The subcontracting part of your manufacturing process can benefit your business because it helps you to invest in and maintain your equipment. It also helps you to better manage the labor required to manufacture any given product.
With Odoo 18, it’s possible to hire subcontractors easily, but what if you already have the components of a subcontracted product? In these cases you must deliver the components to your subcontractor to complete the production process. In this article you’ll see how Odoo automatizes this process with the Resupply Subcontractor option.
To use the subcontracting route in Odoo, make sure the Subcontracting option is enabled in your database settings. Also check that the Resupply Subcontractor on Order route is unarchived in your routes menu on the Inventory app.
Configuring the Product
To configure the product, first select a product and open its bill of materials. In this example, we’ll use the Globo Upholstered Side Chair (Oak).
As you can see, the chair is manufactured with a variety of components that will be applied according to its variant.
In this case, the Painted Globo Chair Frame, the Upholstered Globo Chair Seat Pad, and the Upholstered Globo Chair Backrest are subcontracted components. This means that you need the components from the subcontractors to manufacture the chair.
On the components' initial page, make sure the Buy and the Replenish On Order routes are selected.
Now you need to check its BoM.
As you will notice, the subcontracting box is selected on the BoM Type list and the only component on the bill of materials is the Globo Chair Frame. To configure the component, go to its page and ensure that the Resupply Subcontractor on Order route is selected from the inventory tab.
This way, every time a manufacturing order is emitted for the chair, a purchase order appears for the Painted Globo Chair Frame. Subsequently, a resupply order is emitted for the Globo Chair Frame.
Sales Order
Let’s see how this works on a sales order.
After confirming the sales order, a manufacturing button will appear at the top giving you access to the manufacturing order.
Here the components needed to manufacture the chair are displayed. To understand how subcontracting works, click the Overview button at the top.
Here you can check all the steps involved in the manufacturing process. There are only two purchase orders, one for the Painted Globo Chair Frame and another for the Upholstered Globo Chair Seat Pad & Upholstered Globo Chair Backrest.
This happens because the upholstering of the components is subcontracted to the same subcontractor, so Odoo only creates one purchase order for both components. When you enter one of the purchase orders you can see who the subcontractor is as well as the product's name.
By confirming the purchase order, a resupply button will appear. If you click on it, you will get access to the resupply order which displays the components the subcontractor needs. After receiving the subcontracted component, you can go back to the Overview menu and see that the receipt field belonging to the Painted Globo Chair Frame is now displayed as Available. The quantity on hand is now also updated.
Now you need to do the same for the upholstered components so that all of the components will be available.
Lastly, assemble all the components. By clicking on the Assemble line, a new menu will appear.
To complete the manufacturing process, mark the operation as done or open the manufacturing order and click the Produce All button in the top left corner. By doing this, the chair will show as manufactured and ready to be delivered to the client.
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