Patent ID: 7050874

Claim:
A bill of materials (BOM) sourcing system, comprising: one or more data storage locations operable to store BOM sourcing criteria; a sourcing engine operable to: receive a BOM including a plurality of part identifiers; identify one or more part identifiers included in the BOM; search supplier data associated with one or more suppliers of parts to obtain pricing information associated with the identified parts; receive the sourcing criteria from the one or more data storage locations; and determine which supplier should be used to supply each identified part based on the pricing information and the sourcing criteria; and a transaction execution module operable to: receive from the sourcing engine a part identifier for each identified part and the identity of the supplier to be used to supply each identified part; generate one or more transaction documents each identifying one or more parts and including a request that a supplier provide the one or more parts; and communicate the one or more transaction documents to the associated suppliers.