A major engineering organisation's Bill of Materials data was locked in spreadsheets and opaque ERP modules. I designed a purpose-built Product Explorer that made complex BoM hierarchies navigable, comparable, and actionable.
Large engineering organisations manage Bills of Materials with thousands of components, substitution options, compliance requirements, and cost variables. Existing tools were either generic spreadsheets or expensive, opaque legacy ERP modules that required specialist training to operate.
The goal: design a purpose-built Product Explorer that made complex BoM data navigable, comparable, and actionable — for both engineering analysts and procurement managers.
The materials data was hierarchical, multi-dimensional, and constantly changing. A single product could have 5,000+ components in a tree structure 12 levels deep. Analysts needed to simultaneously view current state, compare alternatives, apply filters across multiple parameters, and track changes over time.
The Product Explorer was built around three core interaction paradigms: the Tree View (collapsible hierarchy with colour-coded status), the Compare Panel (side-by-side component analysis with delta highlighting), and the Analysis Dashboard (aggregated metrics, cost modelling, and compliance scoring).
A novel breadcrumb-plus-minimap system allowed analysts to navigate deep hierarchies without losing their position in the overall structure. Testing showed this reduced navigation errors by 73% compared to the flat-list legacy interface.
Post-launch analysis over six months showed an 8× improvement in analysis speed for common tasks, a 25% overall efficiency gain across the materials team, and an estimated £300K annual saving from faster procurement decisions and reduced analyst hours.
"This is the tool we've been asking for for 10 years. It's the first time I've actually looked forward to a BoM review."
— Senior Materials Analyst
faster analysis speed for common tasks — with a 4.7/5 user satisfaction score across 85 survey respondents.
Hear from senior management about the impact and value delivered through this transformational BOM optimisation initiative.
"This is magic what you have here! It's powerful and user-friendly."
"An automated data platform gives visibility, enables complexity to be simplified in a structured way and data-driven decision-making. Say goodbye to the clunky way of working!!"
"The team have created an innovative product that will help the R&D teams to become more cost-effective and efficient."