Using the ActiveBOM in Altium Designer
Facilitating real-time cost estimation and tracking for a board design. Altium Designer brings to the table a system that effectively and efficiently aides the designer in managing costs and availability of items used in that design. This system is known simply as
ActiveBOM.
ActiveBOM offers a live presentation of the design from the outset, in result, providing early and ongoing cost estimation. It allows you to define target pricing at the individual item level. You can then track how actual costing fares against these estimates, and so give a timely flag if any cost blow-outs are on the near horizon! In addition, you can quickly assess item availability, complete with notification if there is a risk in the supply of a chosen part.
What are the benefits to using ActiveBOM?
Having a clear picture of the total cost of a design and availability of its components – during the design phase – provides numerous benefits to the designer. These include the ability to:
- Implement a design-to-cost development approach.
- Pinpoint parts of the design that excessively contribute to overall cost.
- Make smart component choices, by seeing component cost and availability from both internal (company database) and external (online vendor databases) sources.
- Set target pricing so that procurement specialists know where to focus their efforts on sourcing the required real-world parts.
- Investigate design changes with an understanding of cost implications.
The beauty of ActiveBOM is that ultimately it will help electronic designers to play a more strategic role, by allowing costing and availability of design items to become active, real-time element drivers of the design process.
See how the ActiveBOM can help you keep money in your pocket
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Learn more on how to use ActiveBOM by visiting
http://techdocs.altium.com/display/ADOH/ActiveBOM
Jamey Larocque, C.I.D
Application Specialist
CAD MicroSolutions Inc.
65 International Boulevard, Toronto ON, M9W 6L9 Canada
jameyl@cadmicro.com | T: (416) 213-0533 ext 232