Bill of Materials Cost

The total cost of every component and raw material needed to build one unit of a product.

A bill of materials (BOM) lists every part that goes into a product, along with quantity and unit price, and adding it all up gives the BOM cost. It excludes R&D, assembly labor, distribution, and after-sales expenses, but it's typically the largest share of hardware cost. In a humanoid robot's BOM, joint actuators (motors, reducers, screws), dexterous hands, sensors, the main compute chip, and the battery account for a large portion. BOM cost determines how cheaply a complete robot can be sold and whether it can reach mass production and the consumer market, which is why “cutting the BOM” is a central topic for both body makers and the domestic-substitution push in components.

ExampleTearing down a humanoid robot and pricing out its dozens of joint modules, its two dexterous hands, its cameras, and its Jetson compute module one by one is exactly what a BOM analysis does.

Also called

BOM Cost, BOM

Related

Mass Production · Core Components · Joint Actuator Module · Per-Unit Content Value · Domestic Substitution · 10,000-Yuan-Class Humanoid Robot

Sources

Bill of materials - Wikipedia