Who is best placed to improve day-to-day work? The employees concerned, of course.

In addition to improving your production process or parts list (key words Kaizen and KVP) and the associated cost reduction, a culture of improvement by employees has another advantage - it motivates your employees to make their own suggestions and to be heard.
Odoo shares this opinion and therefore offers the necessary functions for this. We would be happy to advise you on this and then implement the solution with you.

Immerse yourself in the "Product life cycle" module with us, production employee Maria and her supervisor Manuel!

1. Technical requirements

You need the Product Lifecycle app, which automatically adds the dependent apps Workshop, Production, Warehouse and Employees to your Odoo during installation. In addition, the following settings are required to configure in the user rights .

• ​The production employee needs the "Administrator" role in the production app.
• The production employee needs the "User" role for the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) app.
• Someone with "PLM: Admin" rights has already configured the stages of change proposals correctly. In our case, this means that it has been defined that the implementation of a change in production requires the approval of the supervisor and cannot simply be carried out independently by Maria:
  

2. Rückmeldung aus der Sicht von Maria in der Produktion

Maria: Ich fertige Tische an und schraube im Rahmen dessen die Tischbeine mit Winkeln an den Tisch. Zudem fixiere ich für mehr Stabilität einen Rahmen unten an den Tisch. Diesen Rahmen schraube ich mit einem Imbus fest, da er mit Innensechskantschrauben gehalten wird. Die Tischbeine hingegen mit Kreuzschrauben. Es kostet mich jedes Mal Zeit, das Werkzeug zu wechseln und eigentlich könnten wir uns eines der Werkzeuge sogar ganz sparen, wenn wir dieselben Schrauben benutzen würden. In Odoo kann ich diese Idee ganz einfach weitergeben an die Arbeitsvorbereitung bzw. den Produktionsleiter.

Dazu gehen wir in die App "PLM" und folgen dem Link zu Stücklistenaktualisierungen. Alternativ direkt aus der App "Fertigung" in der Tabletansicht (V16) oder aus der App "Werkstatt" (V17). Seit Odoo 17 setzt dies voraus, dass auch die App "Qualität" installiert ist, da diese die Arbeitsschritte stellt.

In unserem Beispiel gehen wir über das Modul "PLM", wählen die entsprechende Stückliste und starten die Revision:

The smart button takes us to the new revision V2:

We come to a parts list that is currently still archived, where we change the parts as we think makes more sense. In our case, we remove the hexagon socket screws and instead add 8 more Phillips screws to the existing 12 or simply note 8 more Phillips screws on the list instead of 8 hexagon socket screws:

We then set the change proposal to "In process" and the supervisor automatically receives an activity that they should approve or reject:

3. Steps from the supervisor's perspective

We have now received an activity for PLM:

We see what has been proposed for change and can approve or reject it. After approval, we have to inform the employee and she can then continue the process. Feel free to ask us about automating this step.

As soon as the new parts list comes into effect, Odoo archives the previous one and unarchives the new parts list, making it valid. All changes can be tracked in the Engineering Change Order via the "Parts list changes" tab:

4. Special feature for several change requests at the same time

Odoo thinks ahead and has made provisions for the case that several changes to a bill of materials come into effect at the same time and would confuse the bill of materials in this way:

The new BOM that is approved first forms the basis for the second change request. This is not immediately visible in the BOM of the change request, but as soon as the status is to be changed from "validated" to "in force", Odoo notices that a change has already taken place and renames the action from "Apply changes" to "Apply rebasing", which would replace the "new old" parts list.

In addition, the tab "Previous part list changes to the change request" appears, which was not previously visible:

An example for more clarity: A parts list so far contains a bicycle frame and two wheels. Employee A suggests adding a saddle. Employee B adds a handlebar. Both suggest it at the same time and both have the two-part parts list with frame and wheels at the time of their idea. A's saddle is approved first and as soon as the supervisor wants to approve B's handlebars, he sees the "Rebasing" button and the new tab with previous changes. There he sees that a saddle has already been added. He confirms "Apply rebasing" and the new parts list with the saddle, but previously without handlebars, becomes valid (and the parts list revision is increased accordingly). The order still has the status "Validated" and the button at the top is now called "Apply changes" again, which, when clicked, adds the handlebars and completes the new parts list with now 4 parts.

5. Further useful tips

Do you want to offer a bonus for the employees who have submitted the most suggestions and need information for this? 
Use the module's reporting function for this. You can display statistics both as a pivot and as a graphical evaluation:

Und falls Ihnen die beiden Standardmöglichkeiten “Stücklistenaktualisierungen” und “Produkt-Neueinführung” nicht ausreichen, können Sie unter “Konfiguration” auch neue Änderungsauftragsarten ergänzen. Odoo ermöglicht zudem, die Phasen flexibel festzulegen. Standard sind “Neu”, “In Bearbeitung”, “Validiert” sowie “In Kraft”, aber Ergänzungen, Löschungen und Umbenennungen sind möglich. Außerdem kann pro Auftragsart eine E-Mail Adresse vergeben werden, sodass die Mitarbeiter Vorschläge auch durch Mails einreichen können.

6. Unterschiede von Odoo 16 zu Odoo 17

Das Beispiel in diesem Blogartikel ist basierend auf Odoo 17. In Odoo 16 ist für das Einbringen von Änderungen aus der Fertigung heraus nicht die App "Qualität" notwendig, da in dieser Version für eine Änderung kein dazugehöriger Qualitätskontrollpunkt gewählt werden muss:

This triggers the corresponding PLM.

In Odoo 17, as things stand today, the "Quality" module must also be installed for this, because a quality point (which must be assigned to a specific work step) must be selected for the change proposal.

7. Conclusion

With the right settings, Odoo supports your idea management, saves costs and also motivates your employees. Even if Odoo 17 is still in the process of perfecting the link between production and the product life cycle, the participation options for production employees in Odoo nevertheless promote idea management in your company.

Are you looking for an efficient PLM system? Contact now our PLM experts to make the most of your production.

Quellen: www.odoo.com, www.theprojectgroup.com, www.forcam.com