Trying to see all parts for a build with nested assemblies

[anav42]

I am using this to track inventory on a robotics build. I have the main robot that consists of about 4 sub-assemblies. Each assembly has its own BOM and I have a BOM for the main robot that contains those sub-assemblies. When I issue a build order, I want to know all the parts that I need to order that I don't have on hand. But the way it currently presents is only at the sub-assembly level and I have to click on each sub-assembly in order to see all parts. This is complicated since I don't just have one level of nesting. Is there a way to see the entire BOM for the high level build order and the current stock?

As a bonus, I would love to then have the items needed drive purchase orders based on supplier, so if there is a way to do that, it would be very helpful.

[SchrodingersGat]

@anav42 I understand the desire for this functionality, we have received this request multiple times. There are a few things that "approach" this currently:

Child Build Orders

You can view the "child" build orders for the top-level assembly, across multiple "levels" of subassembly. This requires that you have created child build orders for any required sub-assemblies

Bill of Materials

You can export the BOM for the top-level assembly, including any sub-assemblies, and then use this exported data to determine any part shortages.

Further Development

Viewing "all the required stock" from the top-to-bottom is a bit of a challenge as you have to balance other allocation requirements, and multiple cascading database requests. Not sure how you would even "display" this information to the user. Any suggestions welcome here!

As a bonus, I would love to then have the items needed drive purchase orders based on supplier, so if there is a way to do that, it would be very helpful.

This might be achievable with a custom plugin that auto-generates purchase orders based on build orders. I would not want to see this in main-line code as the required functionality would be very implementation specific and vary from one installation to the next.

[anav42]

Thanks for the response @SchrodingersGat ! I am working on it manually at the moment by exporting the CSV. I think I can do something on my end to parse that data since it sounds like there isn't a complete solution yet.

For the additional feature where I want to identify all required stock for a build, I imagine a list of the complete BOM with columns that show in stock, needed for the build, and maybe other columns that show allocations. But I think that the flow in my mind would first need the full BOM for the build and all sub-assemblies. Then there would be a way to specify if I want it to contribute to a purchase order, specify the quantity, and then click a generate purchase orders button that would generate one for every supplier based on all the parts listed. I haven't explored the custom plug-ins yet, but it sounds like that is the direction I would have to plan on if I want this feature.

[SergeoLacruz]

I think the report system will be able to create a recursive BOM printout.
For creating orders is possible using a plugin. If is needs to respect available stock and allocated stock, things might get complicated. but it is a possible task.