Odoo MRP rollout cuts manual inventory work by 40% for a mid-market manufacturer
A discrete manufacturer with three production lines ran stock control across spreadsheets and a legacy accounting package. Physical counts never matched the books, and purchasing routinely over-ordered. We deployed Odoo Inventory, MRP, and Purchase on one database with barcode receiving on the shop floor.
Composite case study — outcomes and figures are representative of typical Core Trust engagements, with client details anonymised. Named references available on request.
The challenge
- •Stock levels lived in spreadsheets that were reconciled manually once a month, so buyers worked from data that was up to four weeks old.
- •Bills of materials existed only in the production manager's files, making it impossible to cost a job accurately before quoting.
- •Purchase orders were raised by email with no approval trail, leading to duplicate orders and unplanned cash outflows.
- •Finance closed the month three weeks late because inventory valuation had to be rebuilt by hand every period.
What we did
- 1
Fixed-fee discovery and process mapping
Two weeks on site mapping the order-to-ship flow, capturing every bill of materials and routing, and agreeing which processes would change to fit standard Odoo rather than be customised.
- 2
Core deployment on standard Odoo
Inventory, Manufacturing, Purchase, and Accounting configured with real BOMs, reorder rules, and a two-step approval flow on purchase orders. No custom modules in phase one.
- 3
Barcode receiving on the shop floor
Handheld scanners wired to Odoo Barcode for receipts, internal transfers, and manufacturing consumption, so stock moves are recorded as they physically happen.
- 4
Data migration and parallel run
Opening stock, BOMs, vendors, and open POs migrated and validated against a full physical count, followed by a one-month parallel run before cutover.
- 5
Hypercare and key-user handover
Four weeks of daily support after go-live, plus written runbooks so internal key users own day-to-day configuration.
Results
Reduction in manual inventory administration within the first quarter.
Month-end close, because inventory valuation is now continuous.
Stock accuracy on cycle counts after barcode receiving went live.
Phase one delivered entirely on standard Odoo functionality.
"Core Trust reduced our manual inventory tasks by 40% within the first quarter. The difference was that they pushed back on customisation and made us use standard Odoo properly."
Odoo modules deployed
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