Parts and bills of material

A Part is anything you stock, build, or consume — raw materials, sub-assemblies, finished goods, packaging, consumables. Each part has:

• Category (raw / wip / finished / consumable / packaging)
• Tracking mode (none / lot / serial) — controls whether each unit is uniquely tracked
• Unit of measure (each, ft, lb, etc.)
• Standard cost
• Reorder level — when totalOnHand falls below this, the part shows in the Dashboard low-stock list

Bills of material:
A BOM is the recipe for one unit of a finished good. Each BOM line = a component part + a quantity per unit. BOMs can be nested — a sub-assembly is itself a finished part with its own BOM, which the parent BOM references.

Creating a BOM:
1. Manufacturing → BOMs → New BOM. Pick the finished part this BOM produces.
2. Add component lines: select the component part, set the per-unit quantity, optional notes.
3. The kit cost is computed live from the latest standard cost of every component.
4. Save. The BOM is versioned — production orders reference a specific BOM revision so changes don't retroactively alter as-built records.

Lot vs serial:
• Lot tracking — a batch shares one identifier (e.g. 100 resistors received in lot R-2026-0412). Cheap to manage, sufficient for most consumables.
• Serial tracking — each unit gets a unique serial number. Required for finished goods in regulated industries and any unit you want to trace by exact identity.
• None — pure inventory count, no per-unit identity.

Receive parts to grow stock (Parts → Receive). Issue parts via production-order kit pulls (the Orders tab) or directly via "Adjust" for non-production usage.