Odoo: Optimizing Business Performance via an Open Source ERP

In a world governed by technology, a majority of the manufacturers might use as many as ten different applications to accomplish the arduous task of running a business. However, with each department in a company using a different software solution, it’s difficult to keep everyone on the same page especially when everyone has their own version of important documents. A possible solution would be software integration, but it can be a nightmare as it is expensive, time-consuming, and inefficient. The need of the hour is an easily accessible, dynamic enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution for manufacturing companies to run and expand their businesses.

Enter Odoo, the all-in-one ERP software with which all the needs of a business are met out of the box. Equipped with a robust set of features and a user-friendly interface, Odoo, an open-source suite of integrated business applications, helps clients optimize operational efficiency and improve cost savings. Its cluster of applications ranges from material requirements planning (MRP), quality control, and maintenance to product lifecycle management, inventory, procurement, and accounting. The user-friendly framework of Odoo simplifies workflow, manufacturing operations, administrative tasks, and reporting. “Our mission is to provide a range of easy-to-use business applications that form a complete suite of tools to meet any business need,” says Fabien Pinckaers, CEO of Odoo.

Upon deploying Odoo’s MRP, users can plan manufacturing orders automatically using the Master Production Schedule feature based on demand forecast, stock on hand, and indirect demand.

Once manufacturing orders are created, work orders can be prioritized and scheduled by the Gantt chart and capacity adjustment report. For continuous improvement, users can setup preventive actions like quality control points, alerts for the manufacturing department, or engineering change orders. If something goes wrong, the worker can trigger a quality alert, maintenance request, or record scrap units as needed. Using Odoo’s maintenance and repair functionality, users can then schedule and track corrective maintenance on all their assets from a simple dashboard with dynamic reporting functionality.

No matter what the product is and how complex the procedures are, Odoo’s MRP applications can integrate with all kinds of manufacturing processes without any development. As a result, the implementation time is only three to six months, which is relatively half compared to other manufacturing technology solutions where the average time spent on implementation is often around 12 months. A valuable customer that benefited from the short implementation period is Toyota Material Handling France, a member of the Toyota Industries Corporation. They needed a quick return on investment, and a traditional ERP proved unfit for their requirements. Their choice was to build a system themselves or choose an economical solution, and Odoo was the only solution that passed the test. They were able to implement the Odoo solution very quickly—even for a complex project—and after only six months of integration, Toyota was already using it.

With the aim to increase productivity and simplify the workflow of the company, Odoo announced the brand new IoT box, a small box that links devices with the Odoo database. To provide higher flexibility of database hosting, the company allows clients to host their database on Odoo cloud or Odoo.sh, providing the clients with source code.

As a part of its future endeavors, Odoo aims to be the best ERP system with user-friendly features and encompass the widest scope of business applications. Also on the anvil are the company’s plans to cover more languages and achieve further localization in the future. “As a result, great usability brings more users, and we bring more value to our users,” says Pinckaers.