Key takeaways
- Manufacturing ERP software combines MRP (what to make and buy, and when) with inventory, purchasing, sales and accounting in one system.
- Odoo Community includes the Manufacturing app: bills of materials, kits, by-products, work centers, subcontracting and unbuild orders.
- Shop Floor tablets, Quality, PLM and the Master Production Schedule are not in Odoo Community; they come with Odoo Enterprise.
- Size the server for concurrent users and scheduled jobs, and test changes to bills of materials on a staging copy.
Manufacturing ERP software is an ERP with production planning built in: it turns sales orders and forecasts into manufacturing orders, works out the components to buy or make, and tracks stock and costs as work moves through the factory. Odoo Manufacturing is one example. Its open source Community edition covers the core of a small factory, and Odoo Enterprise adds tablets for the shop floor, quality control and long-term planning.
What is manufacturing ERP software?
An ERP keeps a company's processes in one system with one database; our guide to what ERP is explains the idea. A manufacturing ERP adds the parts a factory needs:
- Bills of materials (BoMs) listing the components of each product.
- Manufacturing orders that consume components and produce goods.
- Work centers and operations that describe where and how work is done.
- Planning that decides what to buy and make, and when.
- Costing of materials, labour and machine time.
Because sales, purchasing, inventory and accounting share the same database, a confirmed sales order can trigger production, production can trigger purchases, and finished goods reach the invoice without anyone retyping numbers.
MRP software vs manufacturing ERP
MRP, material requirements planning, is the planning logic at the heart of manufacturing software: from demand and bills of materials, it calculates which components are needed, in what quantity and by when. Stand-alone MRP software stops there. A manufacturing ERP puts that logic next to sales, purchasing, inventory, quality and accounting. When people search for "Odoo MRP", they usually mean the Odoo Manufacturing app, which does both.
What Odoo Manufacturing does
Odoo's documentation sums up the app this way:
"Odoo Manufacturing helps manufacturers schedule, plan, and process manufacturing orders."
Bills of materials, kits and by-products
A BoM lists the components and quantities for a product, and can include operations and by-products. A BoM of type Kit is not manufactured: selling it moves its components instead. Multilevel BoMs handle sub-assemblies, and unbuild orders take a finished product back apart into components.
Work centers, operations and OEE
Work centers represent machines or teams, with capacity, working hours and costs per hour. Operations on a BoM say which work center does each step and for how long. In Odoo 19's source, each work center tracks its overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) over the last month, with a default OEE target of 90%.
Subcontracting, lots and serial numbers
The subcontracting module lets a partner manufacture for you, with Odoo tracking the components you send and the products you receive. Lots and serial numbers trace which batch of components went into which finished product, and the expiry module adds best-before and removal dates.
Manufacturing costs
Each work center has a cost per hour, so the time spent on operations becomes part of a product's cost alongside its components. The Accounting - MRP module, also in Community, links manufacturing to analytic accounting, so you can see what each order or product line really costs. Check those numbers on a few real orders before you rely on them for pricing.
Planning with reordering rules and the MPS
Reordering rules and make-to-order routes replenish stock automatically for most products. For long lead times or seasonal demand, the Master Production Schedule (MPS) plans replenishment against a forecast. Odoo's documentation notes that the MPS only suggests quantities: users still create the purchase and manufacturing orders.
Odoo MRP in Community vs Enterprise
We checked which modules are published in Odoo's open source Community repository for versions 19.0 and 20.0 (as of November 2026). Modules that are not there come with Odoo Enterprise.
| Feature | Community | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing orders, BoMs, kits, by-products | Yes | Yes |
| Work centers, operations, work orders, OEE | Yes | Yes |
| Subcontracting, unbuild orders, repairs | Yes | Yes |
| Equipment maintenance | Yes | Yes, linked to work centers |
| Shop Floor tablet interface | No | Yes |
| Quality control points and checks | No | Yes |
| Product lifecycle management (PLM) | No | Yes |
| Master Production Schedule | No | Yes |
| Barcode scanning app | No | Yes |
Odoo Enterprise is licensed per user. Our guide to Odoo pricing explains the plans, and Odoo Community vs Enterprise covers the editions in general.
Running the shop floor
On Community, operators record work orders in the standard Manufacturing screens: start and finish times, quantities produced and components used. That works well for a small team at shared workstations.
Odoo Enterprise adds Shop Floor, which Odoo's documentation describes as a companion module to the Manufacturing app: a visual, tablet-friendly interface for processing manufacturing and work orders and tracking time per operator. Combined with Quality, it can show step-by-step instructions and checks at each work center. For factories with many operators, it is often the main reason to choose Enterprise.
Is Odoo a good manufacturing ERP for small factories?
For many small and midsize manufacturers, yes. Odoo is a good fit when you:
- Make to order or to stock with bills of materials of moderate depth.
- Want sales, purchasing, inventory and accounting in the same system.
- Have tens of users rather than thousands.
- Can start on Community and add Enterprise apps when the need is clear.
Odoo is a harder fit for highly regulated production with strict validation requirements, or for very complex scheduling of hundreds of machines. There, specialist manufacturing systems, or Odoo with substantial custom development, may suit better. Our comparison of open source ERP software covers other options.
Deploying and sizing Odoo Manufacturing with CloudPilot
Manufacturing adds steady background work: reordering rules, scheduled actions and reports over many stock moves. When you size the server, count the people who use Odoo at the same time, including operators at workstations, and leave room for the scheduler. Our Odoo workers and server sizing guide has the numbers, and scheduled actions and cron workers explains the background jobs.
With CloudPilot:
- Starter runs one Odoo Community instance on CloudPilot's servers, enough to try Manufacturing on Community.
- Pro adds servers in your own cloud account, unlimited instances and staging copies, and Odoo Enterprise with your subscription code for Shop Floor, Quality and PLM.
- Every plan includes automated backups, staging, Git deploys for custom modules and monitoring.
Test new BoMs, routings and Enterprise modules on a staging copy before production; changes to manufacturing data are hard to undo once orders run on them. See managed Odoo hosting for what CloudPilot looks after and pricing for each plan.
Manufacturing ERP software: questions
Is Odoo MRP free?
The Manufacturing app is part of Odoo Community, which has no licence fee. Shop Floor, Quality, PLM and the Master Production Schedule are not in Community and come with a paid Odoo Enterprise subscription.
What is the difference between MRP and manufacturing ERP?
MRP calculates which components to buy or make, and when, from demand and bills of materials. A manufacturing ERP puts that planning together with sales, purchasing, inventory, quality and accounting in one system.
Can small factories use Odoo Manufacturing?
Yes. Odoo Manufacturing suits small and midsize factories with bills of materials, work centers and subcontracting, and they can start on Community and add Enterprise apps such as Shop Floor and Quality later.
Sources
- Odoo Manufacturing documentation, checked 7 November 2026.
- Odoo Shop Floor overview, checked 7 November 2026.
- Odoo Master Production Schedule, checked 7 November 2026.
- Odoo Community source, Manufacturing module (19.0) (BoM types, by-products, work center OEE), checked 7 November 2026.
- Odoo Community addons (20.0) (which manufacturing modules are published), checked 7 November 2026.