Who doesn’t want EITHER!? Either sounds like both! Awesome.
There are some real problems with using the “either” setting. In case you don’t know what the “either” setting is, let’s review a bit of background.
“BOM Should Treat As” is actually “Make/Buy Code” and the dropdown list originally contained Make, Buy, Either. This was not made significantly more when Microsoft changed this to “Make”, “Buy”, “Make or Buy”.
It seems like “either” would give you more flexibility. The problem is that Manufacturing does not react well to that setting and you can save yourself headaches by using only Make or Buy.
Here CAP100 has been changed to “either”. The first problem occurs in the BOM Maintenance window.
If you put a BUY Item Number into the BOM Maintenance window you will receive the warning above. However, if you enter an EITHER item it allows it.
What you cannot see is that Manufacturing automatically created a record in the BOM Header table (BM010415) for CAP100:
You do not need to click SAVE. Just put the Item Number into the window and the record gets added. Now it will show up in reports and inquiries as a BOM. The problem cascades into the BOM Details.
If you add the EITHER item to a BOM you will not read the message above (nobody does!) and you will just click YES.
The message asks if you would like to assign a BOM Type, but that is not accurate. What it should ask is: Would you like me to automatically make this a MFG BOM? Of course, you would not read that either and the end result would be the same.
What just happened? You now have a BUY item on the bill of materials as a MAKE item. Manufacturing will now treat this as a make, which means it will not tell you to BUY it. Also, anything that relies on an exploded BOM will not see that as a component quantity required for manufacturing but as a subassembly that needs to be produced.
If you use EITHER items and have confusing information in MRP, check your BOMs to see if you have inadvertently put BUY items on BOMs as MAKE.
Additionally, if the item is used on BOMs in a standard cost environment, what is the cost? If it is on a BOM as a MAKE then it needs to have a BOM or there is no cost when you do a rollup. If you then buy the item you will have cost variance (potentially significant) due to the difference between the purchase price and the BOM cost.