Manufacturing

Introduction to manufacturing in Odoo

Odoo's Manufacturing module lets you run your whole production process, from the design of the products through to making them.

Overview

Manufacturing in Odoo covers several key aspects:

• handling bills of materials;
• planning and carrying out manufacturing orders;
• handling resources: machines, tools, labour;
• following production costs;
• quality control.

Initial configuration

Enabling and setting up

To start using the Manufacturing module:

1. Install the module from Apps.
2. Open Manufacturing › Configuration › Settings.
3. Configure the options to suit your needs: - the costing method: standard, average, FIFO and so on; - the handling of work units; - whether scrap is taken into account; - the default scheduling.

Work centres

Work centres represent your production resources:

1. Open Manufacturing › Configuration › Work Centers.
2. Create a new centre, stating: - its name and description; - its capacity and its working hours; - its costs: hourly, setup, cleanup; - its waiting time and its efficiency.
3. Configure the availability calendars where needed.

Bills of materials and routings

Creating bills of materials

The bill of materials defines the components needed to make a product:

1. Open Manufacturing › Products › Bills of Materials.
2. Click New.
3. Select the finished product.
4. Add the components with their quantities.
5. State any by-products.
6. State the production yield.
7. Save the bill of materials.

Types of bill of materials

Odoo supports several types of bill of materials:

• Standard bill of materials: the list of components needed to produce an item.
• Variant bill of materials: suited to products with variants (size, colour and so on).
• Kit bill of materials: for products sold as a kit but stored separately.
• Phantom bill of materials: for sub-assemblies that never exist physically in stock.

Routings

Routings define the manufacturing steps:

1. Open Manufacturing › Configuration › Operations.
2. Create a new routing.
3. Add the operations in the order they are carried out.
4. For each operation, state: - the work centre; - the setup and run times; - the work instructions; - the tools and skills needed.
5. Attach the routing to the matching bill of materials.

Manufacturing orders

Creating an order by hand

To launch a production run:

1. Open Manufacturing › Operations › Manufacturing Orders.
2. Click New.
3. Select the product to make.
4. State the quantity and the planned date.
5. The bill of materials and the routing are offered automatically.
6. Check the availability of the components.
7. Confirm the order to start production.

Generating orders automatically

Manufacturing orders can be generated automatically:

1. from sales orders, for made-to-order products;
2. through the reordering rules, for made-to-stock products;
3. by the MRP scheduler, from the forecasts.

Following and carrying out

To manage the progress of production:

1. Open the manufacturing order.
2. Click to check the availability of the components.
3. Use Produce to record the production: - confirm or adjust the component consumption; - record the time spent on each operation; - note the quantities produced and any scrap.
4. For a partial run, produce only part of the quantity.
5. Close the order once production is complete.

Production planning

The MRP scheduler

The MRP (Material Requirements Planning) scheduler computes the production needs:

1. Open the scheduling menu in Manufacturing.
2. Run the computation for a given period.
3. The system analyses: - the confirmed sales orders; - the current stock levels; - the reordering rules; - the sales forecasts.
4. Review the suggestions generated.
5. Confirm the manufacturing orders proposed.

Capacity planning

To manage the load on your resources:

1. Open the work centre load report in Manufacturing.
2. See the forecast load by centre or by department.
3. Identify the bottlenecks.
4. Adjust the schedules where needed.

Handling production costs

The cost structure

Manufacturing costs in Odoo are made of:

• material costs, that is the components consumed;
• labour costs, based on the operation times;
• machine costs, that is the cost of using the equipment;
• overheads, allocated according to the method defined.

Computing the costs

To establish the standard cost of a manufactured product:

1. Open the product record.
2. Go to the cost information.
3. Run the cost computation.
4. The system computes the cost using: - the costs of the components; - the hourly rates of the work centres; - the operation times defined in the routing.
5. Confirm the cost computed.

Quality in production

Quality checks

With the Quality module enabled, you can:

1. define control points in the manufacturing process;
2. create check forms suited to your products;
3. state the acceptance and rejection criteria;
4. record the results of the checks;
5. follow the conformity rates.

Handling non-conformities

When a quality problem arises:

1. record the non-conformity in the system;
2. decide how to deal with it: rejection, rework, concession;
3. start corrective actions where needed;
4. follow the effect on production costs.

Equipment maintenance

Integration with maintenance

With the Maintenance module, you can:

1. handle the preventive maintenance of the production equipment;
2. plan the interventions around the production load;
3. follow breakdowns and downtime;
4. compute the performance indicators (MTBF, MTTR).

Reporting and analysis

Dashboards

Odoo offers several dashboards for following production:

• the main production dashboard;
• the equipment utilisation rate;
• an analysis of production costs;
• performance tracking (overall equipment effectiveness).

Custom reports

You can build specific reports:

1. Open Manufacturing › Reporting.
2. Use the filters and groupings available.
3. Save your custom views.
4. Export the data for outside analysis.

Advanced features

Subcontracting

To handle subcontracted production:

1. create a specific "subcontracting" operation type;
2. configure the products with a subcontracting bill of materials;
3. the components are sent to the subcontractor on a delivery order;
4. the finished product is received as a standard purchase.

Lot-based production

For industries working in batches:

1. enable lot traceability in the inventory settings;
2. use the lot numbers when consuming and producing;
3. follow the complete genealogy of the finished products;
4. handle lot expiry where needed.

Discrete and continuous production

Odoo adapts to different production modes:

• Discrete production: making countable items, with a start and an end to each order.
• Continuous production: handling continuous flows with periodic declaration of the quantities.

Integration with the other modules

The Manufacturing module integrates naturally with:

• Inventory: automatic updating of stock.
• Purchase: supply of the components.
• Sales: make to order.
• Quality: quality checks in production.
• Maintenance: equipment management.
• Accounting: valuing production.
• PLM: product lifecycle management (Enterprise).