Odoo Addons (MOVED TO GITHUB)

Bug #670451
Comment #7

Comment 7 for bug 670451

Revision history for this message

Olivier Dony (Odoo) (odo-openerp) wrote on 2011-03-31:

This bug report is a good summary of the current limitations of traceability features in OpenERP.
I am confirming it as a wishlist, which could be implemented in a separate module and/or perhaps in the next release.

By default, OpenERP is designed to keep track of 3 kinds of stock moves:
- incoming goods from suppliers (where you can indicate the batch number/production lot coming from your supplier)
- outgoing goods to customers (where you can indicate the batch number/production of goods you deliver)
- manufacturing operations (where you can indicate batch number/production lot for both raw materials and finished products, in order to connect them together in the traceability)

It is possible to make the input of batch number/production lot mandatory for these 3 kinds of operations, but it is not possible to make it mandatory for *all* stock moves, such as internal stock moves.

With this, you get end-to-end traceability of goods (disregarding intermediary steps!) :
- When some raw materials entered your warehouse, and from which supplier
- Which raw materials were used to produce which finished products
- When some finished products exited the warehouse, and to which customer they were sent

This is sufficient for most companies, but may not be suited for all industries, such as agro-food or pharma indeed. For these industries, it may be necessary to develop an additional module providing a way to force full traceability including all internal moves.

A consequence of the above is that OpenERP never makes assumptions about the actual batch number/production lot of products in a given location, and never forces or prevent an operation based on it.

It is very important to understand this limitation... otherwise it leads to a lot of confusion, and incorrect bug reports, such as the following ones (some are invalid, some are only partially valid, and some should be undone or reviewed because they will lead to other problems):
- bug 724820
- bug 739181
- bug 722538
- etc.

By default, OpenERP is designed to keep track of 3 kinds of stock moves:
 - incoming goods from suppliers (where you can indicate the batch number/production lot coming from your supplier)
 - outgoing goods to customers (where you can indicate the batch number/production of goods you deliver)
 - manufacturing operations (where you can indicate batch number/production lot for both raw materials and finished products, in order to connect them together in the traceability)

With this, you get end-to-end traceability of goods (disregarding intermediary steps!) :
 - When some raw materials entered your warehouse, and from which supplier
 - Which raw materials were used to produce which finished products
 - When some finished products exited the warehouse, and to which customer they were sent

A consequence of the above is that OpenERP never makes assumptions about the actual batch number/production lot of products in a given location, and never forces or prevent an operation based on it.