The Bill of Information: Beyond Bill of Materials in the Digital Thread Era

Last updated on 04 Jun 2025

The manufacturing industry is undergoing a dramatic transformation through digital initiatives that expand traditional documentation systems. While most manufacturers are familiar with the Bill of Materials (BOM) concept, there’s growing interest in more comprehensive frameworks like the Bill of Information. This article explores how the Bill of Information relates to traditional manufacturing documentation, its connection to Digital Thread architecture, and how emerging technologies like Agentic AI and Model Context Protocol (MCP) are revolutionizing product lifecycle management.

Understanding the Bill of Information Concept

The term “Bill of Information” can be confusing as it crosses multiple domains. In a legal context, a bill of information is a document containing details about a civil lawsuit, typically initiated by the government or protected entities like charities. However, in manufacturing, the concept takes on a different meaning.

In manufacturing contexts, a Bill of Information would conceptually represent an extension of traditional manufacturing documentation systems. While not standardized across the industry, it resembles what some call the “Bill of Manufacturing” – a comprehensive system that encompasses all manufacturing specifications beyond just components, including revisions, routing, components, and outputs.

The Bill of Manufacturing, and by extension the Bill of Information concept, provides several key advantages:

It fits various product types from standard items to custom products.
It drives MRP (Material Requirements Planning) and shop control.
It provides detailed instructions to the shop floor.
It enables process knowledge to be captured and shared throughout the organization

Most significantly, the Bill of Manufacturing “enables you to define detailed notes and task details within each labor sequence. This information prints on the shop traveler and provides process instructions out on the shop floor, which improve quality and reduce errors”. This informational component is where the concept of a “Bill of Information” becomes most valuable.

Bill of Information vs. Bill of Materials

To understand how the Bill of Information relates to the Bill of Materials, we must first recognize their fundamental differences.

A traditional Bill of Materials is limited to listing the components that comprise an item. It’s essentially a structured inventory document detailing the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, parts, and quantities needed to manufacture a product.

In contrast, a Bill of Information (as represented by the Bill of Manufacturing concept) is far more comprehensive. As noted in the DBA Manufacturing Guide, “Unlike a bill of materials, which is limited to components, the bill of manufacturing encompasses all manufacturing specifications, including revisions, routing, components, and outputs”.

This distinction is crucial because:

The Bill of Materials answers “what” goes into a product
The Bill of Information/Manufacturing answers “what” as well as “how,” “where,” “when,” and “by whom”

It transfers critical process knowledge from key employees to your database, ensuring it’s preserved and accessible to anyone who needs it. It helps organizations comply with ISO-9000 and other documentation requirements

When manufacturers operate solely with a Bill of Materials, they’re using what might be termed a “light manufacturing” system that often requires supplementary manual processes. A more comprehensive Bill of Information approach provides total control over all manufacturing processes.

Digital Thread: The Broader Context

To position the Bill of Information properly, we need to understand the Digital Thread concept that’s reshaping manufacturing.

A Digital Thread is “a data-driven architecture that links data gathered during a Product lifecycle from all involved and distributed manufacturing systems”. It enables the collection, transmission, and sharing of data and information across the product lifecycle to enable real-time decision making.

The term was first used in the Global Horizons 2013 report by the USAF Global Science and Technology Vision Task Force and further refined by researchers at MIT in 2018. Digital Thread creates “a data-driven architecture that links together information generated from across the product lifecycle and is envisioned to be the primary or authoritative data and communication platform for a company’s products at any instance of time”.

Within this framework, a Bill of Information could be viewed as:

A component of the Digital Thread - providing structured information about manufacturing processes
An implementation of Digital Thread principles in documentation systems
A beneficiary of Digital Thread architecture - becoming more dynamic and connected

The Digital Thread enables “data to be integrated into one platform, allowing seamless use of and ease of access to all data”. This integration capability is what makes it possible to transform traditional documentation like Bills of Materials into more comprehensive and dynamic Bills of Information.

The Role of Bill of Process in the Information Ecosystem

Another related concept that connects to both Bill of Information and Digital Thread is the Bill of Process (BOP). According to Siemens Digital Industries Software, a BOP “details the planned manufacturing approach for a product, including instructions, machinery, line configurations, and tools”.

The BOP complements the manufacturing BOM (MBOM) by providing production line configurations, tools, machines, and equipment information, as well as electronic work instructions (EWI). Modern Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems generate Bills of Process within integrated manufacturing process planning software, enabling changes to be reflected rapidly and communicated to the shop floor.

This integration capability reinforces how the concept of a Bill of Information would fit within a modern manufacturing information ecosystem - connected, dynamic, and comprehensive.

Enhancing Bills of Information with Agentic AI

Now that we’ve established what a Bill of Information represents, let’s explore how emerging technologies can enhance it. One of the most promising technologies is agentic AI.

Agentic AI is “a type of artificial intelligence that can operate independently, making decisions and performing tasks without human intervention”. It features three key characteristics:

Autonomy: Agents can perform tasks independently without human oversight
Adaptability: They learn from interactions and adjust decisions based on feedback
Goal orientation: They can reason about how to achieve specific tasks

Agentic AI operates through “autonomous software components known as ‘agents’ that draw from massive amounts of data and learn from user behavior”. These agents follow a five-step process:

Perceive: Gathering and decoding information from various sources
Reason: Using large language models (LLMs) to understand tasks and craft solutions
Act: Performing tasks by connecting with external systems through APIs
Learn: Evolving through feedback to refine decisions and processes
Collaborate: Working with other agents and systems to accomplish complex goals

When applied to Bills of Information, Agentic AI could:

Automatically update manufacturing documentation when design changes occur
Detect inconsistencies between actual production processes and documented procedures
Recommend process improvements based on performance data
Ensure regulatory compliance by flagging potential issues in documentation
Dynamically link related information across different systems

Model Context Protocol: The Integration Enabler

For agentic AI to effectively enhance Bills of Information, it needs a standardized way to interact with various manufacturing systems. This is where Model Context Protocol (MCP) becomes essential.

MCP is “a protocol designed to enable AI models to interact seamlessly with external tools and services”. Think of it as “a universal USB-C connector for AI,” allowing language models to fetch information, interact with APIs, and execute tasks beyond their built-in knowledge.

The protocol follows a client-server architecture:

MCP Host: The AI model requesting data or actions
MCP Client: An intermediary service forwarding requests to MCP servers
MCP Server: Lightweight applications exposing specific capabilities
Data Sources: Backend systems including databases and APIs

When integrated with Bills of Information, MCP would allow:

Real-time data fetching from various manufacturing systems
Contextual AI responses based on current production status
Secure and scalable integration with enterprise manufacturing systems

This integration would transform static Bills of Information into dynamic, intelligent resources that continuously adapt to changing production requirements.

Business Impact of Enhanced Bills of Information

Implementing an enhanced Bill of Information approach supported by agentic AI and MCP can deliver significant business benefits:

Improved Quality and Reduced Errors: Comprehensive process documentation with AI-driven verification ensures consistency between documented procedures and actual production processes. The Bill of Manufacturing approach already “provides process instructions out on the shop floor, which improve quality and reduce errors”, and AI enhancement would amplify this benefit.
Knowledge Preservation and Transfer: One of the biggest challenges manufacturers face is preserving process knowledge when experienced employees retire or leave. Enhanced Bills of Information address this by transferring “process knowledge from key employees to your database so that it is preserved and protected and can be accessed by anyone who needs it”.
Faster Response to Changes: When product designs or manufacturing processes change, documentation must be updated accordingly. Traditional manual approaches are slow and error-prone, but as noted with the Bill of Process concept, “integrated capability allows changes to be reflected rapidly – and communicated immediately to the shop floor for implementation”.
Better Compliance Management: Manufacturing industries face increasing regulatory requirements. Enhanced Bills of Information help organizations “comply with ISO-9000 and other documentation requirements” through comprehensive process documentation augmented with AI-driven compliance checking.
Data-Driven Decision Making: By connecting Bills of Information to the broader Digital Thread architecture, manufacturers gain access to “real-time decision making, gather data, and iterate on the product”. This enables continuous improvement based on actual performance data rather than assumptions.

Bridging the PLM-Ecosystem Divide

Today’s manufacturing IT landscape resembles a fractured ecosystem of monolithic PLM platforms, agile open-source solutions like Aras Innovator , and disconnected enterprise systems (ERP, MES, CRM). This fragmentation creates data silos that hinder the Digital Thread’s promise of continuous information flow. The traditional monolithic PLM vendors often struggle with rigid architectures that resist integration, while Aras as well as newer platforms emphasize flexibility but lack enterprise-scale adoption .

The path forward lies in three converging trends:

Composable Architectures: Emerging federated data models enable systems to exchange Bill of Information elements through open APIs rather than monolithic databases.
Protocol-Based Integration: Model Context Protocol (MCP) acts as a universal translator between legacy systems and modern AI tools, enabling real-time data access without costly migrations
Agentic Orchestration: AI agents now automate cross-system workflows, dynamically updating Bills of Process when ERP inventory changes or MES quality data triggers engineering revisions .

This convergence enables what Siemens calls “closed-loop digital twins” - where Bills of Information become living documents updated through continuous machine learning on MES production data, ERP material flows, and CRM customer feedback . An automotive case study showed 30% fewer configuration errors by implementing such integrated Bills of Information across PLM/MES boundaries .

Conclusion

The evolution from simple Bills of Materials to comprehensive Bills of Information represents a significant advancement in manufacturing documentation. When integrated with Digital Thread architecture and enhanced by technologies like agentic AI and Model Context Protocol, Bills of Information become powerful tools for knowledge management, process optimization, and business improvement.

As manufacturing continues its digital transformation journey, organizations that embrace these enhanced information management approaches will gain significant advantages in quality, efficiency, and adaptability. The future of manufacturing documentation isn’t just about listing components—it’s about creating a comprehensive, dynamic knowledge base that evolves alongside production processes and technologies.