Odoo Manufacturing - Workflow

Workflow Overview

The purpose of this document is to present a workflow of the manufacturing process in Odoo.

Pick and Build

Put simply, the manufacturing process consumes components (parts) in their respective quantities to build a brand new product.

Manufacturing happens in a designated place often called a production area or floor where the builders assemble the components into the new product. The builders require all of the components delivered or “picked” to the production area. The builder also needs some operational instruction on what to do with those components and how the end product should be built.

The Production Manager usually creates the MO, adds the components from a template called a Bill of Materials, adds the operations to be carried out and designates a production area. Finally the Production Manager then schedules the build.

Naturally, the Production Manager needs to work very closely with purchasing and the inventory managers to ensure the correct amount of stock is in the right place at the right time and nothing will delay the build.

On generating the MO,the first step of the manufacturing process is triggered and is know as the “pick”. The second step, manufacture, is to build the end product.

To keep things simple, this document will work through an example of building a wooden table using a single work area called “Production Area” and a single operation called “Build”.

The Production Area is split into two parts: the build area, and the pre-production area. The build area is, as the name implies, where the build happens. The pre-production area is adjacent to the build area where all of the components are delivered ready for the builders to use.

Manufacturing generally requires teams of people all working together. This document discusses the three roles who are primarily responsible for their departments:

Production Manager – responsible for building products
Inventory Manager – responsible for managing all stock, receipts, and deliveries.
Purchasing Manager – responsible for maintaining supplier relationships and ordering components

This document is intended to be a high level overview of the manufacturing process in Odoo and therefore does not cover the detail of products or Bills of Materials. Other how-to documents are available on https://www.cyder.com.au/blogs which delve further into these topics

High level workflow

Manufacture Workflow in Action

Creating a Manufacturing Order

Production Manager

An order arrives for a new table.

The Production Manager creates a draft Manufacturing Order (MO) and reviews the quantities available. The first thing the production manager notices is that there are not enough stock of braces.

Circled above is a red forecast button.

On saving the draft MO, the production manager is able to click on the red forecast button to see if there are any expected to arrive soon.

From the forecast, the production manager can see there are none due to arrive and there is none in stock. The -4.00 circled is the draft MO just created.

The production manager will need to get in touch with purchasing to arrange for the missing items are ordered. It is important that the production manager knows what is available and when the outstanding components will arrive as the next step is to schedule the build and without all of the stock, the build cannot proceed.

Whilst the MO is in a draft state, it can easily be altered.

The Production Manager has some actions and choices to make:

Request the Inventory Manager perform an urgent count of the missing components to verify that quantities in the system are correct.
Swap an alternative component in place of the missing component if appropriate.
Request the Purchasing Manager order more in ASAP and then:
- Wait for the components to arrive
- If the supplier is reliable, the production manage may gamble on starting the build without all of the components and hope that they arrive just in time.

Assuming that the Production Manager has chosen to order more of the components, a request is made to the Purchasing Manager, and the Production Manager then waits for them to arrive.

Inventory Manager

At this stage, the Inventory Manager would see the MO via the inventory dashboard.

The inventory manager (stores) can see that there is a manufacturing order however, as the MO is in a draft state, there are no Picks to be done.

Receiving goods

Inventory Manager

The purchasing manager has ordered some more braces.

The inventory manager can see that there is a receipt to process. When the truck arrives with the stock, the stores people will receive and store it.

Production Manager

The production manager can now see that all of the components are available via the draft MO.

Notice that all forecast buttons are now green.

Confirming the Manufacturing Order

Production Manager

The production manager can now confidently schedule the build of the new table.

The schedule can be set for an appropriate time into the future. Consideration need to be taken into account for not only the production load but also to allow enough time for inventory staff to collect all the components and get them to the production area just prior.

Inventory Manager

The inventory manager can now see there is a pick to be carried out.