Hello,
I’m evaluating ERPnext as a possible solution for our company. I’m having trouble understanding what is classified as a “Material request”. In V6 I just assumed it was what I considered an RFQ, but in the V7 beta there is now an RFQ form seperate from a Material request form.
Could someone please explain to me the uses of a Material Request form and the uses of an RFQ form as far as ERPnext uses them?
Thank you, this is a great community!
@Dbone welcome to ERPNext!
Material Request is an internal document, raised automatically (based on re-order) or MRP or manually by someone within your organization.
Request for quote is sent to suppliers to ask for their quotes.
Thank you for your reply! Still confused however. Who are you requesting material from if it’s an internal document? If you’re out of material then that request would be to a supplier right? Isn’t it then technically an RFQ if the supplier responds with a quote? What did people do for the last 6 versions of ERPnext to request a quote from a potential supplier? I must be missing something here, sorry.
Here’s my company’s potential use case:
We are an engineering firm that design parts for the marine industry. Our assemblies are manufactured on a make to order basis (not stocked) and always include a few custom parts and many pre-designed parts. Currently we outsource all the manufacturing, and different suppliers will produce a part and are required to send it to the next supplier down the list. We do quality checks, but the product is never sent to us. Another supplier does final assembly and it’s sent directly to the client after that.
Soon (but not yet) we will be doing some manufacturing in house of some of those components.
So our business is largely outside purchasing and management, and component prices can vary on every job. Suppliers are required to quote even if we use them every time and for the same parts.
Is this type of business possible to manage in ERPnext v6? Possible with v7? Customization is an option but I’d like most of the functionality there OOTB.
Thanks for your help!
A Material Request internally lets you know that you need a certain quantity of specific parts. This is very useful and distinct from a Request for Quotation because an RFQ is only needed if you don’t know what you’re going to pay for it / who is going to pay. Previous to v7, there was no form to send suppliers to obtain a quotation. There were (and still are) the Supplier Quotation docs, which enter the costs for items from various suppliers into the system. The MR’s are effectively used to tell various departments what you need. For example, your Sales team might create a Sales Order, which is then examined by your Manufacturing team, who determines what parts need to get ordered / produced (using the Production Planning Tool and BOMs). The MR’s are created for all those parts, and your Purchasing team can now see what parts they need to order.
From the sounds of it, your requirements can be handled by ERPNext. You can use the Manufacturing module to create BOMs of each of the assemblies that are made. The challenge that you’ll have to figure out how to keep track of the multi-step manufacturing that goes from one supplier to another without going to your own facility. I think you can do that by setting up warehouses for each of your suppliers, and using the supply raw materials option for those parts.
I’d suggest setting up a test case on a virtual machine or test server so that you can figure out how it needs to be set up.
Thank you for the very clear explanation. It sounds like V6 won’t do the job for us, but V7 might. Go V7!
I’m working with an online trial of V6 currently. I’ll see if I can set up a virtual machine of V7 to test.
I have some questions now about how the new RFQ system will work, but I’ll start a new thread.
Thanks again!