The basic difference is

The basic difference is Product family is used for Sales & operation planning where as Planning BOM is used for planning for some extra items in MPS & MRP level.

Suppose Sony has one plant in pune which produces Black & white, Normal color TV and LCDs. Each of these groups ‘ll have many variants like in size – 21, 29, 41…etc. In features – feature1, feature 2..etc. In total a single plant might be producing 50+ different finish goods.

Now planning for that 50+ different FGs is not an easy task and it’s also proved that Gross forecast  is more closer to the actual demand. When we make the SOP we are more concerned about the Capacities and overall resource than individual SKU requirements. So to simplify the process we define three product groups – B&W, CLR, LCD.

Now deciding which products to be in a single family is an operation and engineering task. Depending on the manufacturing process we create product group. The idea is group FGs which components and resources are same. Ex the 29 & 21 color tv might have 70-80% common components.

Now 29 color TV has a capacitor which lasts for 6months – 1 year. So we can have a planning BOM for 29 CTV with an extra capacitor of 10%.