills of Material

If two or more organizations manufacture the same item using the same bill of material, you can define the bill in one organization and reference it from the other organizations. Necessary changes must then be made to the referenced bill. Optionally, you can reference all but the following five fields in a bill, maintaining these fields by individual bill of material.

• Supply Type

• Subinventory

• Locator

• Operation Seq

• Include In Cost Rollup

You can create a common bill within the same organization, and across multiple organizations. You have the option to create common bills in all organizations under the current organization in the chosen organization hierarchy, or create common bills in all organizations that have the same item master organization as the current organization and are accessible by the user responsibility. Sharing bills across multiple organizations minimizes the maintenance of your bills of material.

When you enter orders for models, kits, and assemblies in Oracle Order Management, you must define all bills of material in your item master organization (your OE: Item Validation Organization profile option value). Using common bills of material, you can share bills of material that exist in your manufacturing organizations with your item master organization.

When you define a bill for a new assembly, you can reference another assembly and organization as a common bill of material. You do not need to make any further entries for the bill of material.

The following notes apply to bills of material:

• You can only reference bills from organizations that have the same item master organization as the current organization.

• If components already exist for the new bill, you cannot reference another bill as a common.

• If your new assembly is in a different organization than the bill you reference, all component items must exist in the new bill's organization. This also applies to substitute components.

Common Routings

The following notes apply to routings:

• You cannot reference a routing outside your current organization.

To reference a common bill:

1. In the Bills of Material window, find the bill that you want to use as the source, or common, bill.

2. Navigate to the Create Common Bills window. Do this by choosing Create Common Bill from the Tools menu.

3. In the Scope region, select one of the following three options:

   • Single Organization

   • Hierarchy

   • All Organizations

   If you select Single Organization, enter the organization and item that will reference the common bill. If you select Organization Hierarchy, enter the required name of the organization hierarchy. In this case, the common bill created is referenced by all organizations below the current organization in the chosen organization hierarchy. If you select All Organizations, then the common bill created is referenced by all organizations that have the same item master organization as the current organization.

4. Optionally, select the Enable attributes update box.

   Selecting this box enables you to update the following fields in the bills that reference this common bill.

   • Supply Type

   • Subinventory

   • Locator

   • Operation Seq

   • Include in Cost Rollup

   Note: Initially, the values in the above fields within the bills that reference the source bill are copied from the source bill, but you can change these values at a later time.

   The profile option BOM: Default WIP Supply Values for Components governs the behavior for defaulting the Supply Type, Subinventory, and Locator field values for components in the common bill. If this profile value equals Yes, then the item attributes Supply Type, Subinventory, and Locator for the component in the source organization default to the common bill of material in another organization. If this profile value equals No, then the Supply Type value in the source bill is retained in the common bill. The Subinventory and Locator field values default to NULL in the common bill.

   Caution: Once you enable the material control attributes in a common bill and save the bill, you cannot disable the attributes. If you need to disable the attributes, then delete the bill and enter a new bill.

   Additional Information: You can choose to enable the above attributes at a later time, too. To do this find a common bill. Select one of the above five fields. A message appears and asks if you would like to edit any of the five attributes. Choose Yes. You can now update the above five fields.

5. Choose OK.

   Suggestion: In addition to navigating to the Create Common Bills window, you can also create common bills by running the concurrent program Create Common Bills.

To identify the common bill used:

Use the Bill Detail window to identify the common, or source, bill referenced by the bill in the Bills of Material window.

1. From the Bills of Material window, choose Bill Detail.

   The Common Bill region in the Bill Detail window identifies the organization and item used as the source (common) bill. If the Organization and Item fields are blank, then the bill in the Bills of Material window is not referencing a common bill.

2. Optionally, select the Enabled for Attributes Update box to enable you to update the following fields in the bill that references a source (common) bill.

   • Supply Type

   • Subinventory

   • Locator

   • Operation Seq

   • Include in Cost Rollup

   If this box is selected, you can change the values in these fields so that they are different than the source (common) bill.

   Caution: Once you select the Enabled for Attributes Update box, you can no longer change the above field values in the common bill and have them default in to this bill.

To reference a common routing:

1. In the Routings window, enter the item for which you want to create a routing.

2. Navigate to the Common Routing window. Do this by choosing Assign Common Routing from the Tools menu.

3. In the Common Item field, select the item routing that you want to use as the source (common) routing.

4. Choose OK.

   The operations from the common routing default into the Operations region.

5. Save your work.