Variant Routing to Work Centers Odoo 18

Furniture manufacturer producing tables creates production routing disaster: selling Glass Top Table and Wood Top Table requiring different cutting operations but using single BoM routing all variants to same work center causing bottleneck where Glass Cutting Station idle while Wood Cutting Station overloaded processing both variants, no variant-specific component selection including glass top in wood table manufacturing order creating 12K material waste monthly from wrong components picked, work center specialist skill mismatch where wood expert forced cutting glass causing quality issues 15 percent defect rate, and manual manufacturing order editing consuming 30 minutes per order changing components operations work centers for each variant losing 60 hours monthly productivity—generating production bottlenecks material waste quality defects and administrative burden from inflexible single-BoM routing without variant-specific work center operations component selection and automated production differentiation.

Odoo 18 Variant Routing to Multiple Work Centers enables flexible manufacturing through single unified BoM serving all variants, Apply on Variants field linking specific components to respective variants only, variant-specific operations routing Glass Cutting to Drill Station 1 Wood Cutting to Drill Station 2, work center specialization assigning variant operations to skilled operators, automatic component selection including only relevant materials per variant in manufacturing order, MTO integration triggering variant-appropriate production from sales orders, shop floor operator validation ensuring correct technician executing variant operations, and unified production management maintaining single BoM while achieving variant differentiation—reducing BoM maintenance 80 percent through single template eliminating material waste through automatic variant filtering preventing skill mismatches via work center specialization and achieving optimal resource utilization routing each variant to appropriate specialized equipment enabling scalable customizable manufacturing without BoM proliferation supporting product variety through systematic variant-aware production routing.

Understanding Variant Routing

Concept and business value:

Scenario: Table Manufacturing

Traditional Problem vs Odoo 18 Solution:

Product Variants Setup

Creating Product with Variants:

1. Go to Sales → Products → Products
2. Click New
3. Enter Product Name: TABLE
4. Click Attributes and Variants tab
5. Click Add a Line
6. Create attribute:
   • Attribute: Top Material
   • Values: Glass Wood
7. Click Save
8. System auto-generates 2 variants:
   • TABLE (Glass)
   • TABLE (Wood)

Component Products Creation

Create all necessary materials:

Component List:

Work Centers Configuration

Creating Specialized Work Centers:

Setting Allowed Employees:

1. Go to Maintenance → Equipment → Work Centers
2. Open Drill Station 1
3. In General tab add Allowed Employees: Adam John
4. Click Save
5. Repeat for Drill Station 2 with Marc Demo

Unified Bill of Materials

Creating Single BoM for All Variants:

1. Go to Manufacturing → Products → Bill of Materials
2. Click New
3. Configure header:
   • Product: TABLE (leave variant blank!)
   • Variant: Empty (applies to all variants)
   • Quantity: 1
   • BoM Type: Manufacture this Product

Components Tab with Variant Application

Adding Components:

Operations Tab with Variant Routing

Adding Operations:

Product Routes Configuration

Enable MTO and Manufacture:

1. Open TABLE product
2. Click Inventory tab
3. Select routes:
   • Replenish on Order (MTO): Trigger production from sales
   • Manufacture: Enable manufacturing route
4. Click Save

Sales Order Workflow Glass Variant

Creating Order for Glass Table:

1. Go to Sales → Orders → Orders
2. Click New
3. Select Customer: Azure Interior
4. Click Add a Product
5. Product Configurator opens
6. Select:
   • Product: TABLE
   • Top Material: Glass
   • Quantity: 1
7. Click Confirm
8. Product added: TABLE (Glass)
9. Click Confirm order

Manufacturing Order Auto-Created:

Viewing Manufacturing Order:

1. Click Manufacturing smart button
2. MO opens for TABLE (Glass)
3. Check Components:
   • Glass Top ✓ (variant-specific included)
   • Table Leg ✓ (common included)
   • Bolts ✓ (common included)
   • Screws ✓ (common included)
   • Wood Top ✗ (variant-specific excluded!)

Work Orders Glass Variant

Operations List:

1. Click Plan button in MO
2. Click Work Orders tab
3. Operations displayed:
   • Glass Cutting: Drill Station 1 ✓
   • Assembling: Assembly Station ✓
   • Packing: Packing Station ✓
   • Wood Cutting: ✗ (excluded for Glass variant!)

Shop Floor Execution:

Sales Order Workflow Wood Variant

Creating Order for Wood Table:

1. Create new sales order
2. Customer: Deco Addict
3. Add product:
   • Product: TABLE
   • Top Material: Wood
   • Quantity: 2
4. Confirm order
5. MO auto-created for TABLE (Wood)

Wood Variant Manufacturing Order:

Wood Operations:

1. Plan work orders
2. Operations:
   • Wood Cutting: Drill Station 2 ✓
   • Assembling ✓
   • Packing ✓
   • Glass Cutting ✗
3. Shop Floor: Marc Demo logs into Drill Station 2
4. Executes Wood Cutting operation
5. Complete remaining operations
6. Produce All
7. 2 TABLE (Wood) manufactured

Variant Routing Benefits

Best Practices

Always Leave Parent Product Variant Field Empty in BoM Header: Selecting specific variant in BoM header equals BoM only applies to that variant requiring duplicate BoMs. Leave variant empty in header apply variants at component operation level achieving single BoM serving all variants reducing maintenance eliminating synchronization issues.

Use Apply on Variants for Differentiating Components Not Common Ones: Applying variant filter to shared components like table legs bolts equals unnecessary complexity. Leave common components without variant application applying to all automatically. Reserve Apply on Variants for truly variant-specific materials glass versus wood tops achieving clean separation.

Assign Allowed Employees to Variant-Specific Work Centers for Quality: Open employee access to specialized stations equals wrong operator performing variant operation. Wood expert attempting glass cutting causes quality issues. Restrict work center allowed employees matching variant specialization preventing skill mismatches ensuring quality through operator qualification enforcement.

Conclusion

Odoo 18 Variant Routing to Multiple Work Centers enables flexible manufacturing through single unified BoM Apply on Variants field variant-specific operations work center specialization automatic component selection and operator validation. Reduce BoM maintenance 80 percent through single template eliminating material waste through automatic variant filtering preventing skill mismatches via work center specialization achieving optimal resource utilization enabling scalable customizable manufacturing without BoM proliferation supporting product variety through systematic variant-aware production routing creating efficient specialized production flows achieving quality through skill matching and maintaining simplicity despite product complexity through intelligent variant routing automation.