INVENTORY

Rules and Routes

In order to ensure proper tracking of each movement of products, it is essential to define routes on them. The routes will define the paths of operations involved in every inventory movement in a company. According to your company policies, it is possible to set particular rules of operations for the inventory movements. You can use these rules to configure multiple routes for the product movements. This is how we manage effective inventory management in a company.

For configuring appropriate routes and rules, you will get dedicated platforms in the Odoo Inventory module. Is is essential to configure suitable work locations and warehouses before configuring routes because all these features work together in Odoo to give better management of inventory movement. First, go to the Setting menu and activate the Multi-Step Routes option from the Warehouse tab.

Once you activate this feature, you will get the Routes option under the Configuration menu. Before creating new routes, let’s create new rules for the routes and product movement from the Configuration menu.

Creating Rules

From the Configuration menu, you can select the Rules option under the Warehouse Management tab. This will open a new window where you can observe the pre-configure list of different rules in the Inventory module.

The preview of the list shows the details of the Action, Source Location, Destination Location, Route, and Company each Rule. You can use the default and customizable Filters and GroupBy options to simplify the searching operations. Click the New button to create a rule in the Inventory module.

Provide a suitable title for the new rule in the Name field. You can define the action for this particular rule in the given space. You can select a suitable activon form the drop-down as highlighted in the screenshot. The available options are,

Pull From: You can set this action when products are needed in the destination location. It can be either from a sales order or a manufacturing order. When the demand for a product happens in the destination location, Odoo will generate a picking operation type from the source location to complete the requirement.

Push To: You can use this rule to move a product to another location. When products arrive in the source location, you can move them to another location using this action. In this case, Odoo will generate a picking operation type to send them to the destination location.

Push & Pull: This action can be used in both cases explained above. When products are needed in the destination location a picking is generated from the source location to fulfill the need. This demands product requirements in the source location. Once the source location is fulfilled with the requirement, the products will be pushed to the destination location to fulfill the needs of the destination location.

Manufacture: Using this action, you can directly generate manufacturing orders to complete the requirements of the source location.

Buy: When products are needed at the destination location, Odoo will generate a request for quotation to buy the product to fulfill the need with the help of this action.

The Operation Type, Source Location, and Destination Location can be mentioned in the respective fields. In the Applicability tab, specify the Route and Company on which this particular rule is applicable.

Creating Routes

In order to create new routes for the inventory movements, you can go to the Configuration menu and select the Routes option. This will open the list of already created Routes in the Inventory module.

You are allowed to use the New button to create a new route for inventory.

Mention the name of the inventory route in the Route field. The name of the Company will be available in the corresponding field. In the Applicable on field, select the places where you want to use this route. It can be Product, Product Categories, Packaging, Warehouses, or Sales Order Lines. Under the Rules tab, mention the rules for this particular route of operation.

It is possible to define the route of operation for the products in your inventory while configuring the details in the Odoo product configurator. In the product form view, you can find the Routes option under the Inventory tab which can be used to specify the routes of operation of that particular product.

Based on the module you installed in your Odoo database, it will allow you to set the route of a product. It can be bought, manufactured, replenished on order, etc, based on the route you select.