In today's fast-paced world, successful manufacturing is about more than just building products - it's about agility, precision, and smart, data-driven decisions. The Odoo Manufacturing module is an all-in-one solution that connects every part of your production process, from the initial Bill of Materials (BoM) to the final quality checks on the shop floor.
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This guide will walk you through the core steps of leveraging Odoo to achieve operational excellence. You'll learn how to set up your foundational data, manage advanced planning, streamline your shop floor operations, and ensure top-tier product quality. By the end, you will understand how Odoo transforms your manufacturing process from a series of disconnected tasks into a single, cohesive, and highly efficient system.
I. The Strategic Imperative: Why Odoo for Modern Manufacturing?
Modern manufacturing demands speed, integration, and real-time insight—yet most legacy MRP systems fall short. They're rigid, siloed, and expensive to maintain, forcing small and mid-sized businesses into workarounds.
Odoo Manufacturing solves this with a fully integrated, modular platform that connects the shop floor, inventory, planning, and quality control in real time. Its strength lies in system-wide integration—linking production directly to procurement, sales, and finance. No silos. No lag. Just one source of truth across the business.
Odoo isn’t just software—it’s the operational backbone for manufacturers who want clarity, control, and continuous improvement.
The decision to implement Odoo for manufacturing yields a diverse range of benefits across strategic, operational, and financial dimensions.
Strategic Benefits
- End-to-End Visibility: The platform provides a single source of truth by linking production with procurement, inventory, quality, maintenance, sales, and accounting in real time. This allows stakeholders to monitor material availability, work-in-progress (WIP) status, and finished goods from a unified dashboard, aligning production planning with actual sales forecasts and order commitments.
- Faster Time to Market: Odoo minimizes delays and bottlenecks by providing real-time status tracking, which significantly improves inter-departmental coordination. Visual tools like Gantt charts and Kanban boards provide enhanced scheduling clarity, enabling teams to respond quickly to rush orders or design changes.
- Agile Customization and Extensibility: Businesses can tailor the manufacturing module to fit unique processes using Odoo Studio or custom modules. This capability extends to adding custom fields for safety notes or instructions, automating approval hierarchies for regulated industries, and integrating with external devices such as PLCs, barcode scanners, and IoT devices.
- Scalability and Multi-Plant Management: Odoo is designed to adapt as operations grow, allowing for the management of multiple factories, subcontractors, or regional hubs from a single database. It can route orders across different plants based on capacity or geography and standardize standard operating procedures (SOPs) across all locations to improve governance and efficiency.
- Improved Team Collaboration: By providing a shared, up-to-date database, Odoo breaks down departmental silos and reduces miscommunication. All teams—from production and procurement to sales and finance—can access the same work orders, inventory, and Bills of Materials, eliminating the conflicts that arise from using disparate spreadsheets and disconnected systems.
Operational Benefits
- Integrated Planning and Execution: The system automates material and capacity planning workflows across the entire supply chain. The MRP and Master Production Scheduling (MPS) modules work in concert to synchronize orders, demand, and lead times without requiring manual data re-entry. The system can automatically generate purchase requests and work orders based on Bill of Materials data, enabling a combined manufacturing demand with make-to-order sales models for maximum agility.
- Enhanced Product Quality: Odoo embeds quality checks directly into manufacturing workflows, ensuring that issues are caught and corrected early in the process. It allows for non-conformities to be recorded directly within the work order or quality inspection screen, and users can analyze trends to improve supplier, equipment, or process outcomes.
Financial Benefits
- Lower Operating Costs: Automation and robust inventory control tools reduce costs associated with overproduction, stockouts, and labor inefficiency. By minimizing raw material waste and excess finished goods, optimizing labor through accurate capacity planning, and using preventive maintenance to avoid unexpected downtime, Odoo provides a clear return on investment.
This comprehensive set of benefits positions Odoo as a direct and superior alternative to more complex and costly legacy ERPs. The system provides all the necessary features for a modern manufacturing line while remaining simple to use , offering a cost-effective solution with a breadth of implementation proven across numerous industries, from electronics to medical devices and furniture.
II. Foundational Concepts: Core Components of Odoo Manufacturing
A successful implementation of Odoo's Manufacturing module starts with understanding its core building blocks. These components are interconnected and form the logical framework for all production activities.
2.1. The Bill of Materials (BOM): The Recipe for Production
The Bill of Materials (BOM) is a comprehensive list of all components and materials required to produce a finished product. In Odoo, it acts as a central data hub linking engineering, procurement, and production . Odoo supports various BOM types to manage different manufacturing complexities and business models.
- Manufacture this Product: Standard BOM for products made directly from raw materials.
- Kit (Kit-to-Order): Used when components are bundled and sold as a set without being assembled.
- Subcontracting: For manufacturing processes outsourced to a third-party vendor.
- Multi-level BOMs: For complex products with subassemblies.
- Phantom BOMs: For non-stocked logical groupings of components consumed directly in final assembly.
- Variant BOMs: Manages multiple product variants from a single BOM .
The BOM is a strategic asset that automates workflows. A well-defined BOM triggers component procurement and enables a cost roll-up that includes labor and machine time. The system's version control feature is vital for managing historical changes and maintaining a precise record of every product iteration .
2.2. Routings and Work Centers: Defining the Process
The BOM defines what you build; the Routing defines how you build it .
- Routing: A detailed series of operations required to manufacture a product . It specifies the sequence of tasks, including setup, operation, and teardown times for each step.
- Work Center: The physical or logical location where an operation is performed . Configure each work center with its own capacity and cost structure for granular tracking of efficiency and resource utilization .
2.3. Manufacturing Orders (MOs) vs. Work Orders (WOs): The Execution Layer
Manufacturing Orders (MOs) and Work Orders (WOs) represent the master plan versus the individual tasks .
- Manufacturing Order (MO): The primary document that authorizes and manages a production run . It is the master record detailing the product, quantity, BOM, and routing to be followed .
- Work Orders (WOs): Actionable tasks generated automatically from an MO's routing . Assigned to a specific work center, they provide precise instructions for the shop floor . This feature allows for granular tracking of each task, which is vital for identifying bottlenecks and optimizing labor efficiency .
III. Strategic Models: Aligning Your Production with Odoo
Odoo's Manufacturing module is highly adaptable and can be configured to support various production strategies, from high-volume standardized goods to highly customized, project-based products. The optimal choice of strategy depends on the business's industry, product complexity, and customer requirements.
3.1. Make-to-Stock (MTS): The High-Volume Strategy
The Make-to-Stock (MTS) strategy is a traditional production approach where products are manufactured in advance and held in inventory to meet anticipated customer demand. This model is best suited for standardized, high-demand items where immediate delivery is a competitive advantage.
Odoo Workflow for MTS:
- Activate Manufacturing Route: In the product form, enable the "Manufacture" route but do not enable "Make To Order".
- Set Minimum Stock Rules: Define minimum and maximum stock thresholds for each product. When inventory falls below the minimum, Odoo can be configured to automatically trigger a manufacturing order or a purchase request.
- Scheduled Production: Use the Master Production Schedule (MPS) to plan production based on sales forecasts, seasonal trends, or historical data. The MPS will generate proposals to replenish warehouse stock, ensuring products are always available for immediate dispatch.
3.2. Make-to-Order (MTO): The Agile, Customer-Driven Strategy
The Make-to-Order (MTO) strategy begins production only after a customer's sales order has been received. This approach is ideal for customized or highly complex products, as it minimizes inventory costs for finished goods and raw components.
Odoo Workflow for MTO:
- Activate Routes: In the product form, enable both the "Manufacture" route and the "Make To Order" option.
- Define Bill of Materials: A BOM must be in place to identify all the components required for the final product.
- Automate Production Orders: When a sales order is confirmed, Odoo automatically recognizes that the product is not in stock. With the MTO route activated, the system automatically triggers a manufacturing order and initiates the procurement of the necessary materials as defined by the BOM. The system will generate a draft purchase order regardless of the current stock on hand, ensuring that components are procured specifically for that customer's order.
3.3. Beyond the Basics: Engineer-to-Order (ETO)
For highly bespoke products or large-scale projects, the Engineer-to-Order (ETO) model is utilized. This strategy involves a deep integration of engineering and manufacturing processes, with the final product being designed specifically for a single project. Odoo supports this model by leveraging its integrated Project and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) modules.
The key to a successful ETO workflow in Odoo is the use of Engineering Change Orders (ECOs). These documents are used to track, implement, and revert change versions made to products and BOMs throughout a project's lifecycle. Odoo's PLM module allows multiple versions of the same BOM to be worked on in parallel. When a change is finalized and approved, the system can apply the differences to the live production BOM, which eliminates the common industry problem of manually syncing separate engineering and manufacturing BOMs.
This powerful functionality allows companies to remain agile and responsive to design changes while maintaining a clear audit trail and control over the production process.
The following table provides a concise comparison of these three strategic models, summarizing their use cases and the core Odoo features that enable them.
| Manufacturing Model | Primary Goal | Optimal Product Type | Inventory Impact | Core Odoo Features Used |
| Make-to-Stock (MTS) | Meet forecasted demand | Standardized, high-volume items | Finished goods are stocked, minimizing lead time | Reordering Rules, Master Production Schedule (MPS), Planned Manufacturing Orders |
| Make-to-Order (MTO) | Produce for confirmed orders | Customized, highly complex products | Minimal finished goods inventory; components procured on-demand | Make to Order route, Bills of Materials (BOMs), Sales Order automation |
| Engineer-to-Order (ETO) | Design and produce for a single project | Bespoke machinery or custom-built solutions | Project-based; components procured as needed | Project app, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Engineering Change Orders (ECOs) |
IV. Step-by-Step Guide: The Odoo Manufacturing Workflow
This section provides a detailed, actionable guide to the Odoo Manufacturing workflow, from initial configuration to the final stages of production and traceability.
4.1. Phase 1: Pre-Implementation and Configuration
Step 1: Map Existing Workflows Before Configuration
The most critical first step of any Odoo implementation is to thoroughly document the current production processes, from order intake to product delivery. This serves as a baseline for a thoughtful configuration. It is essential to map these existing processes to the Odoo features—specifically, Bills of Materials, Routings, Work Centers, and Quality Control Points—before touching any settings in the software. This pre-configuration analysis prevents misalignment and the need for costly rework later in the process.
Step 2: Configure Products and Bills of Materials (BOMs)
- Create Products: Products that will be manufactured (the finished goods) should be configured as "Storable Product" in their inventory tab. Components and raw materials should also be created as "Storable Product" or "Consumable" if inventory tracking is not required for them.
- Create a BOM: Navigate to the Manufacturing app > Master Data > Bills of Materials. Click "Create," select the finished product, and then add each component and its corresponding quantity. Define the BOM type as "Manufacture this Product" and associate a Routing if the process involves multiple operations.
Step 3: Define Work Centers and Routings
- Define Work Centers: Navigate to the Manufacturing app > Configuration > Work Centers. Define each work center with its name, code, capacity (the number of units that can be produced simultaneously), and costing information.
- Create a Routing: Navigate to Manufacturing > Master Data > Routings. Create a new routing and add operations. For each operation, specify the Work Center where it will be performed and the expected duration, which can include setup, operation, and teardown times.
4.2. Phase 2: The Production Lifecycle
Step 1: Generate a Manufacturing Order (MO)
A Manufacturing Order can be created in one of two ways:
- Manual Creation: An MO can be created directly from the Manufacturing app > Operations > Manufacturing Orders menu.
- Automated Generation: For Make-to-Order (MTO) products, an MO is automatically generated when a Sales Order is confirmed. For Make-to-Stock (MTS) products, an MO is triggered automatically when stock levels fall below a set reordering rule or based on the Master Production Schedule.
Step 2: Process the MO (The 3-Step Process)
Odoo's three-step manufacturing process is a powerful workflow that can be enabled at the warehouse level. This process involves a series of automated transfers that ensure accurate inventory tracking.
- Process Pick Components Transfer: After a three-step MO is confirmed, Odoo automatically creates a "pick components transfer" (e.g., WH/PC/XXXXX). This transfer tracks the movement of raw materials from their storage locations to the production work center. Once the components have been moved, the transfer must be validated, which updates inventory counts in real time.
- Process the Manufacturing Order and Work Orders: On the MO page, workers can access the Work Orders tab. For each work order, an operator can click the "Start" button to begin a timer, perform the tasks, and then click "Done" to mark the work as complete. This is the shop floor interaction. The system can be configured to use a streamlined interface on tablets or kiosks, enabling real-time input and reducing data lag.
- Process Finished Product Transfer: Once all work orders are completed and the MO is marked as "Done," Odoo automatically creates a "store finished products transfer" (e.g., WH/SFP/XXXXX). This transfer documents the movement of the finished product from the production area into its designated storage location, updating the finished goods inventory in the process.
Step 3: Manage Subcontracted Operations
Odoo provides native support for subcontracting, allowing businesses to manage production steps that are outsourced to external vendors. The system can automatically create subcontracting purchase orders and provides visibility into material deliveries, consumption, and finished product receipts, maintaining cost and lead time tracking across internal and external processes.
The following table illustrates the automated flow of a manufacturing process within the integrated Odoo system, demonstrating how a single event in one module triggers a cascade of actions in others.
| System Event | Triggering App | Automated Action | Resulting App |
| Sales Order Confirmed | Sales | Triggers Make to Order Manufacturing Order | Manufacturing |
| Manufacturing Order Created | Manufacturing | Reserves components and creates Pick Components Transfer | Inventory |
| Pick Components Transfer Validated | Inventory | Registers consumption of raw materials | Inventory & Accounting |
| Manufacturing Order Marked Done | Manufacturing | Registers finished product in inventory and creates Store Finished Products Transfer | Inventory |
| Store Finished Products Transfer Validated | Inventory | Finished product is now ready to ship | Sales |
| Finished Product Delivered | Inventory | Confirms delivery to customer and updates inventory count | Inventory |
4.3. Phase 3: Post-Production and Traceability
Step 1: Lot and Serial Number Tracking
For industries that require granular traceability, such as medical devices or food and beverage manufacturing, Odoo enables Lot and Serial Number tracking. By configuring products to be tracked by lot or serial number, the system creates a full upstream and downstream record. This allows a user to trace a finished product back to the exact batch of raw materials used, or vice versa, providing a critical level of control and compliance.
Step 2: Quality Control and Non-Conformance Management
Quality checks should be configured as an intrinsic part of the workflow, not an afterthought. Odoo allows users to define and trigger inspections based on specific rules, such as product type, supplier, or stage of production. Quality control points can be embedded directly into a routing, forcing operators to perform a check at a specific step. If a defect is found, the system allows for the direct recording of non-conformities, which can then be used to generate non-conformance reports (NCRs) and linked to corrective and preventive action plans (CAPAs).
V. The Odoo Advantage: Integration with the Full ERP Suite
The true power of Odoo Manufacturing is its seamless and bidirectional integration with the rest of the Odoo ERP suite. This interconnectedness allows for automated workflows that provide a single source of truth and eliminate the need for manual data synchronization.
5.1. Manufacturing & Inventory: The Supply Chain Engine
The Manufacturing module is tightly coupled with the Inventory application, creating an integrated supply chain engine. This integration provides real-time visibility into material availability, WIP status, and finished goods, allowing manufacturing planning to be directly aligned with inventory levels and sales forecasts. When a Manufacturing Order is created, Odoo automatically reserves the necessary components in the warehouse, preventing the raw materials from being allocated to a different order.
The system's smart replenishment strategies, such as min-max rules and make-to-order logic, are directly linked to the manufacturing module. If a component's stock falls below a minimum threshold, Odoo can be configured to automatically propose or trigger a purchase order, ensuring that materials are always available for production without over-stocking.
5.2. Manufacturing & Quality: Built-in Excellence
Odoo's integration of manufacturing and quality control moves a business from a reactive to a proactive model. Instead of waiting for a final inspection at the end of the line, quality checks are embedded into the manufacturing process itself. By setting quality control points within a routing, inspections become a natural part of the workflow. If an issue is identified, it can be recorded in real time on the work order screen, and the system can trigger automated alerts or checklists for the operator. This allows issues to be caught and corrected early, which is essential for reducing waste and improving overall product quality. The data collected from these inspections is then used for trend analysis to improve supplier relationships, equipment performance, or process outcomes.
5.3. Manufacturing & PLM: Engineering to the Shop Floor
For manufacturers with frequent design changes or complex products, the integration of Manufacturing and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a significant advantage. The PLM module manages product versions and tracks changes throughout the product life cycle. When a design change is required, an Engineering Change Order (ECO) is created and used to track the revisions to the BOM and its associated operations. Odoo allows for multiple versions of a BOM to be worked on in parallel, ensuring that engineering teams can make revisions without disrupting live production. Once an ECO is approved, the system can apply the changes to the production BOM, a seamless process that eliminates the need to manually synchronize separate engineering and manufacturing BOMs, a common pain point in disconnected systems.
5.4. Manufacturing & Maintenance: Maximizing Uptime
Unexpected downtime due to machine failure is a major source of cost and inefficiency. Odoo's integration of the Maintenance module with Manufacturing provides a solution by enabling proactive equipment upkeep. Maintenance requests can be created automatically from within work centers or based on usage metrics, such as the number of production hours or units produced. By setting up preventive maintenance rules and tracking maintenance history, businesses can proactively service critical machines, reducing unexpected downtime and repair costs.
VI. Best Practices for a Successful Implementation
Successful implementation of Odoo Manufacturing requires more than just activating modules; it demands thoughtful process alignment, strong data integrity, and cross-functional discipline.
- Map Existing Workflows Before Configuration: The first and most crucial best practice is to thoroughly document current production processes before configuring any settings in Odoo. This documentation should be used to map out the Odoo Bill of Materials, Routings, Work Centers, and Quality Control Points. This initial clarity is the foundation of a successful implementation and prevents misalignment later in the process.
- Leverage Work Orders Strategically: For any process that involves multiple steps, workstations, or approvals, the Work Orders feature should be used strategically. It provides the granular tracking necessary to identify bottlenecks and optimize labor efficiency.
- Embed Quality Control Early: Do not treat quality checks as an afterthought. Quality control points should be configured and linked to operations and BOMs so that inspection is a natural part of the production workflow.
- Utilize Master Production Scheduling (MPS): For make-to-stock businesses, the MPS is a transformative tool. It should be used to set demand forecasts, define buffer levels, and automate procurement and manufacturing recommendations. Ensuring that MPS is aligned with overall procurement strategies will lead to a smoother planning process.
- Enable Shop Floor Efficiency with Tablets and Barcodes: Deploying barcode scanners and tablets on the shop floor for time tracking, material consumption, and routing transitions is a critical best practice. This not only reduces data lag and prevents operator errors but also enforces discipline in reporting, leading to a more reliable and complete data set.
- Configure Real-Time Inventory Synchronization: Odoo's strength is its unified inventory visibility. It is essential to configure the system to connect the tracking of raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP), and finished goods in real time, using automatic transfers, reordering rules, and barcode flows.
- Build for Maintenance and Traceability: The Odoo Maintenance module should be integrated with the MRP setup for proactive equipment upkeep. For regulated industries, the use of Lot and Serial Number tracking is a non-negotiable best practice for ensuring full traceability from raw material to finished product.
VII. Measuring Success: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Reporting
A well-implemented Odoo Manufacturing system generates a wealth of data that can be transformed into actionable business intelligence. The system's built-in reporting and customizable dashboards allow for the monitoring of performance and the analysis of trends.
Odoo provides real-time reports and visual dashboards tailored to different roles, from operators to executives. These tools allow for the monitoring of productivity by work center, shift, or product line and the analysis of key metrics such as scrap rates, resource efficiency, and cycle time deviations.
A powerful example of how Odoo's integrated data collection translates into strategic insight is its ability to support the calculation of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). OEE is a fundamental metric in lean manufacturing that measures the true productivity of a manufacturing operation. Odoo's features directly provide the data points needed to calculate the three components of OEE:
- Availability: Data from the Maintenance module on unexpected downtime and planned service provides the information needed to calculate machine uptime.
- Performance: The Work Orders feature tracks the actual production rate and cycle time, which can be compared against the ideal performance rate to measure efficiency.
- Quality: The Quality module tracks the number of non-conforming products and scrap rates, providing the data needed to measure the percentage of good parts produced.
By tracking these metrics, businesses can gain a holistic view of their production efficiency and identify areas for continuous improvement. Odoo also allows for the creation of custom reports and dashboards using its built-in features or Odoo Studio, which can be tailored to track unique metrics such as lead times or machine efficiency.
The following table demonstrates how Odoo's features directly support the collection of data for key manufacturing KPIs.
| Key Performance Indicator (KPI) | Purpose | How Odoo Provides Data |
| Cycle Time | Measures the total time to complete a product, from start to finish | Work Order tracking records the actual time taken for each operation vs. the expected duration defined in the Routing. |
| Scrap Rate | Measures the percentage of raw materials or finished goods that are discarded | Quality Control points and Scrap reports allow operators to record scrapped quantities and reasons for scrapping, providing a clear audit trail. |
| Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) | Measures the overall productivity of a machine or production line | Combines data from the Maintenance app (availability), Work Order tracking (performance), and Quality Control (quality) for a comprehensive score. |
| Production Yield | Measures the ratio of finished goods produced to raw materials consumed | The system automatically tracks component consumption against a Bill of Materials, and deviations from the expected output can be flagged. |
VIII. Conclusion: Odoo as an Operational Backbone
The analysis demonstrates that Odoo Manufacturing is far more than a simple set of tools; it is a strategic asset for modern enterprises. It offers a unique combination of real-time data visibility, configurable automation, and seamless, cross-module integration in a single, cost-effective platform. By unifying production with procurement, inventory, sales, and accounting, Odoo provides a single source of truth that empowers every role—from operators to executives—with the data needed to make better, faster decisions.
A successful Odoo implementation transforms a business from a reactive operation, dependent on manual coordination and disparate spreadsheets, to a proactive, data-driven manufacturing powerhouse. It provides the transparency, control, and flexibility needed to compete in today's fast-moving market, supporting continuous improvement through actionable insights and scalable, multi-plant management.
Ultimately, with the right implementation approach and a governance model that prioritizes thoughtful process mapping and strong data integrity, Odoo becomes a core driver of production performance and business resilience. It is the operational backbone that enables a business to not only survive but thrive in the face of competitive and supply chain pressures.
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Odoo Manufacturing: Unifying Your Shop Floor for Strategic Resilience and Profit