A manufacturer's production depends on having the right components, and getting them is purchasing's job. Connecting manufacturing to purchasing joins the two. This piece is about that connection in Odoo.
The relationship between manufacturing and purchasing
Manufacturing and purchasing are deeply linked. Production consumes components, and many of those components are bought. So what production needs determines, in large part, what purchasing has to buy. In a disconnected setup, that link is manual: someone works out, from the production plans, what components are needed, and translates that into purchasing. The translation is effort, and it is a place where things go wrong, components not bought in time, or bought in the wrong quantity. Connecting Odoo manufacturing to purchasing makes the link direct.
Production needs flowing into purchasing
The heart of the connection is that production needs flow into purchasing. When manufacturing and purchasing are connected, the planning works out, from the production that is needed and the bills of materials, which components are required and when, and the need for bought components flows to purchasing as purchasing requirements. The manufacturer does not manually translate production plans into a shopping list; the connection does it. What production needs becomes what purchasing is told to buy, directly, through the connected planning.
The whole BOM, the whole chain
The connection is powerful because it works through the whole bill of materials. When production of a product is planned, the BOM is exploded, and the components are identified, and for each, its route determines whether it is made or bought. The bought components generate purchasing requirements; the made components generate their own production, which has its own components, and so on. So a single production need flows, through the connected manufacturing and purchasing, into a complete set of purchasing requirements for everything that has to be bought, at every level of the product. The connection turns a top-level production need into the right purchasing across the whole chain.
Right components, right time
What the connection gives a manufacturer is the right components bought at the right time. Because purchasing requirements flow from the genuine production needs, and because lead times are taken into account, purchasing is buying what production will genuinely consume, in the quantities production will need, timed so the components arrive when production needs them. This is what avoids the two failures of disconnected purchasing: stock-outs, components not bought in time, so production stops, and excess, components bought in the wrong quantity or too early, tying up cash. Connecting manufacturing to purchasing is a large part of how a manufacturer keeps production supplied without over-buying.
The connection is inherent in Odoo
As with the connections to sales and accounting, the connection between manufacturing and purchasing in Odoo is inherent. The Manufacturing, Inventory, and Purchase applications are part of one system, and the planning works across them. A manufacturer gets the connection by running on Odoo, not by building an integration. What production needs flowing into what purchasing buys is simply how the connected system works.
The takeaway
Connecting Odoo manufacturing to purchasing joins what production needs to what gets bought: the planning works out, from production needs and bills of materials, the purchasing requirements, and the need for bought components flows directly to purchasing, across the whole BOM and the whole chain. This gives a manufacturer the right components bought at the right time, avoiding both stock-outs and excess. In Odoo the connection is inherent, since Manufacturing, Inventory, and Purchase are one system. For how we approach Odoo for manufacturers, see our manufacturing work.