A practical look at EBOM, MBOM and high-tech challenges
In the high-tech industry, where lifecycles are often shorter than a budget year, control over product data determines market success or delivery delays.
Whether in electronics, medical technology or semiconductor manufacturing:
❗ Today, products are not simply developed – they are created through interaction between engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, compliance and service.
And yet many companies fail to establish a consistent link between development and production. The main cause?
👉 Unclear, disconnected or outdated product structures.
EBOM vs. MBOM - what high-tech companies should know
A product looks completely different depending on the department:
Perspective | Description |
EBOM | The Engineering Bill of Material is a technically designed model – CAD-controlled, structurally complex, rich in variants – oriented towards requirements and functions. |
MBOM | The Manufacturing Bill of Material (this is the common term for MBOM, other alternative terms such as M(RP)-BOM) is production-oriented – adapted to ordering processes, plant-specific lines and their routings, series and variant production. |
Service BOM | The Service BOM focuses on maintenance & repair – oriented to the component structure for technicians on site (exchangeable units) |
Spare Part BOM | Spare parts management: This BOM type focuses on stock/ordering individual assemblies, often painted in advance – in contrast to MBOM, the component is not the entire product painted here |
Sales BOM | Quotation & configuration view – “configurable system” with options in the sales configurator |
The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) enables high-tech companies to orchestrate their product data processes holistically – across system, location and process boundaries.
🛠 Example: High-tech housing for medtech devices
A company develops a modular, configurable analysis device for laboratories (MedTech).
The housing module is available in three versions:
In EBOM: The design documents the variants via configuration rules and function modules.
In MBOM: Depending on the location (Asia, Eastern Europe, Germany), production requires different prefabrication stages, separate article numbers and supplier logic.
Challenge: A change (e.g. new sensor position) is maintained in the EBOM, but not automatically propagated to all affected MBOM views.
➤ Consequence: OEM customer receives incorrect configuration!
If EBOM and MBOM are not synchronized, errors occur: incorrect parts lists, incorrect production versions – and delays.
🚀 SAP BTP – platform for clean product structures and change processes
The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) enables high-tech companies to orchestrate their product data processes holistically - across system, location and process boundaries.
💡 What SAP BTP actually does:
|
Problem definition |
Solution via SAP BTP |
|
Manual transfers between PLM and SAP |
Integration via SAP ECTR & APIs for BOM transfer |
|
Variant logic not maintained consistently |
Configuration services (e.g. Variant Configuration on BTP) |
|
Versioning not traceable |
Semantic versioning & change management on BTP |
|
No transparency for changes |
BOM delta comparison + history as Fiori app on BTP |
|
Approvals take too long |
Workflows with BRFplus & approval logic directly on the platform |
📈 How high-tech companies are implementing it today
A manufacturer of optical analysis devices uses SAP BTP to:
Automatically transfer EBOMs from Siemens Teamcenter to SAP S/4HANA
Generate location-dependent MBOMs – with automatic derivation of material masters
Manage changes to housing modules, electronics and firmware together via an integrated change dashboard
Traceably assign all BOM versions to a serial number and a customer project
Result:
✅ Harmonized product structure across all plants
✅ Audit-proof documentation for approval processes (e.g. FDA, CE)
✅ 30% faster implementation of changes
✅ Significantly fewer queries & rework in production and purchasing
Conclusion: product structure = business structure
In the high-tech industry, the “digital twin” is more than just a buzzword –
it is the basis for innovation, quality and time-to-market.
If you don’t integrate EBOM and MBOM, you lose efficiency, control and customer satisfaction.
With SAP BTP you create the connection – structured, scalable, future-proof.
SERKAN ARSLAN
Founder & CEO
