What is a Bill of Material (BOM)?
A Bill of Materials (BOM) provides detailed information about the materials used in your products.
In the products chapter, you will upload a Bill of Material (BOM) for each product purchased or sold by your company. We will use this information to calculate your product's material impact.
Why do we need this information?
Uploading detailed material data helps us accurately assess the environmental and carbon impact of the materials of each product.
After you upload the Bill of Materials for all products, we extract the unique materials and suppliers and match them with impact references (from e.g. the ecoinvent database, Environmental Product Declarations and custom impact references). We then apply these impact values to all products that use the corresponding materials and suppliers.
How is this data related to other chapters?
Information about a product's materials is linked to the facilities and transport chapters. Knowing the materials used and their suppliers helps us identify which facilities produce these materials. It also allows us to trace the transport routes in your value chain.
How to upload a BOM
Uploading in 4 simple steps
Go onto the products chapter of the platform
Download the template.
Fill in the template or export a file from your systems, including the requested columns shown in the template. Use the ‘Product ID’ column to identify a product.
Upload your file by clicking the ‘Upload’ button, then click the 'Click to browse’ button or drag your file right into the blue box. Once uploaded, check the ‘Status’ column for incomplete information, then click the ‘Upload’ button.
Key things to check when uploading a BOM
Product ID Matching: Check that the product IDs in your BOM file perfectly align with those in your purchase and sales orders. Watch out for inconsistencies like extra spaces or symbols (e.g., ™ or ®) that may exist in one document but not the other.
File Formatting: Ensure the file is formatted correctly, avoiding extra spaces or special characters. When uploading, make sure that columns like “quantity” and “unit” are either accurately filled out or intentionally left blank, as required.
Missing Data: Check for any missing information, such as quantities for fabric or packaging. Even small gaps like this can trigger errors during the upload.
Incomplete Products: Verify that all products listed in your Purchase/Sales orders have corresponding BOM data. If any products still need BOMs, add them before uploading.
Example template BOM
An example template can be found here.
The following columns should be filled in the template:
Product ID: The Product ID in which the Materials appear.
Component: The name of the component in which the material appears. Example: "Button".
Materials: Material name. Be as specific as possible; add characteristics of a material to be able differentiate an impact reference match later. Example: "woven cotton textile, organic".
Amount: Amount of material, unit defined in next column.
Unit: Measurement type, e.g. grams, m2.
Supplier: If the material has a specific supplier that is different from the supplier of the associated Product ID, the name of the material supplier can be added here.
Supplier address: The address of the material supplier.
Example BOM
Explanation of columns on page for each product’s BOM
Material: Name of material identified from uploaded BOM.
Quantity: Number of units ordered.
Total quantity: Total number of units ordered.
Unit: Measurement type, e.g. grams, m2.
Total mass (kg): Total weight of material, expressed in kilograms.
Impact: The associated CO2 impact of the material (is calculated if an impact reference has already been matched).
FAQ
Which units can I use to define the quantity of a material?
We recommend using the mass unit when available. However, for materials not expressed in grams, you can use the following units: m, m², m³, or litre (l). Other accepted variations include kilograms (kg) and cubic decimetres (dm³). Depending on which impact reference is matched, a conversion unit factor possibly needs to be applied later on.
How do I provide supplier information for my materials?
We need to know where the materials of your product were manufactured. If you know the supplier of a particular material, please enter that information in the corresponding row. Additionally, if you know the supplier of a specific part, that supplier is automatically assigned to all the materials that constitute that part.
I uploaded the wrong BOM for a product - how can I fix it?
There are two options: either delete the BOM or overwrite the BOM.
To delete the BOM, navigate to the product where you uploaded the incorrect BOM and click the "Delete BOM" button at the top left of the screen (the trash icon). Then, upload the BOM with the correct data.
To overwrite the BOM, upload a BOM file with the correct data and use the same Product ID. This will replace the existing BOM data with the updated correct information.
Do the Product IDs in the purchase orders/sales orders and Bill of Materials need to be the same?
Yes, for our platform to match the products correctly, the product IDs in the purchase or sales order and the bill of materials need to be the same. The Product ID used in the Bill of Materials upload must be the same as the Product ID in the purchase or sales order.