A bill of materials (BOM) is a structured list of the components, subassemblies, raw materials, and quantities required to make a product. In engineering drawings, ERP systems, purchasing records, and work instructions, it appears as the authoritative reference for what goes into each finished item, often including part numbers, descriptions, units of measure, and levels of assembly.
ERP interfaces, engineering change notices, and technical documentation are the main places where bill of materials appears in localization. Translators must follow part-number and unit-of-measure conventions, handle indented multi-level structures, and keep terms such as “subassembly” and “raw material” distinct across target languages. It also appears in import/export documentation where tariff descriptions must align with BOM data.
A common error is flattening a multi-level BOM into a simple parts list or translating “assembly” and “subassembly” as the same word. This can cause procurement to order the wrong level, or engineers to misread how components fit together, especially when the source uses indentation and level numbers. Another risk is changing part numbers or quantities during translation, which corrupts the engineering reference.
The EU Machinery Directive requires documentation in the language of the destination market. Safety-related terms must map exactly to the wording of the governing standard.
Angel Translation locks terms like this into a project terminology base before expert review begins, so the same source term resolves to the same target term across every document in a submission — and stays consistent in the next revision. See the 8-step AI + expert workflow.
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