Manufacturing & Assembly
Define bills of materials, schedule work orders, track sub-assembly builds, and plan material requirements — all within your inventory system.
Create assembly products
An assembly is a product you physically build from component parts. Set up your products, then define how they're made.
Assembly product type
When creating a product, choose the Assembly type. This tells Foundry that the product is manufactured from components rather than purchased whole. Assembly products show up in the work orders section and can have bills of materials attached.
Fulfillment modes
Each assembly has a fulfillment mode that controls how it's built:
- Prebuilt — build to stock ahead of orders
- Build to Order — a work order is created automatically when a customer order comes in
- Hybrid — sell from stock when available, auto-build when stock runs out
Define your bill of materials
A bill of materials (BOM) is the recipe for building an assembly — which components, how much of each, and any waste to account for.
Component lines
Add each component variant to the BOM with the quantity needed per unit of output. Components can be raw materials, purchased parts, or even other assemblies for multi-level BOMs.
Scrap percentage
Set a scrap percentage on any component line to account for expected waste. If a component has 5% scrap, Foundry automatically adds 5% to the required quantity when creating work orders — so you never come up short on the production floor.
Unit of measure conversion
BOM lines can use different units than the component's stock unit. If your BOM calls for 500ml of a liquid but you track stock in liters, Foundry converts automatically. Supported conversions include weight (g/kg/lb/oz), volume (ml/L/gal), and length (mm/cm/m/in/ft).
BOM versioning
BOMs are versioned. When you update a recipe, existing work orders keep the version they were created with. Only one BOM version can be active at a time per assembly.
Schedule work orders
A work order tells your team what to build, how many, and when. It tracks the full lifecycle from draft to completion.
Create a work order
Select an assembly, set the quantity, pick a warehouse, and optionally set scheduled start and end dates. Foundry calculates the component requirements automatically from the BOM, accounting for scrap percentages and unit conversions.
Work order lifecycle
Every work order follows a clear progression:
- Draft — created but not yet approved for production
- Released — approved and ready for the production floor
- In Progress — actively being built
- Completed — finished; components consumed, assembly produced
Pick list
Print a pick list directly from any released or in-progress work order. It shows every component, the quantity needed, and what's available in stock — ready to hand to your warehouse team.
Completion and stock movements
When you complete a work order, Foundry creates stock movements automatically: component quantities are consumed (deducted from stock) and the finished assembly quantity is produced (added to stock). Labor and overhead costs are tracked separately.
Multi-level builds with Advanced mode
When an assembly contains sub-assemblies as components, Foundry can manage the entire build tree — scheduling child work orders that must complete before the parent can start.
Simple vs Advanced
Foundry auto-detects the right mode. Simple work orders consume all components (including sub-assemblies) directly from stock. Advanced work orders create a tree of child work orders — one for each sub-assembly component — that must complete first. You can always override the auto-detection.
Preview before creating
Before creating an Advanced work order, Foundry shows a preview of the full build tree: every sub-assembly, the quantity required, how many you can build from current stock, and an editable build quantity. Adjust quantities to build extra sub-assemblies for stock, then confirm to create the entire tree in one action.
Dependency blocking
The parent work order can't start until all child work orders are complete. The detail page shows a progress indicator ("2 of 3 sub-assemblies complete") and the start button is disabled with a clear message until children are done. When the last child completes, Foundry logs that the parent is ready.
Cancel cascading
If you cancel a parent work order, any child work orders that haven't started yet (Draft or Released) are automatically cancelled too. Children that are already in progress are left alone so you don't lose work.
Auto-build on customer orders
For build-to-order and hybrid assemblies, Foundry creates work orders automatically when customer orders come in.
Triggered by reservations
When a customer order creates an inventory reservation for an assembly product, Foundry checks the fulfillment mode. For Build to Order, a work order is always created. For Hybrid, it's only created when available stock can't cover the order.
Multi-level explosion
Auto-build doesn't stop at the top level. If the assembly's components include other assemblies that also need building, Foundry creates child work orders automatically — up to 5 levels deep. Each child is linked to its parent so you can track the full build tree.
Notifications
Your team gets a notification for every auto-created work order with a direct link to it. No orders slip through the cracks — if a build is needed, someone knows about it immediately.
Disassemble with unbuild orders
Sometimes you need to go in reverse — break down a finished product to recover components.
Unbuild work orders
Create an unbuild work order to disassemble a finished assembly back into its components. The stock movements are reversed: the assembly quantity is consumed and component quantities are recovered into stock, adjusted for scrap.
Use cases
Unbuild is useful for reclaiming components from defective assemblies, breaking down seasonal kits when the season ends, or reconfiguring inventory when demand shifts. The recovered components go back into available stock and can be used in new builds.
Plan with material requirements
Foundry gives you planning tools to stay ahead of demand and avoid stockouts on the production floor.
Material requirements view
See aggregated component demand across all open work orders. For each component, Foundry shows on-hand stock, reserved quantity, total demand, and any shortfall. If a component has a supplier linked, it shows the supplier name and lead time so you can reorder before you run out.
Demand forecast
The demand forecast looks at sales velocity over the past 30 days and projects how long your current stock will last. For each assembly, it shows days of stock remaining, a suggested build quantity, and how many you can build right now based on component availability.
Component-level analysis
Drill into any assembly to see per-component stockout projections. Foundry calculates days until each component runs out based on assembly demand, flags components that need reordering before their lead time, and suggests order quantities — so you know exactly what to buy and when.
Ready to manage manufacturing in your IMS?
See how Foundry handles assemblies, work orders, and material planning.
Book a Demo