Terminologies

  • Warehouse: A warehouse in Odoo is a location where you store products. It is either a physical or a virtual warehouse. It could be a store or a repository.

  • Location: Locations are used to structure storage zones within a warehouse. In addition to internal locations (your warehouse), Odoo has locations for suppliers, customers, inventory loss counter-parts, etc.

  • Lots: Lots are a batch of products identified with a unique barcode or serial number. All items of a lot are from the same product. (e.g. a set of 24 bottle) Usually, lots come from manufacturing order batches or procurements.

  • Serial Number: A serial number is a unique identifier of a specific product. Technically, serial numbers are similar to having a lot of 1 unique item.

  • Unit of Measure: Define how the quantity of products is expressed. Meters, Pounds, Pack of 24, Kilograms,… Unit of measure of the same category (ex: size) can be converted to each others (m, cm, mm) using a fixed ratio.

  • Consumable: A product for which you do not want to manage the inventory level (no quantity on hand or forecasted) but that you can receive and deliver. When this product is needed Odoo suppose that you always have enough stock.

  • Stockable: A product for which you want to manage the inventory level.

  • Package: A package contains several products (identified by their serial number/lots or not). Example: a box containing knives and forks.

  • Procurement: A procurement is a request for a specific quantity of products to a specific location. Procurement are automatically triggered by other documents: Sale orders, Minimum Stock Rules, and Procurement rules. You can trigger the procurement manually. When procurements are triggered automatically, you should always pay attention for the exceptions (e.g. a product should be purchased from a vendor, but no supplier is defined).

  • Routes: Routes define paths the product must follow. Routes may be applicable or not, depending on the products, sales order lines, warehouse,… To fulfill a procurement, the system will search for rules belonging to routes that are defined in the related product/sale order.

  • Push Rules: Push rules trigger when products enter a specific location. They automatically move the product to a new location. Whether a push rule can be used depends on applicable routes.

  • Procurement Rules or Pull Rules: Procurement rules describe how procurements on specific locations should be fulfilled e.g.: where the product should come from (source location), whether the procurement is MTO or MTS,…

  • Procurement Group: Routes and rules define inventory moves. For every rule, a document type is provided: Picking, Packing, Delivery Order, Purchase Order,… Moves are grouped within the same document type if their procurement group and locations are the same.

  • Stock Moves: Stock moves represent the transit of goods and materials between locations.

  • Quantity On Hand: The quantity of a specific product that is currently in a warehouse or location.

  • Forecasted Quantity: The quantity of products you can sell for a specific warehouse or location. It is defined as the Quantity on Hand - Future Delivery Orders + Future incoming shipments + Future manufactured units.

  • Reordering Rules: It defines the conditions for Odoo to automatically trigger a request for procurement (buying at a supplier or launching a manufacturing order). It is triggered when the forecasted quantity meets the minimum stock rule.

  • Cross-Dock: Cross-docking is a practice in the logistics of unloading materials from an incoming semi-trailer truck or railroad car and loading these materials directly into outbound trucks, trailers, or rail cars, with no storage in between. (does not go to the stock, directly from incoming to packing zone)

  • Drop-Shipping: move products from the vendor/manufacturer directly to the customer (could be retailer or consumer) without going through the usual distribution channels. Products are sent directly from the vendor to the customer, without passing through your own warehouse.

  • Removal Strategies: the strategy to use to select which product to pick for a specific operation. Example: FIFO, LIFO, FEFO.

  • Putaway Strategies: the strategy to use to decide in which location a specific product should be set when arriving somewhere. (example: cables goes in rack 3, storage A)

  • Scrap: A product that is broken or outdated. Scrapping a product removes it from the stock.