Home > Knowledgebase > Cim200 > Bill of Materials > Utilities > Updating Works Orders from a Bill of Materials
When you change a bill of materials (BOM), any works orders you’ve already raised for that item still contain the old components, operations, route, and other details that were copied onto them at the time they were created. They don’t update themselves.
Update Works Order from Bill of Materials lets you push the latest version of a BOM onto those existing works orders in one go, so they reflect your current bill of materials without you having to cancel and re-raise them.
There are two ways in:
1. From the menu — go to Bill of Materials ▸ Utilities ▸ Maintenance ▸ Update Works Order from Bill of Materials, then choose the bill of materials you want to work from.
2. Automatically after saving a BOM — if your system is set to prompt on BOM save, then whenever you save a BOM that has works orders waiting at Entered status, Cim200 asks:
> “There are works orders at Entered status for this item. Would you like to update them from this updated bill of materials?”
Answering Yes opens this screen with that BOM already selected.
1. Select the bill of materials. Use the BOM lookup at the top of the screen. The list of matching works orders loads underneath.
2. Choose the route and/or components list (only shown if your system uses multiple routes and/or multiple component lists). The preferred route and list are selected for you by default — change them if you need a different one.
3. Tick the works orders you want to update. Use Select All / Deselect All to save time. You can highlight a works order and click View Works Order to check it before deciding.
4. Click OK. A progress bar shows each works order as it’s processed.
5. Review the exclusions report if one appears (see below), then decide whether to re-cost the updated works orders.
The feature replaces the make-up of each selected works order with the current bill of materials. That means:
Operation dates are then recalculated so the schedule reflects the new operations.
This is a **replace, not a merge.** Any manual changes you’d made directly to a works order’s components, operations, memos or attachments are overwritten by the BOM’s versions. If you’ve hand-tailored a works order, updating it will undo those tweaks.
The header details of each works order are kept — updating the BOM doesn’t move the goalposts on the order itself:
Only works orders that haven’t been worked on yet are eligible. A works order appears in the list only if all of the following are true:
Works orders that have had any activity recorded against them are deliberately left out, so you can’t disturb work that’s already under way.
A few further checks happen at the moment you click OK. A works order is skipped and listed on the exclusions report if:
If you tick a works order whose components have firm links (links to specific supplying orders), Cim200 warns you:
“has components with firm links. Updating the works order will delete all firm links associated with any components.”
Updating replaces the component lines, so those firm links are removed. The warning lets you decide whether to go ahead
If any selected works orders couldn’t be updated (locked, in use by someone else, or a problem occurred), a summary is shown at the end listing each works order and the reason. Works orders not on this report updated successfully.
Because the components and operations have changed, the cost of each updated works order will usually have changed too. After a successful run Cim200 asks:
“Would you like to re-cost the updated N works orders?”
Yes — each updated works order is re-costed, with a progress bar. Recommended, so your works order costs match the new bill of materials.
No — the works orders are updated but keep their previous costs until they’re costed another way.
