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Introduction

In today’s dynamic business environment, manufacturers need flexible systems that can handle complex product configurations while maintaining efficiency and accuracy. One such system is Apache OFBiz, a robust open-source platform that helps manufacturers streamline their production processes.

For manufacturers with a wide range of product variants, managing product configurations and Bill of Materials (BOM) for each variant can become overwhelming. Traditional methods of maintaining separate BOMs for each product variant containing either the same set of components or set of corresponding variant components can lead to duplication of effort, higher maintenance costs, and increased risk of errors.

In this document, we’ll explore how Apache OFBiz’s virtual and variant product design can help manufacturers simplify their BOM management, reduce data redundancy, and improve production efficiency. Using the example of a skateboard manufacturer, we’ll demonstrate how Apache OFBiz’s approach can optimize the entire production process.

The Problem: BOM Setup for Every Product Variant

Let’s consider a hypothetical sporting goods manufacturer XYZ Ltd. that produces skateboards. The company offers a core skateboard model in a range of colors — red, blue, yellow — but structurally, each skateboard is made up using identical sets of components except for the color of the deck face.

Initially, the production team modeled skateboard with different color variations as a separate finished product, each with its own BOM:

• Red Skateboard - BOM includes Red Face, plus the same common set of components as any other skateboard with a different color.
• Blue Skateboard - BOM includes Blue Face, plus the same common set of components as any other skateboard with a different color.
• Yellow Skateboard - BOM includes Yellow Face, plus the same set of components as any other skateboard with a different color.

This approach led to several inefficiencies like:

• Redundant BOMs: Most components were the same across all variants, yet they were duplicated across multiple BOMs.
• Manual effort and productivity loss: Creating and managing separate BOMs for each product variant required significant manual data entry and coordination — consuming valuable time that could have been otherwise spent on engineering improvements or process optimization.
• High maintenance cost: A change in one component (e.g., a new type of ply) had to be manually updated in every BOM.
• Increased risk of errors: Manual duplication led to human errors created inconsistencies in production data and increased Quality Assurance (QA) overhead.

As the product catalog grew, this method became unmanageable. The company needed a smarter solution — one that could let them define common or same structures once, while still supporting variant-specific differences in production.

The Solution: BOM Setup at Virtual Product Level

Apache OFBiz addresses the complexity and inefficiency of managing multiple BOMs across similar products by introducing a Virtual + Variant product architecture. This approach decouples common and unique elements of products, allowing for a modular, scalable, and easily maintainable structure within the Bill of Materials (BOM) framework.

What Is a Virtual Product?

A virtual product is an abstract, non-transactional entity that serves as the template or reference model for a product family. It is not meant to be sold, procured, or manufactured on its own. Its primary purpose is to define the common attributes and components (such as core materials, common subassemblies, or default configurations) that are applicable across all variants of that product.

By centralizing these commonalities, the virtual product acts as the single source of truth for the BOM components that do not change across variants.

What Is a Variant Product?

A variant product is a concrete, selectable item derived from the virtual product. It differs from other variants based on specific feature values (e.g., size, material type, functionality) and is the actual unit that gets transacted — manufactured, sold, and stocked.

Each variant inherits the BOM from the virtual product but also allows for feature-specific overrides. Only the parts or configurations that vary are specified at the variant level; the rest are seamlessly inherited from the virtual BOM structure.

Key Advantages of This Approach

• Single BOM Definition for Shared Components - Common components are defined once at the virtual product level, eliminating redundancy and reducing the risk of inconsistency across variants.
• Ease of Maintenance & BOM Updates - Any change to a shared component (e.g., a switch from Material A to Material B) needs to be done only once at the virtual level. All linked variants automatically reflect this update, significantly reducing administrative overhead.
• Flexible Product Configuration - Variant-specific components or attributes can be maintained independently, allowing high customization without disturbing the core BOM logic.
• Automated Material Resolution During Production - At the time of production run creation, Apache OFBiz dynamically resolves the BOM based on the selected variant. The system automatically selects the correct components corresponding to the variant’s feature values using pre-defined associations and rules.
• Improved Inventory Planning - This structure enables inventory tracking at both the variant level (for detailed visibility and optimization) and the virtual level (for aggregated insights and broader strategic analysis).
• Scalability Across Product Lines - As product catalogs grow in complexity, this setup supports faster onboarding of new variants without the need to replicate or manually adjust entire BOMs for each variation

The virtual-variant BOM model in Apache OFBiz introduces structure, efficiency, and scalability into product data management. It reduces duplication, simplifies updates, and supports highly flexible manufacturing and inventory processes. For organizations dealing with configurable or modular products, this approach ensures operational agility while maintaining consistency and accuracy in production and supply chain systems.

The Advantage: The efficiency gains in Product Management and BoM setup

The main advantages of leveraging virtual and variant products are:

• Structured Product Catalogs - By grouping related variants under a single virtual product, it improves navigation, simplifies data updates, and reduces duplication across systems. This provides a cleaner, scalable catalog that enhances product searchability and operational efficiency.
• Streamlined Inventory Management - With a virtual BOM setup, you get the advantage of tracking inventory at both the variant and overall product levels. At the variant level, it helps you see which specific versions—like the Red or Blue Skateboard—are selling more, so you can adjust production and stocking decisions accordingly. At the same time, tracking at the virtual product level gives you a bird’s-eye view of how the overall product is performing, which is useful for valuation, forecasting, and broader inventory planning. This layered visibility isn’t possible in the same way with a standard BOM structure.
• Scalability - The system supports seamless product expansion without disruption. Hence, new variants can be added easily without affecting workflows, ensuring smooth, scalable growth as your product line evolves.
• Uniform Structure with Variant-Level Customization - In a BOM setup where one main product has multiple versions (called variants), common elements, common elements—like base materials —are defined once and reused across all product variants. This avoids component duplication, reduces errors, and ensures consistency across your manufacturing process. At the same time, each variant can include its own unique parts/components —without affecting the core structure. This flexibility lets you adapt quickly to customer needs or market demands, without the need to rework on the entire BOM every time.
• Reduced Errors in Data Entry - Virtual-Variant based product modeling reduces chances of human errors during product setup. Hence data entry is streamlined, with fewer redundancies, improving accuracy, speeding up onboarding, and ensuring data integrity as catalogs grow.

The drawbacks and advantages of, respectively, not using and using the virtual and variant approach are summarized in the following table -

How to Set Up Virtual and Variant Products in Apache OFBiz

Setting up virtual and variant products in Apache OFBiz involves using its product model where the virtual product acts as a template or parent, and the variant products inherit from it and represent selectable, sellable versions.

In the above skateboard example, this means:

• Creating a virtual product for the base skateboard design.
• Defining product features such as color.
• Associating each variant (like Red, Blue, Yellow) with the virtual and variant products and linking the correct feature values.

This setup enables Apache OFBiz to dynamically determine which components to pull during production, based on the selected variant.

To learn how to configure this in detail, including all necessary entities and steps in Apache OFBiz, follow this tutorial:
Setting Up Variant Products in Apache OFBiz with Virtual Product’s BOM: Skateboard Example

Conclusion

Apache OFBiz is a robust and flexible open-source platform that offers a manufacturing execution and planning system, with a wide range of out-of-the-box features that streamline production processes. The virtual and variant product design capability is just one example of how Apache OFBiz helps manufacturers reduce redundancy, simplify BOM management, and automate material resolution during production.

This document highlighted how Apache OFBiz can be leveraged to optimize manufacturing workflows, making it an excellent choice for companies looking to improve efficiency and scalability in their production operations.