V15: How to manage production of multiple identical serial tracked items in parallel

I'm trying to figure out the best workflow for managing our manufacturing operations. Ideally, I would be able to create a MO for say qty 5 of a product, pick the components for all 5 products in one batch, then assign 5 serial numbers, then assemble the 5 units in parallel. What I mean by that is be able to confirm (enter done qty) each line for each of the 5 units simultaneously.

Currently it seems I have to assign s/n for the first product, then confirm all the lines, then mark done (it creates backorder for remaining qty), then move onto second unit. But that's not how we work. I have 5 product on the bench in front of me being assembled in parallel (adding each component to all 5 simultaneously).

Is there a way to 'split' a MO after confirming it so that I can create one master MO for the desired qty, then have it create child MOs for each actual unit (or something like that)? Somewhat like creating all the backordered MOs up-front instead of as each unit is produced.

In your BOM you could create 2 operations to reflect your current process of 1. recording all s/n for MO qty and 2nd the assembly operation itself

Critical to provide the 1st operation for each component in the 'consumed in operation' field, if left blank the consumed qty would only be recorded in the last operation.

the MO would create 1 operation for recording all s/n (components as well as product), once completed it would create 1 work order for each product for the 2nd operation.

In essence it does create backorders/ separate MO for each product qty produced, albeit automatically. Furthermore on the backorders you also have the ability to change the work center if you wish to record utilization of WorkCentre.

Author

Hi Jaideep,

Interesting, I am not too familiar with operations/work centers so I hadn't concidered this approach. It's not clear to me though, will this method create the backorders for the first step as well (recording serials)? This is the part that's critical: I need to be able to generate the multiple product serials up-front, then start assigning components to each in parallel. I can't assign all components to one product serial, then move on to the next.

No, the 1st operation would create 1 work order, where you can provide the s/n for all of the products being produced.

The back orders are created only on completion of that work order.

From the screenshot below you can see the MO number and product qty (backorders have a suffix of -001 and qty 1)

I didn't test if the back orders are created if only 1 component s/n is provided in the 1st operation while other components are provided in the subsequent operations.

Seems you are looking for providing component s/n in subsequent operation

Managed to test the scenario where the 'consumed in operation' is set to 2nd operation. You can then record only the s/n of all the products in 1st operation and the components s/n during assembly. precisely your requirement

Matt

so... why not split the MO from 1MO=5PCS to 1MO=1PCS x5 before you start processing?

This then allows you to assign SN for each MO individually (by import) or create new one when you open different work orders separately.

I have similar situation when I need production order for 1000 pcs but there are few people working on the manufacturing in the same time, so for them not to mix the serial numbers between their orders we split the MO first to 1pcs each and assign SN from the start.

Author

That's exactly my question ... how do I 'split' the MO into 5x MOs without having to manually do it (with duplicate I guess)?

We also often need to substitute parts on a MO and doing that on 5x individual MOs is a royal pain, it would be much better if there remained a master MO for 5x units, where we can edit it in one place, pick with one picking, and then just allocate 5x serials and specify which components go to which serial from the one MO.

Matt

Hi Devin,
I'm not sure if I understand all the details...
1. you create MO for 5 PCS with a given BOM (in BOM you have "basic" components you need to use). Sometime you need to add other parts to product you are producing outside of BOM?
2. are those 'additional' parts always the same? (mening if you have limited set of those parts, maybe you should then make few BOM's for this 1 product?)
3. you need to assign 5 specific SN's to those 5 orders - can this be done with SN generator (next number in series) that is build in to odoo? You assign first SN - for example SerNum001 and with the "+" icon you will generate SerNum002, etc

you can split MO with some external module (unfortunately paid) or create some code using build in MRP function called _split_productions() (in odoo / addons / mrp / models / mrp_production.py) as we did in our company. If you need further details let me know.

btw - v16 will have that build in :)

Author

Hi Matt,
The 'additional' parts are often 'substitute' parts and they are not always the same. I really wish there was a way to easily substitute one part for another but alas it requires adding a new part and setting demand for old part to 0.

Yes, I just saw last week that v16 has MO splitting built-in so I will wait for that to be rolled out and then hopefully that does what I need. I'd prefer to avoid customization (and especially 3rd party modules) if I can.

Matt

Devin,
in v15 you can also split the MO but you need some coding to be done (I guess). The MRP module have the "create backorder" kind of function build in, but checking v16 first seems like a better option for you if you don't wan to code or add custom modules.

for sutstitutes/lternatives - you can allow users to add other parts if they need in: Settings > Manufacturing > Unlock Manufacturing Orders

then they can add what they want (and that is actually a problem since they can add anything you have in your products).

You can try to experiment with BOM's with '0' quantity - so the product will be on the list when clicking through the MO.

great thing is you can play a little with odoo v16 under demo.odoo.com

Looks to me that you should use LOT number and not serial number. If you have 5 units with same identity for tracing, then Lot number works best. Serial number will give each unit a unique serial number by default.

Author

I should have specified that the components on the MO are themselves serial/lot tracked so we need final assembled product to also be serial tracked so we can explicitly know what serial/lot went into each produced product.

We do this all time. With tracking of lot numbers from raw material incoming, using semifinished product with lot number, and lot numbers on finished product. Tracing works elegant. Full traceability from finished lot number back to vendor lot number.

Try switch from serial numbers to lot number. As you want 5 pcs to have the same tracing, lot number will give you that.

There will be a new backorder for each new lot number. But if you use operations and confirm with the shop floor screen, you will have a continues flow, comfirm one lot number of 5, then the next 5 with new lot number etc, until you have processes the full quantity of the original manufacturing order. The backorders will be created in the background, and you will nealry not notice that it is done.

Author

Right, but then I end up with say qty 5 of one lot number in inventory. When I get an order for qty 1 of this product, I have no way of knowing which one was shipped to them (since they are only identified by lot that is not unique). So I'd randomly pick one from inventory, and then randomly pick one in Odoo as that one, and it is incredibly unlikely that the one I picked matches the one in Odoo. The goal here being that in the future I use traceability to see exactly the serials/lots of specific components that where shipped in a product to customer. Impossible to do without serials on the final product.

If you need tracing on every item, you must use serial number. Lot can identify a group of items. Whatever you need, you should label the products with lo / serial number, so you identify correct number during picking.
If you use workcenter and operations, the confirmation of one and one for serial number flows nice. You need press confirm for each and they will be assigned a serial number. And you should get perfect tracing back to you vendor serial numbers.

Author

I'm well aware that I have to use serial numbers - the question wasn't whether to use serials or lots. It's how to minimize overhead of producing multiple serial tracked products in parallel. I'd love to be able to create a single MO for multiple quantity, then be able to work on each product in that MO in parallel. For example, our BOMs can contain 100 unique components, dozens of which are serial and lot tracked. I'd like to pick a few components for producing multiple units in one picking (remaining components backordered in picking), then assign them to a few different builds as we're building them (in parallel), then go back and pick a few more things, assign to multiple builds, etc. Then at the end finalize each build (or all together). Instead, currently if we try to do this, we much completely finish the first build before we can even start allocating picked components to a build. This means now I have to keep track of what went were somewhere else until it is entered into Odoo. This is horrible so instead I have settled on only ever making MOs for qty 1 and just working on them all separately. But that means if I need to make a change (e.g. substitute one component for another) I have to duplicate the change to every MO which is a big pain.