introduction
In inventory management, supply chain strategy determines when products should be sourced or manufactured, delivered to distribution centers, and ultimately made available to retail channels.
In the open source intelligent manufacturing · Odoo free open source ERP solution, you can use the warehouse route in the WMS application to configure the supply chain strategy of the product, including the pull and push rules for the operations in the warehouse. Once everything is configured correctly, the WMS inventory application can automatically generate in-warehouse material transfer jobs based on the configured push or pull rules.
Basic overview of warehouse operations
In a general warehouse, there are receiving areas, quality inspection areas, storage areas, dismantling and packing areas, and shipping areas. All products go through these locations. As the material moves through these locations, each location triggers the routing and rules specified by the material.
In this example, a supplier's truck unloads pallets of ordered material in the receiving area. The operator then scans the product in the receiving area. According to the route and rules of the products, some of them are sent to the quality inspection area (for example, component products used in the manufacturing process), while other products go directly to the corresponding storage area.
The following is an example of a material outbound route. In order to prepare all the orders for the day, a picking operation of the material is required. These items are picked from where the storage area is located and moved to the picking area, next to the order packing area. The orders are then packed in their individual boxes and conveyor belts bring them closer to the shipping area, ready for delivery to customers.
what is pull rule
With "pull rules," demand for certain products triggers purchases, while "push rules" are triggered by the arrival of a product at a specific location.
Pull rules are used to fulfill sales orders. Odoo generates demand at the "customer's location" for each product in the order. Since pull rules are triggered by demand, Odoo looks for pull rules defined on the "customer location".
In this case, a "Delivery Order" pull rule that transfers a product from a shipping area to a customer location is found and a transfer between the two locations is created.
Odoo then finds another pull rule that tries to satisfy the needs of the shipping area: the "packing" rule moves the product from the packing area to the shipping area. Finally, other pull rules are triggered until a transfer is created between the stock and picking areas.
Note: All these material transfers are automatically generated according to Odoo's pull rules, starting at the end (customer location) and moving backwards (stock warehouse). During the course of work, the operator handles these transfers in reverse order: first picking, then packing, and finally the delivery note.
What is push rule
Push rules, on the other hand, are easier to understand. Unlike generating jobs on demand, they are triggered in real-time when the product arrives at the specified location. Push rules basically read like this: "When a product arrives at a certain location, move it to another location."
An example of a push rule is: When an item arrives in the receiving area, move it to storage. Since different push rules can be applied to different materials, users can assign different storage area locations to different materials.
Another push rule can be understood: when materials arrive at a certain location, move them to the quality inspection area. Then, after QA is complete, move them to the designated storage location.
Note: Push rules cannot be triggered if there are already pull rules that generate material transfers.
Important: A collection of these push and pull rules is called a route. The grouping on the rule determines whether materials are grouped in the same transfer. For example, during picking operations, all orders and their items are grouped together in one transfer, while packing operations are grouped by customer orders.
How to use Odoo's routes and rules
Since a route is a collection of push and pull rules, Open Source Zhizao Odoo free open source ERP solution can help you manage advanced route configurations for WMS functional applications, such as:
- Manage the production supply chain of materials.
- Manage default locations by item.
- Define routes within an inventory warehouse based on business needs, such as quality control, after-sales service, or supplier returns.
- Aids in the management of rental operations by generating automatic return movements for leased products.
To configure routing for a material, first open the WMS Inventory application and go to Configuration ‣ Settings . Then click the Warehouse Settings tab, enable the multi-step routing feature and click Save .
NOTE: When using the multi-step route feature, the stored location feature is automatically activated.
After completing the first step, users can use the preconfigured routes provided by Open Source Smart Manufacturing·Odoo Free Open Source ERP, or create custom routes.
pre-configured routes
To access Odoo's pre-configured routes, go to Settings: Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Warehouse . Then, open a repository file. In the Warehouse Configuration tab , users can view the warehouse's pre-configured routes, including inbound and outbound applications.
Some more advanced routes, such as pick-pack-ship , are also available. Users can choose the route that best suits their business needs. Once the inbound and outbound routes are set , go to Inventory->Configuration->Routes to see the specific routes generated by Odoo.
On the directions page, click a route to open the directions form. In the route profile, users can see where the route applies to. Users can also set routes to only apply to specific companies . This is useful for multi-company environments; for example, a user can have one company and warehouse in country A and a second company and warehouse in country B.
At the bottom of the route form, users can view the specific rules of the route. Each rule has an action , an origin and a destination .
custom route
To create a custom route, go to Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Routes and click Create . Next, choose where you can choose this route. Routes can apply to a combination of multiple locations.
Every place behaves differently, so it's important to only tick the options that are useful and adjust each route accordingly. Then, configure the rules for the route .
If the routing applies to a certain material category, the routing needs to be set up manually on the material category form: Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Material Category , then select the product category and open the profile. Next, click Edit to set the route under the Routes section.
When a route is applied to a material category, all rules configured in the route will be applied to every material in that category. This is very helpful if a business uses that routing process for all products in the same category.
The same is true for warehouses. If a route can be applied to a warehouse , all transfers that occur within the selected warehouse that meet the conditions of the route rule will follow that route.
If a route applies to a sales order line , it is equivalent to having to manually select a route when creating a quote. This setup can be very helpful if some materials go through different routes.
Select Visibility of Route column on Quote/Sales Order . Routing can be selected on each quote/sales order line.
There are also routes that can be applied to materials. These routes work similarly to product categories: once selected, routes must be set manually on the material profile.
To set up a route on an item, go to Inventory ‣ Items ‣ Items and select the desired item. Then, go to the Inventory tab and select the specific route that applies under the Route option .
Note: It is necessary to enable the material to be enabled on the route rule, so that the selected route rule can be opened in the material file.
rule
Rules are defined on the route form. First, go to Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Routes and open the desired route file. Next, click Edit , and in the Rules section, click Add Rule Data Detail Row .
Available rules trigger various actions. If Odoo provides pull and push rules, there are other rules available. Each rule has an action :
- Pull : This rule is triggered when a material is required at a specific location. Requirements may come from validated sales orders or manufacturing orders that require specific components. When a demand occurs at the target location, Odoo generates a pick list to fulfill this demand.
- Push : This rule will be triggered when some product arrives from the defined source location. If the user moves items to the source location, Odoo generates a picklist to move those items to the target location.
- Pull and Push : This rule allows picking lists to be generated in both cases above. This means that when an item needs to be used at a particular location, a transfer is created from the previous location to satisfy that demand. This creates a requirement in the previous location and triggers the rule to satisfy it. Once the second requirement is satisfied, the material will be pushed to the target location and all requirements will be satisfied.
- Purchase: When a material is required to be used at a target location, a purchase request is created to fulfill the demand.
- Manufacturing: When a material is required at the source location, a manufacturing order is created to fulfill the demand.
The action type must also be defined in the rule . This defines what kind of picks are created from the rules.
If the rule's action is set to pull or pull and push , the provisioning method must be set . The provisioning method defines what happens at the source location:
- Take From Stock: The product is taken from the available stock at the source location.
- Trigger another rule: The system tries to find an inventory rule to bring the item to the source location. Available stock will be ignored.
- Take from stock, if not available another rule is triggered: the material is taken from available stock at the source location. If no stock is available, the system tries to find a rule to bring the product to the source location.
In the Scheduling section you can determine how a pick of the current rule will behave when it is rescheduled. If you decide to propagate the reschedule , the next move will also be rescheduled.
If you wish to selectively reschedule your next steps, you may decide to receive instructions in the form of the next event.
Editor: Open Source Smart Manufacturing (OSCG) - the world's No. 1 free and open source ERP professional service organization