Sector · Industry, subcontracting, manufacturing
Odoo industry ERP: MRP, cost of production and on-time delivery
Odoo is a fully featured industrial ERP that manages make-to-order, make-to-stock and subcontracted manufacturing from quote to delivery. Your margin depends on actual cost of production and meeting deadlines: that is exactly what it controls.
You manufacture to order, to stock or through subcontractors. Every order commits people, components and machine time. If your ERP does not reconcile these three elements in real time, you are managing blind.
Odoo 20 brings together in a single tool MRP, stock management, purchasing, quality, maintenance and analytical accounting. ANOR helps manufacturers across Vienne, the West of France and beyond to roll out this scope in progressive batches, without stopping production.
What ERP scope does a manufacturer or subcontractor need?
Short answer: nine applications cover the complete chain from bill of materials to invoicing. They are rolled out in three successive batches to limit risk and shorten the return on investment timeline.
| Batch | Applications included | What you gain |
|---|---|---|
| Batch 1 – Foundation (approx. 8 weeks) | Manufacturing, Inventory, Purchase, Sales | Bills of materials, manufacturing orders, real-time stock, linked supplier orders and customer quotes |
| Batch 2 – Control | Quality, Maintenance, Analytical Accounting | Actual cost per order and per job, tracked non-conformities, planned preventive maintenance |
| Batch 3 – Performance | PLM, Planning, shop floor on tablet | Versioned engineering changes, routings and work centres, shop floor time entry, management dashboard |
This batch structure is not fixed. It adapts to your current priority: a manufacturer whose main pain is stock visibility will start there; a subcontractor whose margin is being eaten by unbilled operations will start with cost of production.
Your manufacturing challenges, handled in Odoo
Each challenge below is addressed by a specific Odoo 20 application. Click the title to learn more about the relevant application.
Actual cost of production per order
Odoo Manufacturing calculates the real cost of each order by combining materials, operator time and overheads. Analytical Accounting allocates that cost by job or project.
Multi-level bills of materials and variants
Multi-level bills of materials, product variants and configurable options are handled natively. A joinery manufacturer can therefore manage every reference without multiplying product records.
Operation subcontracting
Odoo automatically generates a purchase order for each subcontracted operation and tracks the sending of components to the supplier and their return to stock.
Work centres, routings and planning
Define your work centres and machining routings. The Planning application loads resources and anticipates bottlenecks before they hold up production.
Quality control and non-conformities
Quality control points are inserted into the manufacturing or goods receipt flow. Non-conformities are recorded, tracked and trigger corrective actions.
Preventive and corrective maintenance
Schedule periodic servicing of your machines and handle breakdowns as they arise. Every intervention is time-stamped and its cost is visible on the dashboard.
Versioned engineering changes (PLM)
Odoo's PLM module manages the product lifecycle: every change to a bill of materials or routing is versioned, submitted for approval and fully traceable.
Shop floor on tablet
Operators log their time, report progress and flag scrap from a tablet on the shop floor, without returning to the office.
Management dashboards
Profit and loss, intermediate management balances and gross margin by product family are available in real time from Odoo Analytical Accounting.
Customer relations and commercial management in an industrial setting
Selling in industrial B2B means managing long-cycle deals, technical quotes and customers who demand full traceability.
Quotes and orders connected to production
A quote confirmed in Odoo Sales automatically triggers component requirements and can launch a manufacturing order. Your sales team sees actual availability.
Customer portal and traceability
Your customers access their online space to track order progress, download delivery documents and conformity certificates.
Job tracking and customer profitability
Odoo Analytical Accounting allocates costs and revenues by job or by customer. You quickly identify which contracts are profitable and which are not.
What the standard covers and what needs scoping upfront
Being clear about limitations before signing a contract is how ANOR works. Here is what you need to know before starting an Odoo industry ERP project.
What the Odoo standard covers
- Make-to-order, make-to-stock and MTO (make-to-order) manufacturing
- Multi-level bills of materials, variants and configurable options
- Operation subcontracting with component sending and return
- Work centres, routings and capacity planning
- Quality control at goods receipt, during manufacturing and at despatch
- Preventive and corrective maintenance with machine history
- PLM with versioning of bills of materials and routings
- Shop floor time entry on tablet
- Actual cost of production per manufacturing order
- Analytical accounting by job or cost centre
What needs scoping before the project begins
- Advanced finite-capacity detailed scheduling (multi-constraint optimisation) requires specific scoping depending on your shop floor.
- Integration with machines or controllers (MES, SCADA) is defined before any technical work begins.
- Migrating existing bills of materials is a project in itself: volume, source data quality and cleansing rules must be assessed from the outset.
- CAD connects to Odoo via PLM; it is not replaced.
A 30-minute conversation is enough to identify what is covered by the standard and what requires specific scoping. No surprises after that.
Odoo applications for a manufacturer or subcontractor
| Application | Role in your industrial information system |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing (MRP) | Manufacturing orders, bills of materials, routings, cost of production, shop floor on tablet |
| Inventory | Multi-warehouse stock, component movements, traceability by batch and serial number |
| Purchase | Automatic replenishment, operation subcontracting, supplier comparison |
| Sales | Technical quotes, orders, customer portal, progress billing |
| Quality | Control points, non-conformities, alerts and corrective actions |
| Maintenance | Preventive maintenance plan, corrective breakdowns, history and cost per machine |
| PLM | Product lifecycle, versioning of bills of materials and routings |
| Planning | Work centre loading, bottleneck detection, rescheduling |
| Analytical Accounting | Profit and loss, intermediate balances, margin by job or customer |
ANOR in numbers
63
cumulative years of Odoo experience across the five partners
16
Odoo versions mastered, from version 5 to 20
5
Odoo certified consultants
8
weeks to launch a first industrial batch
How ANOR runs an industry ERP project
1
30-minute diagnostic
A 30-minute conversation is enough to understand your manufacturing model, your critical workflows and your existing data (bills of materials, stock, work in progress). We tell you what is covered by the standard and what needs specific scoping. No invented quote, no commitment.
2
Batch scope and data migration plan
We define Batch 1 (foundation: manufacturing, stock, purchasing, sales) and the schedule for subsequent batches. Migrating bills of materials and item references is planned at this stage: it is often the most underestimated part of the project.
3
Configuration, testing and shop floor training
Odoo is configured in a test environment. Your teams, including shop floor operators, validate workflows before go-live. Training is short and focused on day-to-day tasks.
4
Go-live and post-launch support
The production cutover is prepared so manufacturing is not interrupted. We remain available after go-live to fine-tune settings, analyse the first cost of production results and support the ramp-up of subsequent batches.
Real-world examples from manufacturers
ERP migration in two months with zero downtime
A ten-person manufacturer was running an ageing ERP. ANOR migrated seven modules in two months without interrupting production or losing a single live order. The managing director was tracking manufacturing orders in Odoo from the very first day after go-live.
Joinery manufacturer: bills of materials and variants
A joinery manufacturer in the West of France was managing its variants (dimensions, colours, glazing options) in spreadsheets. The migration to Odoo Manufacturing centralised multi-level bills of materials and automated materials requirements calculation. Order entry time was halved according to the team.
Manufacturers in Vienne: cost of production and subcontracting
Several manufacturers in Vienne deployed Odoo to make their actual cost of production per job more reliable. Operation subcontracting, previously tracked on paper, is now managed in Odoo Purchase with component sending and return tracked in real time.
We migrated our ERP in two months with no disruption to operations.
Odoo 20 AI on the shop floor
Odoo 20 includes a particularly advanced artificial intelligence layer, built on Python, the dominant language for AI and on PostgreSQL, a high-performance open-source database. Enterprise edition 20 includes 52 AI modules compared with 15 in the previous version.
- AI agents assist purchasing and stock management: consumption anomaly detection, replenishment suggestions and supplier lead time alerts.
- AI-calculated fields (ai_fields) automatically enrich product records and manufacturing orders with data drawn from historical records.
- The MCP connection (ai_mcp) allows Odoo to be queried in natural language from an external tool.
- The AI action server automates repetitive tasks: supplier reminders, closing completed orders and generating non-conformity reports.
These features are native to the Odoo 20 Enterprise offer. They do not require specific development for common use cases.
Frequently asked questions from manufacturers about Odoo
Yes. Odoo Manufacturing (the MRP module) manages manufacturing orders, multi-level bills of materials, routings, work centres, material requirements planning and actual cost of production. It covers the needs of an industrial SME in the vast majority of cases. Advanced finite-capacity detailed scheduling requires prior scoping depending on the complexity of your shop floor. To go further, see the Odoo Manufacturing page and the production page.
Yes. Odoo natively manages product variants (dimensions, colours, materials) and configurable options. A customer quote can trigger the creation of a manufacturing order with the correct bill of materials as soon as the order is confirmed. This is particularly well suited to joinery, furniture and bespoke equipment manufacturers.
Yes. Odoo automatically generates a purchase order for each operation assigned to a subcontractor. It tracks the sending of components from your stock and their return after processing. The cost of the operation is included in the cost of production for the manufacturing order.
For each manufacturing order, Odoo accumulates the cost of consumed materials (valued using your chosen method: FIFO, average cost or standard cost), operator times entered on the shop floor and subcontracting costs. Analytical Accounting then allocates that cost by job, customer or product family. You get a profit and loss account and intermediate management balances in real time.
Yes, via Odoo's PLM module. Your CAD software stays in place: it is not replaced. PLM retrieves technical data (bills of materials, revision indices) and versions them in Odoo. An integration development is generally required depending on the CAD software used.
Odoo covers the same functional scope as Divalto or Sage X3 for the vast majority of industrial SMEs, at a significantly lower licence cost and with a modern user experience. Moving from an industrial ERP to Odoo is a migration that requires preparation: bills of materials, item references and work in progress all need to be migrated. ANOR manages this type of migration over 2 to 9 months depending on scope. For a detailed comparison: Odoo vs Divalto and Odoo vs Sage X3.
The Odoo licence does not depend on the sector but on the number of users. Odoo offers the Custom plan at 35.90 € per user per month in the first year, then 44.90 € from the second year onwards, with all applications, multi-company and external APIs included. Integration costs depend on scope, the volume of data to migrate and any specific developments required: a 30-minute conversation is enough to frame this. For more on the overall cost of an Odoo project, see our guide.
Odoo applications relevant to this sector
Manufacturing (MRP)
Manufacturing orders, bills of materials, routings, cost of production and shop floor on tablet.
Inventory
Multi-warehouse stock, traceability by batch and serial number, component movements.
Accounting
Analytical accounting, profit and loss, intermediate management balances by job.
All sectors
Compare with other sectors covered by ANOR: wholesale, distribution, retail.
Migration expertise
Coming from Divalto, Sage X3 or a bespoke ERP? ANOR manages the migration.
A first industrial batch can be live in 8 weeks
Book 30 minutes with an ANOR consultant: together we identify your priority scope, your data constraints and the points to clarify before any commitment.