Has anyone come up with a solution for item substitutions within a BOM? Seems like NetSuite fell short and only offers it on a Sales Order. I was thinking of adding the alternative items to the BOM at 0 qty, but doesn't seem efficient.

Have you tried looking at BOM revisions?

yes, but that won't meet the needs as there are true revisions we work with. This would just be an item they could substitute out during the assembly build if they run out of a certain part.

Watching this, we are working on something similar where we have a V1 packaging we want to use up, then switch to V2. We add both to the BOM and set the obsolete date on the V1 and effective on the V2. Not ideal but it works. Would love to hear a different solution without moving to advanced BOMs.