Odoo Manufacturing module setup for Bangladesh factories — the complete guide.

The Manufacturing module is the centre of gravity for every factory Odoo deployment I run in Bangladesh. Get it right and everything downstream — inventory, costing, procurement, and financial reporting — flows naturally. Get it wrong and you end up with ghost stock, unclosed Manufacturing Orders, and a costing engine producing numbers nobody trusts.

This guide walks through the setup sequence I use in every engagement: prerequisites, Bill of Materials types, Work Center configuration, routing, and the Manufacturing Order lifecycle. Where relevant, I've noted Bangladesh-specific nuances — particularly for RMG, textile, and export manufacturing contexts.

BoMs are the single source of truth. If the BoM is wrong, every MO, cost, and stock move is wrong.

What the Manufacturing module covers (and what it doesn't)

Odoo's Manufacturing module (technically MRP — Material Requirements Planning) handles:

• Bill of Materials (BoM) — the recipe: what goes into making a finished product
• Work Centers — physical production resources (machines, lines, teams)
• Operations & Routing — the sequence of tasks from raw material to finished goods
• Manufacturing Orders (MO) — the actual production instruction document
• Scrap & Rework — recording material losses and rejected output
• Work Orders — task-level instructions for each Work Center (Enterprise only)

What it does not handle without additional configuration:

• Quality control — needs the Quality module (Enterprise)
• Maintenance scheduling — separate Maintenance module
• Advanced capacity planning — uses Work Center working hours but is not a full production scheduler
• Subcontracting — requires specific BoM type and vendor setup

Prerequisites & module activation

Before activating Manufacturing, confirm the following are already configured:

1. Inventory module configured — product categories, units of measure, warehouses, and storage locations must be defined. Manufacturing moves stock; if your inventory structure is wrong, MOs will post to the wrong locations.
2. Units of Measure enabled — Settings → Inventory → Units of Measure. Critical for Bangladesh factories where fabric is bought in meters but consumed per-unit, or chemicals bought in litres but used in grams.
3. Product variants enabled (if needed) — Settings → Inventory → Variants. Essential for RMG and garment factories where the same product has multiple sizes and colours with shared BoMs.
4. Costing method decided — AVCO (Average Cost) for most Bangladesh manufacturers. FIFO if you're ISO-certified and need lot-level cost traceability. Set at the product category level before any stock moves. Changing it later is painful. See my inventory valuation guide for the full decision tree.
5. Manufacturing module activated — Apps → Manufacturing → Install. This also installs MRP. For Enterprise users, verify that MRP v2 features appear under Settings → Manufacturing.

Bill of Materials setup

The BoM is the foundation of every manufacturing transaction. Every MO, cost roll-up, and procurement trigger derives from it. A BoM defines: what you make, what you consume to make it, and how many of each component per unit of output.

BoM types

Creating a BoM — step by step

Go to Manufacturing → Products → Bills of Materials → New.

1. Set the product — select the finished product. If variants are enabled, you can set a BoM for all variants or a specific one (e.g., "Polo Shirt — White, XL"). For variant-specific quantities (different fabric consumption by size), use the same BoM template and set component quantity by attribute.
2. Set BoM type — "Manufacture" for standard in-house production.
3. Set quantity — the BoM quantity should typically be 1 unit. Odoo scales component consumption proportionally when you produce larger quantities in an MO. Setting BoM quantity to 100 (for batch costing) is a common mistake — it works but confuses operators and auditors.
4. Add components — list every raw material consumed per unit. For a garment: fabric (2.5 m), thread (200 m), buttons (8 pcs), label (1 pcs), poly bag (1 pcs). Set the correct UoM for each. Check that UoMs match how these items are stored in your warehouse — mismatches cause stock valuation errors.
5. Set operations (if routing enabled) — link each component to the operation where it is consumed. This enables Work Order-level component tracking. Optional but highly recommended for multi-step production lines.
6. Save and confirm — once live, the BoM drives every MO for this product. Changes apply only to new MOs, not in-progress ones.

Multi-level BoMs (Enterprise)

If your factory makes sub-assemblies before final assembly — for example, a cycle manufacturer who welds frames before painting — you need multi-level BoMs. The finished product BoM references a semi-finished product (the frame), which itself has a BoM. When Odoo explodes the MO, it creates sub-MOs for each level. This is an Enterprise-only feature under MRP v2.

Work Centers & capacity

A Work Center represents a physical production resource: a machine, a production line, a finishing table, or a team. Work Centers have capacity measured in hours per day and are the foundation of work order scheduling.

Creating Work Centers

Manufacturing → Configuration → Work Centers → New. Key fields:

Operations & routing

An Operation is a task — cutting, stitching, washing, finishing. A Routing is the ordered sequence of Operations that transforms raw materials into a finished product. Routing is an Enterprise-only feature and must be enabled in Settings → Manufacturing → Work Orders.

Creating Operations

Manufacturing → Configuration → Operations → New. For each operation, set:

• Name — what the task is: "Cutting", "Stitching – Body", "Stitching – Sleeve", "Finishing", "QC Inspection", "Packing"
• Default Work Center — which machine or line performs this operation by default
• Duration Computation — "Based on Real Time" (workers log actual time) or "Set Duration" (fixed standard time per unit). Use "Set Duration" initially; migrate to real-time tracking once operators are trained.
• Default Duration (minutes) — standard time per unit produced. E.g., "Stitching – Body": 4 minutes per shirt.

Adding routing to a BoM

Open the BoM → Operations tab → Add a line for each operation in the production sequence. Odoo creates Work Orders automatically when an MO is confirmed — one Work Order per Operation per Manufacturing Order.

Manufacturing Order lifecycle

The Manufacturing Order (MO) is the operational document that drives daily production. Here is the full lifecycle:

Bangladesh factory pitfalls

After setting up Manufacturing for factories across RMG, textiles, and cycle export, these are the most consistent errors I encounter:

For the cost implications of getting this wrong at go-live, see my notes on the real cost of a bad ERP go-live in Bangladesh manufacturing. The pattern is consistent: good setup costs one week of consultant time; fixing a bad setup costs three months and a re-implementation. If you're still scoping the budget, the Odoo cost estimator gives a quick range for a Bangladesh manufacturing deployment.

Frequently asked questions

Does Odoo Community include the Manufacturing module?

Yes — Odoo Community includes a basic Manufacturing module (MRP v1) with BoMs, MOs, and simple scrap. Odoo Enterprise adds MRP v2: Work Order tracking, multi-level BoM explosion, OEE dashboard, unbuild orders, and the shop-floor tablet interface. Most Bangladesh factories with multiple production steps benefit from Enterprise's routing features.

How do I set up a Bill of Materials for garment manufacturing?

Go to Manufacturing → Products → Bills of Materials → New. Set the finished product (e.g., "Men's Polo Shirt"), select "Manufacture" as the BoM type, and add component lines for each material: fabric (meters), thread (meters), buttons (pcs), label (pcs), poly bag (pcs). For size variants with different fabric consumption, use a single BoM template with component quantity set by variant attribute.

What is the difference between a Work Center and an Operation in Odoo?

A Work Center is a physical resource — a machine, a production line, or a team. An Operation is a task performed at that Work Center: cutting, stitching, finishing. A Routing links Operations to Work Centers in sequence. Work Centers have capacity (hours/day and parallel operators); Operations have standard duration per unit produced.

How does Odoo handle production variances?

When you close an MO with a produced quantity different from the planned quantity, Odoo offers two options: create a backorder (for the remaining quantity to be produced later) or close the shortfall immediately. Component consumption is proportionally adjusted to the actual quantity produced. Cost variances (actual consumption vs. BoM standard) are visible in the Production Variance report — critical for profitability tracking in Bangladesh manufacturing.