Manufacturing products may sometimes require changes in the consumption of components and their quantities according to the changes in products or according to customer preferences. This especially happens when the products can be customized. This will result in changes in the Bill of Materials in which the components and their quantities required for manufacturing each product are specified. These changes can be done without any approval from an authority, without approval but with a warning, or cannot change the Bill of Materials. Whatever the case may be, Odoo has a flexible feature of adding, removing, increasing, or decreasing components according to the changes in material consumption. This helps in the optimization of resources for manufacturing and reduces wastage.

Let’s see the steps to go to the Bill of Materials of a product to change the consumption of its components.

Manufacturing Application=> Products menu=> Products=> Table=> Bill of Materials=> Miscellaneous tab=> Flexible Consumption

Here, we have selected the option ‘Allowed’ for flexible consumption so that changes in the Bill of Materials can be done at any time by the user.

Odoo also provides a setting to unlock manufacturing orders. Thus, we can modify the quantities of components to be consumed without any approval.

Manufacturing application=> Configuration menu=> Settings=> Operations section=> Unlock Manufacturing Orders=> Save

Now, we can see the components and their operation for manufacturing Table.

In the components tab of the product, all the components along with their quantities are entered.

Similarly, in the Operations tab, every operation associated with the manufacturing table along with the allotted work center, duration computation method, duration of the operation, instructions for executing the operation, and an option for archiving the operation is there.

The three possible cases for changing material consumption are ‘Allowed’, ‘Allowed with Warning’, and ‘Blocked’.

1. When the Flexible consumption is set as ‘Allowed’.

Before that, we need to log in as the manufacturing user. Select the manufacturing order created to manufacture the table.

Manufacturing application=> Operations menu=> Manufacturing orders

We can start the operation by clicking on the start button after confirming the manufacturing order. While the operation is running, we can add components if we want to add another component to the manufacturing order by opening a tablet view of the manufacturing order. To open the tablet view, see the image below:

In the tablet view mode, Go to the menu at the top left corner to select the ‘Add Component’ button.

Now, let us add an extra two quantities of bolts in addition to the four units as entered in the manufacturing order before by selecting the component entering the quantity, and then clicking on the ‘Add Component’ option.

After that, the user can either ‘Validate’ the order or ‘Continue consumption’.

Return to the manufacturing order to validate the manufacturing order. After validation, click the ‘Mark as Done’ button to close the order. Thus, the manufacturing order with the updated quantity of the component is processed and completed.

2. When the Flexible consumption is set as ‘Allowed with a warning’.

Now, repeat the same procedure as that was for the flexible consumption set as allowed by going to the manufacturing order.

In this case, when we try to validate the manufacturing order after adding a component, a warning message appears stating that we have consumed a different quantity from its Bill of Materials. Click on the ‘Confirm’ button so that the warning disappears. After this, click on the ‘Mark as Done’ button.

3. When the Flexible consumption is set as ‘Blocked’.

Now, when we validate the manufacturing order after adding a component to the work order, a consumption warning message appears where we cannot confirm the updated components. The admin needs to log in and mark the order as done. The admin also gets a warning message in which we need to ‘Force’ the consumption. This needs the manager’s approval for closing the order as we have added additional components other than what is mentioned in the Bill of Materials.

Only the admin with the manager’s access can close the order. Click on the ‘Mark as Done’ button. It is then that the manufacturing order is completed and the stage changes from ‘In progress’ to ‘Done’.

Using Unlock feature

If the ‘Unlock Manufacturing Orders’ setting is not enabled, Odoo automatically locks the manufacturing order after it is confirmed. After confirming the order, when we try to edit it is not updated. We need to ‘Unlock’ before editing the order.