Enhancing the Manufacturing Module

ERPNext Manufacturing
8

I have a couple of issues in Github already (which Rmehta has shared) for the manufacturing module, but I think overall @Ben_Cornwell_Mott has nailed it.

More advanced and flexible production scheduling based on all the the information that’s already in the system is the way forward for ERPNext Manufacturing. ERPNext is a fantastic database that generates excellent reports on static data, but good scheduling is fluid, adaptable, and integrated with all departments. Also, easy visibility is a must. The new Gantt chart will be very useful.

1 Like
9

I believe basic Bin/Shelf/Location information would be useful for stock entry. When doing a production order, I would like to print out the order with the BOM material needed, the amount per item, the Bin/Shelf/Location where this item is stored, and instructions on how to create the product.

10

Hi Jay Ram

I wish to have offline manufacturing execution system

11

Related to the above is ERPNext: Git / Github for Open Source Hardware -- Call For Beta User(s) (“ERPNext: Git / Github for Open Source Hardware – Call For Beta User(s) – Announcement”)

12

Another tack on determining mainstream requirements is to do a gap analysis of an existing ERP package focused on manufacturing. The documents below can provide details on one such package – DBA Software.

If this enhancement exercise moves forward, I would be happy to lead or assist with the gap analysis of ERPNext versus DBA Software.

13

I’ve posted that requirement some time ago:

14

I’m not totally sure if our request falls well in the “Manufacturing” module, so please let me know if doesn’t.

What we are usually doing in spreadsheets and would be great to have in ERPNext is a BOM comparison (as in the attachment). Hope it’s self-explanatory

bom comparison.png690×949 96 KB

15

Ok, where to go from here? Many issues have been raised for the manufacturing module, what is the best way forward now?

Perhaps making a list of all the issues raised, creating Github issues for each one (if not already done), tagging them all “manufacturing”, and starting a bounty on the whole lot?

16

@Dbone & all: There are a whole bunch of good suggestions on the manufacturing module. I am going to sit and compile all inputs and my thoughts together and present to the community my first cut approach by Monday, Jan 9.

We will then seek inputs from the community for another week and then come up with the roadmap for the manufacturing module. Yes, bounty seems to be the best way of going about it.

Thanks

Jay

1 Like
17

I think a custom report should be able to help you achieve this. @UmaG can you please guide @strixaluco about how to go about creating a custom report for their needs?

Thanks

Jay

1 Like
18

Hi @strixaluco,

I have done some similar reports on BOM through using custom script reports. You can take a look at them and change your code accordingly… nhance/nhance/nhance/report/bom_item_warehouse at master · umaepoch/nhance · GitHub

Regards
Uma

2 Likes
19

Thanks a lot for sharing your report, @JayRam and @UmaG, I’ll try to tweak it for our needs.

21

@UmaG @JayRam why not add it as a contribution :slight_smile:

1 Like
22

Hi Rushabh @rmehta

We would love to add this as a contribution. Can you please tell us how to go about it? Have never done it before.

Thanks
Uma

23

@Boston_Nyer: Have no worries about using ERPNext for manufacturing. While there are challenges, for the type of operation you described, you should not have a lot of problems managing manufacturing for your organization.

Happy to help and provide you my inputs if you think it will help.

All of us subscribe to @rushabh_mehta’s and Frappe’s philosophy, that just because ERPNext is OpenSource, it shouldn’t be benchmarked against the best.

So our honest posts on this thread is to make an already good product great, when it comes to it’s suitability in manufacturing organizations.

Please proceed on implementing ERPNext, I’m sure it will work very well for your organization.

Thanks

Jay

24

GitHub has a lot of documentation you can look at! Might take a couple of hours to understand, but it will be worth the investment.

25

Hi @JayRam, the company I work for has been looking at several ERP solutions and we’re pretty sure that we want to go with ERPNext, but the manufacturing module in its current state isn’t flexible enough for our processes. I don’t have a complete list of all my requirements for improving it yet, but I know that we’re interested in sponsoring development to improve the manufacturing module so it can become a workable solution for us.

I think the biggest thing we’d like to see improved is more flexibility in allocating materials to a production order. Most ERP solutions I’ve been demoing allow you to allocate materials to a production order without forcing you to specify the quantity of product you plan to produce with said materials (in other words, you can partially build products). In addition, most solutions will let you remove materials without having to cancel the stock entry and add back in what you didn’t remove. They will also calculate what raw materials are still needed for the order when making a stock entry. And lastly, I think it would be really useful if you’re able to see at a glance on the production order screen the quantities of raw materials you’ve already pulled for an order (and potentially what’s remaining), similar to how stock levels work on the item screen.

26

Thank you @JayRam, greatly appreciated. I’ll be in touch if we have any
further questions while we make our decision.

1 Like
27

@corbincavolt: I feel your pain. For a company into building made to order equipment, the way I have over come this issue is to create virtual warehouses called ProductionStation1, 2,… We designate a Production Station as the virtual warehouse for a particular project. This warehouse will only be used for this project and nothing else. Till the project is complete and the project debriefing is conducted and the follow up action from the debriefing is completed, we use this Production Station only for this project.

@umag has helped us create a custom report that lists the stock availability of a given BoM. We use this report to plan procurement of materials. Then we drop all materials that are required for the manufacture of this item (as per BoM) into this Production Station (which is, like I said, a virtual warehouse). The BoM Stock Report, when you select the BoM and the Production Station warehouse will tell you whether you have already issued raw material and components for manufacturing a particular component/assembly.

As sub assemblies are manufactured, we “consume” the raw material/components necessary to make that sub assembly.

As, seemblie3s are made and the product is built, you could have two situations:

  1. A component that is needed is not issued into the Production Station - When this happens, the manufacturing entry for the assembly/product cannot be submitted as ERPNext will say that component is not there in stock. You do a quick investigation and figure out whether the operators, managed to lay their hands on the component, say on the shop floor, or whether the BoM was wrong and didn’t really need this component. Or that the stores incharge missed out making an entry for this component. If the BoM is wrong you correct the BoM for the next time and boom you have a self healing, self correcting organization.

  2. There are left over raw material or components once the project is manufactured. This could indicate that there was (a) Bad quality and operators needed to draw the raw material or component again, (b) The Raw Material or component is not really required (Correct the BoM) - this will be indicated by those excess raw material/components being available at the Production Station for return to stores), (c) Or that the operators missed including this raw material/component in the product (boom you have a self correcting process).

Now the custom report that @umag created is at the BoM level, with slight tweaking, you can do a similar report for the Production Order and that will help you manage your manufacturing reasonably elegantly, till we enhance the manufacturing module. Uma can help you if you need any assistance.

This approach should work for all types of manufacturing: Projects, Machines, Assembly Lines, Process Industries, etc. with only slight modifications.

I agree that these are mere workarounds and the manufacturing module needs to take care of the realities of the shop floor. We are actively working to enhance the manufacturing module and it would take months or quarters and this approach should help you reduce complexity in the interim.

We DEFINITELY DO need to enhance the manufacturing module, so your (and everybody’s) contributions in terms of intellect, time, resources and money will help us kick SAP’s (nothing personal against SAP, but it is the poster child of the big, bad, expensive ERP) butt!!

3 Likes
28

@JayRam, I think that your work around makes a lot of sense, and actually has a lot of similarities to how we physically handle orders. All the items that we have in stock that are going to be used for an order go in a bin that’s only used for that order.

That custom report looks pretty neat (I’m assuming it looks similar to what @UmaG posted above). If I understand it correctly, it looks like it has pretty similar functionality in figuring out which raw materials you’re missing as we’d like to have in the manufacturing module.

Ideally, since the plan for us is to hold off implementation until at least the core issues are resolved, I’d at least like to get those issues resolved sooner rather than later (so we don’t have to start off with work arounds), and then continue to improve the system.