Inventory management hierarchy

Hi! First post!

This is a newbie question, and I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction (link to thread, tutorial..etc.), or help me out with an appropriate search term for this sort of functionality...

What I'm wanting to do is to create a "hierarchical" inventory management spreadsheet, meaning inventory is kept at multiple levels, the higher ones dependent on the lower. For example raw parts are used to build subcomponents, which in turn are used to build final units. You might have:

Raw Parts: screws, widgets, cables, glues...etc.
Subcomponents: SubA, SubB, SubC (all constructed with combinations of raw parts)
Finished Units: Constructed from a combination of the 3 subcomponents.

It'd be nice to make a template where the 3 levels are dependent in the following way:
- Raw parts inventory can be added to manually (when more are ordered)
- Adding a sub-component would subtract from the raw parts inventory required to build it
- Adding a finished unit would subtract from the sub-components inventory

Is this relatively easy to do? ...like I say, I don't expect anyone to solve this specifically, but a link in the right directions or a link to a tutorial for creating something similar would be much appreciated..

Thanks in advance.
MM.

I am probably not going to be able to answer. But the answer would interest me. To clarify; What you are looking for is a manufacturing Bill of Materials system that allows reduction of lesser components as master item and sub-assemblies are created, yes? What inputs would you be making beyond created finished components and more raw materials or components? Would it be item specific or multiple items? How much detail is required at each level? Would the components and sub-assemblies be only dedicated to the parent item? The answers might trigger a response from someone more knowledgeable than I.
burnsy

Excel with free PowerPivot Add-In
Here is a framework for a 3 level BOM.
If you are comfortable with this,
it should be easy to add a measure that
compares qty requirements to inventory levels.
Implementation of my generic example with your real data would be interesting.
http://www.mediafire.com/view/hkicyt9337jb1ku/03_27_14a.xlsx