Odoo For Manufacturing
Odoo MRP is the modern solution to managing manufacturing. Manufacturing companies are forever facing regulatory and environmental changes, as well as innovations in technology. This continues to place pressure on all departments to work together and ensure visibility across the entire supply chain. Increasingly, ERP solutions are sought to help Manufacturers manage all facets of the manufacturing and production process while also breaking down siloed departments that use differing applications which are often difficult to integrate. Let's consider the differences between MRP and ERP before outlining why Manufacturers require flexible ERP solutions and why Odoo is the best fit for Manufacturers.
ERP vs MRP. What Is The Difference?
MRP or Material Requirements Planning is a production planning, scheduling, and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes. MRP can therefore be considered a type of enterprise software, solely focused on the planning requirements of manufacturing.
ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning is the integrated management of main business processes. Modern ERP systems are fully integrated and made up of a suite of integrated business applications. ERP therefore has a much wider scope and encompasses a range of core business functions.
Which Software Is Best For Manufacturing Businesses?
When it comes to Manufacturing Management Software, Manufacturers are searching for solutions that are easy to use and most importantly, will not complicate their tech stack or burden them with unmanageable IT infrastructures. Enabling recommends Odoo to Manufacturers as the primary software to achieve greater operational efficiency and scalability whilst keeping a lean and affordable tech stack.
Why do Manufacturers need a Manufacturing Management Software?
The average Manufacturer may use as many as 10 different applications to run their business, each using varying software solutions. Integrating each of these software applications can be expensive, time consuming and inefficient. An effective manufacturing management software will increase efficiency in workflow, inventory, operations, maintenance, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) by integrating seamlessly and sharing information in real time to drive better business decisions and outcomes for customers.
Odoo For Manufacturing: A True End-To-End Manufacturing Management Solution
Odoo is an open-source ERP suite capable of managing all aspects of a business. What makes Odoo stand out within the ERP market for Manufacturers is the affordability and breadth of functionality that can support all aspects of manufacturing from a single, easy to use platform. Handle the planning, scheduling, processing, procurement of materials and bill of materials (BOM) with automated workflows, real time data and increased visibility across all departments.
What Is Odoo’s Manufacturing Module?
Odoo has already been identified as a leading ERP software on the market and is growing in popularity with Manufacturers for it's ability to support manufacturing beyond just resources and production.
The Odoo Manufacturing module brings together MRP, PLM, maintenance and quality in a single app based solution. Importantly, the intuitive interface design is easy to use and can connect to barcode scanners, scales, cameras or other measurement tools in order to improve entire processes.
Odoo MRP
Odoo’s MRP is described as a modern solution to an old problem and it does not disappoint. You can plan manufacturing orders automatically using the master production schedule, where minimum stock or made to order rules can be set. The master production schedule automatically creates manufacturing orders based on demand forecasts, stock on hand and indirect demand. This allows the prioritization of manufacturing orders and the scheduling of future work where it can be reviewed and adjusted manually if needed, all on a dynamic Gantt chart.
During the manufacturing process, workers can use tablets on the shop floor to record production, check work sheets and track time. With all information at their fingertips, work sheet instructions are readily available and integrated with barcode scanners for recording lots, serial numbers and quality controls such as photos for pass and fail tests.
Odoo’s IoT box allows the connection of tools and machines to work center control panels to automate measurements, machine set up or work instructions. By integrating barcode scanners and printers you can reduce errors and increase productivity, optimizing the work flow. All work is automatically timed by the Odoo system, allowing future orders to be scheduled accurately via the native integration that exists within Odoo and it’s connected apps.
Watch the video below to see just how intuitive Odoo's software is from the service field app, all the way through to creating manufacturing orders and aiding the entire manufacturing process including quality checks.
Why Odoo For Manufacturing Over Any Other Software?
1. Breadth Of Odoo Implementations for Manufacturers Worldwide
The breadth of Odoo MRP implementations span many industries across 75 countries worldwide. So the ability of the software has been tried and tested to meet the needs of many industries including:
Electronics
Furniture
Medical Device
Cannabis
Food and Supplements
Industrial Equipment
Appare
And so many more!
Countries with the most Odoo MRP users include:
USA
Mexico
Belgium
Germany
Egypt
Canada
2. Fully Integrated Apps For Automated Manufacturing Workflows
For manufacturers, the native integration of Odoo’s suite of apps means that if something goes wrong, like a machine malfunction or missing raw materials, this can be flagged on an order as ‘blocked’, triggering a quality alert, maintenance request or record scrap units as needed. Immediately the right team is notified. Errors are tracked and production is more efficient through better communication between all teams involved in the global manufacturing process.
Below is a simple example of an automated workflow engaging different Odoo applications that seamlessly integrate:
A manufacturer may sell a product (in the sales app), this creates a delivery (in the inventory app) so it is shipped out to the client. Simultaneously, a manufacturing order is created and this happens automatically to lodge the ‘make to order’ product to begin manufacturing. Once the item is manufactured, it gets allocated to the inventory app for delivery.
Another, similar workflow could involve the same process where a sale is made (in the sales app), this triggers a delivery (in the inventory app), simultaneously triggering a manufacturing order automatically. However this time, in order to manufacture a component needs to be purchased as it is not held in stock. The integrated system can be set up to automatically create a PO (in the purchase app). Once that component is sent out, a receipt can be created for receipting that component into stock (within the Inventory app). Once received into stock the component automatically gets handed over to the manufacturing team (in the MRP app), once the manufacturing order is complete, it gets allocated to the delivery (within the inventory app) so it can be shipped out. A more complicated process made just as simple, with automated workflows.
More complex workflows across multiple departments can be developed in order to meet unique requirements. Including component tracking, up and downstream reporting and automatic journal entries in stock valuation journals.
3. Easily Maintain Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
OEE is considered the gold standard when it comes to measuring manufacturing productivity. A key performance indicator for identifying losses, benchmarking progress and improving the productivity of manufacturing equipment, people and processes. Odoo enables real time analytics to enhance the speed and cost efficiency of manufacturing processes.
For many Manufacturers it can be difficult to collect data across infrastructures and distill these for insights into accurate OEE estimation or maintenance actions. With Odoo Maintenance, a work order can be created, where Managers can set expected duration as a threshold value for what would be considered good equipment performance. The workers overseeing the completion of the work order can log the actual duration and any equipment issues that may have occurred. Based on this data, the system computes the OEE rate automatically for each process and displays this in a dashboard.
4. Ensure Consistent Product Quality
Quality assurance is at the heart of manufacturers strategic and business objectives due to the many quality and safety standards that must be adhered, not to mention staying ahead of competitors and protecting brand value. Odoo’s Quality control process is fast and qualitative with easy internal communication within a single platform, eliminating spreadsheets, emails and documents that still make up much of the quality control process for some businesses!
Internal feedback is aided by the user friendly interface for employees to create quality alerts which appear in the dashboard of the quality control team to investigate the root cause and correct or provide preventative actions. Proposed preventative actions can be shared and agreed all within the Odoo platform which speeds up the process of confirming and actioning specific control points.
Workers on the shop floor will see any quality control points on a tablet and can confirm whether the control point has failed by recording the details, immediately communicating this back to the quality control team.
5. Efficient Product Change Management
Many manufacturers face huge delays in communicating and approving engineering change orders due to the number of stakeholders involved in the decision making and approval process. Odoo’s PLM uses collaboration tools that operate in a similar way to social network messaging and video calling to aid communication across multiple departments. Engineering changes can be created and managed efficiently, with all discussions and documents centralized, in real time and available only to those that need it.
There is no need to sync EBoM and MBoM as every department has access to the same documents, with tracked changes across multiple versions. Working on several versions of the same BoM in parallel is not an issue as Odoo PLM allows for the differences between documents to be applied, making the management of multiple changes super-efficient.
6. Ease Of Use
A key highlight and value proposition of Odoo is ease of use and it is crucial of a good manufacturing system. Implementing new software is a learning curve for all involved and usage will span across many skill levels and occupations throughout an organization. It is important for the all employees to feel empowered by technology and this is a key value of Odoo. Dynamic reporting, dashboards, drag and drop Kanban displays as well as the intuitive interface design are all the result of continual improvements made to Odoo’s usability annually, informed directly by it’s 7 million + users!
Need to boost operational efficiencies? Shorten order cycles? Generate new revenue streams to keep ahead or stay abreast?
From basic BoM and MRP requirements to the more complex process manufacturing and discrete manufacturing requirements, we have the experience and the solution for you.