Objectives
Understanding the Need
Our Client reached out to us in the process of looking for ERP system for their first in the company production plant. It happened to be in Poland with close proximity to our office. Main goals were managment of components warehouse and manufacturing of custom made garden furnitures. By custom made we mean fully customized to customer needs in terms of size, color, type, accessories and so on.
Setting the Stage for Collaboration
With a mission to not just deliver software solutions but also to solve real business problems, Solvti's objective was clear: to help by implementing a production management system integrated with their current shop on shopify and order management platform AirTable. Client had been wasting a lot of time doing calculations so far, they needed a system that could relieve them of this burden.
Scope of Work
In order to implement odoo alongside business process we traced route that typical order takes and followed it along the way
- eCommerce integration - we started by pulling order into Odoo. From Odoo side we need Sales module of course. For integration with Shopify we used one of modules available in Odoo Apps store with a bit of tailoring for customer needs.
- Order management - from customer perspective. Sales portal views were exactly what we needed with a bit of additions for better overview on order processing.
- Inventory - to produce, we need components. Odoo provides Inventory for stock management and Purchase for replenishment. Both modules were introduced in the project
- Manufacturing - clue of manufacturing plant. Odoo MRP + Shop Floor are at core of this project. Every product has Bill of Material thoroughly configured, with components, operations on work centers, instructions etc. Shop Floor is used on a daily basis to track every step. The main challenge here was to design process for custom made furnitures, where customers provide dimensions, color and other attributes.
- Internal monitoring - The Client has Airtable in place for monitoring different statistics and order processing data. It was essential for Odoo to integrate with AirTable, to send various data for overview of internal processes.
Challenges and Solutions
Dynamic Bills Of Matterials
The biggest challenge was to calculate Bill Of Material per every order. We wanted to stay away from manual work and excel sheets for processing. Solvti created Dynamic BOM module for exactly that purpose. By using non variant attributes values and custom formulas provided in BOM on component quantity, their "Apply On", dynamic instruction titles and description we are able to configure and calculate every possibility. Customer provides length, width, height and Dynamic BOM, when creating Manufacturing Order in MTO route, takes those attributes into consideration. The result is Manufacturing Order tailor for Sale Order. Each component type and quantity is calculated, instruction for cutting shows exact cut dimension, not needed operations are dropped. This way our Client can focus on manufacturing, not computing.
Customer overview on Order processing progress
Our Client wants to be transparent to their customers in terms for realisation of their order. For that Solvti customised Portal view of Sale Order by adding percentage status of order processing. Each finished warehouse move, MRP operation, delivery is reflected in calculated percentage, visible at glance to the customer
Internal overview
Our Client decided to use AirTable for real time overview on what's going on in Manufacturing Plant. By developing custom integration, they are able to control flow of orders in centralized manner.
