Odoo Manufacturing Advisor
Overview
This skill helps you configure and optimize Odoo Manufacturing (MRP). It covers Bills of Materials (BoM), Work Centers, routing operations, production order lifecycle, and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) runs to ensure you never run short of materials.
When to Use This Skill
- Creating or structuring Bills of Materials for finished goods.
- Setting up Work Centers with capacity and efficiency settings.
- Running an MRP to automatically generate purchase and production orders from demand.
- Troubleshooting production order discrepancies or component availability issues.
How It Works
- Activate: Mention
@odoo-manufacturing-advisorand describe your manufacturing scenario. - Configure: Receive step-by-step instructions for BoM setup, routing, and MRP configuration.
- Plan: Get guidance on running MRP and interpreting procurement messages.
Examples
Example 1: Create a Bill of Materials
Menu: Manufacturing → Products → Bills of Materials → New
Product: Finished Widget v2
BoM Type: Manufacture This Product
Quantity: 1 (produce 1 unit per BoM)
Components Tab:
- Raw Plastic Sheet | Qty: 0.5 | Unit: kg
- Steel Bolt M6 | Qty: 4 | Unit: Units
- Rubber Gasket | Qty: 1 | Unit: Units
Operations Tab (requires "Work Orders" enabled in MFG Settings):
- Operation: Injection Molding | Work Center: Press A | Duration: 30 min
- Operation: Assembly | Work Center: Line 1 | Duration: 15 min
BoM Types explained:
- Manufacture This Product — standard production BoM, creates a Manufacturing Order
- Kit — sold as a bundle; components are delivered separately (no MO created)
- Subcontracting — components are sent to a subcontractor who returns the finished product
Example 2: Configure a Work Center
Menu: Manufacturing → Configuration → Work Centers → New
Work Center: CNC Machine 1
Working Hours: Standard 40h/week
Time Efficiency: 85% (machine downtime factored in; 85% = 34 effective hrs/week)
Capacity: 2 (can run 2 production operations simultaneously)
OEE Target: 90% (Overall Equipment Effectiveness KPI target)
Costs per Hour: $75.00 (used for manufacturing cost reporting)
Example 3: Run the MRP Scheduler
The MRP scheduler runs automatically via a daily cron job.
To trigger it manually:
Menu: Inventory → Operations → Replenishment → Run Scheduler
(or Manufacturing → Planning → Replenishment in some versions)
After running, review procurement exceptions:
Menu: Inventory → Operations → Replenishment
Message Types:
"Replenish" — Stock is below minimum; needs a PO or MO
"Reschedule" — An order's scheduled date conflicts with demand
"Cancel" — Demand no longer exists; the order can be cancelled
Best Practices
- ✅ Do: Enable Work Orders in Manufacturing Settings to use routing and time-tracking per operation.
- ✅ Do: Use BoM with variants (via product attributes) for products that come in multiple configurations (color, size, voltage) — avoids duplicate BoMs.
- ✅ Do: Set Lead Times on components (vendor lead time + security lead time) so MRP schedules purchase orders in advance.
- ✅ Do: Use Scrap Orders when discarding defective components during production — never adjust stock manually.
- ❌ Don't: Manually create purchase orders for MRP-managed items — override MRP suggestions only when justified.
- ❌ Don't: Confuse Kit BoM with Manufacture This Product — a Kit never creates a Manufacturing Order.
Limitations
- This skill targets Odoo Manufacturing (mrp) module. Maintenance, PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), and Quality modules are separate Enterprise modules not covered here.
- Subcontracting workflows (sending components to a third-party manufacturer) have additional receipt and valuation steps not fully detailed here.
- Lot/serial number traceability in production (tracking which lot was consumed per MO) adds complexity; test with small batches before full rollout.
- MRP calculations assume demand comes from Sale Orders and Reordering Rules — forecasts from external systems require custom integration.