[Best Practice] what is the best way to create items for made to order manufacturing

ERPNext Stock/Inventory
, ,
1

Creation of items is most fundamental to any manufacturing ERP.
What are the best practices that community should take care while creating Items.
Personally I am apprehensive of blowing up the list of item too big or too inflexible or too loose.

I am looking forward of experiences of anyone using ERPNEXT for made to order manufacturing products.

I would rather keep this topic open for any perspective on items. (Say permissions, automation, rules, taxonomy etc…)

2
3
4

I implemented the following solution for one client

  1. Batch create Item, Supplier, Item Price and BOM based on Excel file with all the necessary info, in business term this excel file is a kind of quotation with BOM detail and sourcing info.
    1.1 if Item Code in Excel file, check Item exist,

  2. Added supplier into BOM item Doctype,

  3. Added Create Purchase Order custom button to Work Order form, batch create purchase orders (supplier from BOM item)against the work order, just like create purchase order for sales order.

5

Please do post some screenshots of your solution for the non-developers here.

6

Is there just one Made to Order Item - like say a project that gets delivered for the client? Or are there a whole bunch of items that are all Made to Order? What are the Invoice Items? How does the client expect the items to be invoiced? Is it enough for you to get Project P&L? Or do you need valuations of each Made to Order item?

I think different situations will require different way of architecting the item master.

A client of mine has separate Item Codes for the Invoice Items. We also setup the Project Code as an Item so that the BOM becomes easier to manage.

If it is just a Project that is getting delivered, with a different combination of input materials/components, it’s easier to setup a separate item for deliverable.

Hope this helps.

Thanks

Jay

7

@JayRam, What you think would be best approaches for the combinations you mentioned.

to be specific in let me take the case of one of our product categories: we make mechanical structures based on customer specifications which are unique to each order. That way you may call it more like a engineered-to-order.

Is there just one Made to Order Item - like say a project that gets delivered for the client?

Mostly, 1 but some times Invoice items could be in sets of these unique-to-individual purchase order items. Yes mostly we treat them like a project.

Or are there a whole bunch of items that are all Made to Order?

not whole bunch of items

What are the Invoice Items? How does the client expect the items to be invoiced?

those made to order items and some accessories. Client expect as per the purchase order which contains the specification of unique made to order item.

Is it enough for you to get Project P&L? Or do you need valuations of each Made to Order item?

valuations of each

What you suggest @JayRam