A Bill of Materials is a document defining the quantity of each component required to
manufacture a finished product. It also includes the routing and individual steps of the
manufacturing process.
With Odoo, you can link multiple BoMs to each product and use it to describe multiple variants
of them. Each BoM will, yet, be associated with one product only.
This feature will help optimize your manufacturing process while saving you time.
Setting up a BoM
You can use BoMs without routings. You will use this if you choose to manage your
manufacturing operations using manufacturing orders only. In other words, you choose to realize
your manufacturing process in one step and do not track the steps the product goes through.
Before creating your BoM, you have to create the product using the BoM and, at least, one of the
components. Go to the Master Data menu ‣ Products and create both the finished product and the
component.
Once done, go to the Bills of Materials menu under Master Data. Now, create it. Choose the
product from the dropdown menu and add your components and the quantity. In this case, keep
the default BoM type, which is Manufacture this Product.
Using the same BoM to describe Variants
As said above, you can use BoM for Product Variants. It is basically the same as for the standard
product.
If your BoM is for one variant only, then specify which one in the Product Variant field. If not,
specify the variant it is consumed for on each component line. You can add several variants for
each component.
Adding a routing
You can add routing to your BoM. You will do this if you need to define a series of operations
required by your manufacturing process. To use it, enable the Work Orders feature in
the Manufacturing app settings.
Note
Each BoM can have only one routing while each routing can be used multiple times.
Now that you have created your routing, add it to your BoM. You can select when, in the work
operations, your components are consumed with the dropdown menu.
Adding By-Products
In Odoo, a by-product is any product produced by a BoM in addition to the primary product.
To add by-products to a BoM, you will first need to enable them from the Manufacturing app
settings.
Once the feature is enabled, you can add your By-Products to your BoMs. You can add as
many By-Products as you want. Just keep in mind that you need to register during which
operation your by-product is produced.