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Panel building in the UK has always been a demanding sector to work in, but over the last few years, pressures have increased, making any margins for error considerably smaller.
Higher supply chain costs, tighter regulations, a major skills shortage, combined with rising employer National Insurance contributions and unpredictable component availability, are squeezing panel builders from multiple directions.
In this climate, operational inefficiencies create additional costs that many panel building businesses are not fully accounting for, and one of the most consistently underestimated sources of these inefficiencies are the Bills of Materials (BOM).
The manual processes used by many companies to produce and maintain BOMs are simply not suited to the complexity and pace of modern panel building projects.
Why Manual BOMs Are Outdated
A single BOM or parts list that includes an outdated part number, a missed item through manual entry, or which fails to reflect a last-minute design change, can be hugely disruptive across not just the project in question, but your entire business.
This may mean that your procurement teams are unable to finalise orders with any confidence, while your shopfloor is left waiting for parts that should have been in place from the outset before production begins.
There may also be further, unbudgeted, emergency transport charges for replacement parts that eat into margins.
And there are other, hidden, costs such as the time spent by your engineering team to reconcile spreadsheets and chase/correct discrepancies.
The fundamental difficulty is that BOMs produced and managed manually are created separately to the design process. Meanwhile, projects are constantly evolving as customers revise requirements and design changes can arrive late in the process.
Treating Design Knowledge as a Reusable Asset
Eplan addresses this by treating the BOM as a continuous and automatic output within the design process, rather than something created manually.
Each time your panel designs are tweaked and changed within the software, the BOM can be updated during the design phase or exported to a file or connected PLM to reflect every modification as they are made in the schematic. This means that items such as variant-specific components are added without any additional manual input.
At the point which your project moves from design into production, your Eplan-generated BOM is already completed and verified. There is no need for anyone to spend time on a manual reconciliation against the latest version.
Integrate Your Workflow From Design to Supply
Using the Eplan Integration Suite, Eplan can interface directly with ERP systems (for purchasing, pricing, availability, supplier selection), PLM systems (for controlled data release, revision management) and PDM systems (for design documentation and versioning). This provides procurement with accurate information without it needing to be re-entered or reformatted at any stage.
Rittal-specific components can also be ordered direct from Rittal's online shop, MyRittal which provides the team with live product data, real-time stock visibility and consistent part numbers.
A verified and system-connected BOM represents a meaningful operational advantage at a time when components may be hard to source, and supply chain lead times are highly unpredictable.
Avoid Hidden Costs by Using Accurate BOMs
The cumulative effect of getting this right will impact directly on your bottom line. By removing ordering inaccuracies early you will avoid:
- Wasting money on emergency orders
- Delaying builds
- Creating shopfloor downtime
- Manual reworking
- Excess inventory or obsolete stock
Installing and integrating Eplan software into your ERP system means production scheduling is based on confirmed parts availability rather than any optimistic assumptions from your procurement team.
Furthermore, wiring and mounting layouts can be prepared earlier, because the shopfloor will not be waiting for corrections from the design office.
For UK panel builders operating on tight timescales with margins under sustained pressure, that kind of consistent operational reliability has a considerable operational value.
For more information:
How to export bills of materials as MS Excel
Eplan Electric P8: Software for Electrical Engineering & Schematic Design
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