Which Component Is Putting Your Production at Risk?

A hardware product manufacturing company approached RND Square with a challenge that was affecting its production planning: identifying components that could potentially disrupt manufacturing.

The company managed multiple product BOMs, component details, and engineering revisions. However, keeping track of component availability, obsolete parts, and sourcing risks across different BOM versions was becoming increasingly difficult.

A component that was readily available during product development could become unavailable or obsolete by the time the next production batch was scheduled.

Without early visibility into these changes, the procurement team often discovered potential shortages only when preparing for manufacturing.

Some of the key challenges included:

• Limited component visibility: No consolidated view of component availability and potential sourcing risks.
• Obsolete components: Difficulty identifying components approaching end-of-life or already discontinued.
• BOM revision confusion: Different teams sometimes relied on different BOM versions.
• Production planning risks: Component shortages could affect manufacturing schedules and procurement decisions.
• Replacement uncertainty: Engineering teams needed to evaluate alternative components before approving replacements.

The company needed a better way to monitor component health and identify potential risks before they reached the production floor.

After understanding the company's requirements, RND Square introduced S3Suite to improve BOM management and component risk visibility.

S3Suite helps connect component information with product BOMs and engineering revisions, giving teams a clearer picture of potential supply-related risks.

We leveraged S3Suite's BOM Health capabilities to help the company identify component availability concerns and obsolete parts more systematically.

Key capabilities included:

• BOM Health Analysis: Automatically analyze BOM components to identify availability concerns and obsolete components.
• Component Visibility: Maintain component details alongside their associated product BOMs.
• BOM Revision Management: Track BOM revisions to help teams work with the correct component information.
• Risk Identification: Highlight potentially problematic components before they affect production planning.
• Connected Product Records: Keep component information linked with relevant product and manufacturing records.

This approach helps engineering and procurement teams make more informed decisions about component sourcing, replacement evaluation, and production readiness.