Many manufacturing companies think they need a separate MES. A specialized Manufacturing Execution System that runs alongside the ERP system and controls the production floor.
Some companies acquire such a system. Others build their own software with in-house programmers. And still others continue to work with paper production lists, as paper seems to provide more control.
That is not always necessary.
For many SME manufacturing companies, Odoo can already provide a large part of the functions of an MES. With Odoo, you manage production orders, work orders, material consumption, scheduling, quality, maintenance, and progress on the production floor. This data is directly connected to inventory, purchasing, sales, and administration.
There is an important difference with many standalone MES solutions. Odoo not only manages production. It connects production with the rest of the company.
Thus, Odoo is a practical and affordable MES solution for many manufacturing companies. The limit mainly lies in direct communication with machines. When machines need to automatically exchange data with the software, additional technology is often required.
What is an MES?
MES stands for Manufacturing Execution System. An MES supports the execution of production activities. The system forms the connection between production planning and the daily work on the shop floor.
An MES answers questions such as:
Which production order should be executed?
Which operation is scheduled?
At which work center does the operation take place?
Which materials have been used?
How long did the operation take?
How many products are ready?
Has a quality control been performed?
Is there any downtime or rework?
Is production on schedule?
An ERP system usually focuses on the entire business operation. Think of sales, purchasing, inventory, finance, employees, and customer relationships. An MES primarily focuses on the execution of production.
That boundary is less sharp today than it used to be. Modern ERP systems increasingly include functions for production execution. Odoo is a clear example of this.
Odoo connects production with inventory and planning
The Odoo Production app supports the recording and execution of production orders. You record products, bills of materials, operations, and work centers. Then Odoo can determine which materials and tasks are needed.
Production is not isolated.
A production order has consequences for:
the required raw materials;
inventory availability;
purchase recommendations;
the occupancy of work centers;
the planned delivery time;
the material consumption;
the cost price;
the financial reporting.
This prevents each department from working with its own planning or administration.
In practice, we often see that planning, warehouse, and production use different files. Production knows that an order is almost ready, but the warehouse has not yet updated the stock. The planner works with a spreadsheet that is no longer accurate. The administration only gets visibility of the actual consumption days later.
These are not problems that you solve by simply purchasing an extra MES. The information must be reliably processed throughout the entire organization.
That is precisely why the integrated approach of Odoo is interesting. Read more about Odoo production for inventory, planning, and work orders.
What does Odoo Shop Floor do?
Odoo Shop Floor is the working environment for employees on the production floor. From this environment, employees can see which work orders need to be executed and can directly register their activities.
Depending on the setup, employees can:
start a work order;
pause an operation;
complete a work order;
register production time;
confirm material consumption;
view work instructions;
perform a quality check;
report a deviation;
record produced quantities;
register scrap or rework.
That may sound simple. That is exactly the intention.
A production employee should not have to search through complicated menus before an action can be registered. The software should align with the work that someone is already performing.
Odoo works with work centers. A work center can represent a machine, department, or production step. For each work center, you can record the capacity, operations, scheduling, and expected production time.
This makes it clear where a production order needs to be executed and what capacity is available.
Odoo as MES: more than just work orders
An MES is not just about starting and completing production orders. Quality, maintenance, traceability, and reporting are also part of a manageable production process.
Quality control during the process
Quality controls are often still performed on paper. An employee fills out a form and someone else checks it later. That can work, but it makes follow-up slow and the information difficult to search.
In Odoo, you can link quality controls to products, production orders, or specific operations. This makes the control part of the production process.
For example, you can record:
which control needs to be performed;
when that happens;
which employee performs the control;
what measurement value was found;
whether the product is approved;
what deviation was observed;
what corrective action is needed.
This makes quality information immediately available to the people who need to work with it. A deviation does not remain buried under a pile of forms.
Maintenance and downtime
Maintenance directly affects production. When a machine fails, not only does the technical situation change. The planning, capacity, and delivery date also come under pressure.
By connecting maintenance and production, a better picture emerges of the consequences of a malfunction or scheduled maintenance.
You can schedule preventive maintenance, register maintenance requests, and follow up on malfunctions. This makes maintenance not a separate island next to production, but part of the same business operations.
Insight into production performance
Odoo can also help analyze production performance. Think of production time, downtime, produced quantities, failures, and the performance of work centers.
A well-known indicator is OEE, Overall Equipment Effectiveness. This looks at availability, performance, and quality.
Such a report does not automatically solve a production problem. A dashboard does not make a poor process better. It does help to see where losses occur and which improvements deserve attention.
Why companies sometimes unnecessarily purchase a separate MES
A separate MES can be a wise choice. However, such a system is sometimes purchased in practice before it is clear what problem it should solve.
The thought is then: “We are a serious manufacturing company, so we need specialized production software.”
That sounds logical, but it says nothing about the necessary functionality.
A separate system also brings extra responsibility with it:
a second implementation;
connections with the ERP system;
duplicate data;
extra licenses;
extra management;
more user instructions;
extra dependency on a supplier;
risk of differences between systems.
Therefore, it is wise to first investigate what Odoo can do by default. Then you determine which functions may be missing.
Not the other way around.
A self-built MES can become a business risk.
Having your own system often seems attractive. It aligns perfectly with your own way of working and can be adjusted when necessary.
But that flexibility comes at a price.
A manufacturing company we worked with had a custom MES developed. For maintenance and further development, several programmers were employed. Initially, that seemed like a good solution. Over time, however, the system became increasingly difficult to maintain.
New capabilities could not be added quickly enough. Changing circumstances required adjustments. Scalability and performance became increasingly important issues.
Moreover, the company had become completely dependent on software that is not part of its core business.
A manufacturing company makes products. It is not a software supplier. Yet, an organization can unwittingly develop a second business alongside its own production: an internal software company that must constantly ensure that the production system continues to function.
That does not mean that in-house development is always wrong. Some manufacturing companies have specific processes for which standard software is insufficient. In that case, custom solutions or a separate solution may be justified.
The question is whether the software provides a lasting competitive advantage. If not, you are mainly paying to maintain complexity.
Also read how we deal with Odoo customization and integrations.
Why manufacturing companies still work with paper
Paper is used on production floors not only because companies do not want to change. There is often a understandable thought behind it.
Paper gives a sense of control. An employee can take a list, check something off, and have the form checked later. Especially when digital systems were complicated or unreliable in the past, paper feels safe.
However, paper has clear limitations.
Information must be re-entered later. Handwriting can be misread. Changes are not always visible. Production management only receives information afterwards. And when an order is delayed, it is sometimes only clear when someone collects the forms.
Thus, paper is not automatically wrong. It is mainly limited when you need current information.
In warehouses, digital registration has been normal for years. Employees scan products, locations, and tasks. The inventory is updated immediately. No one wonders if a warehouse might work better with paper lists.
So why should production continue to work structurally on paper?
The transition to digital registration must of course be well guided. The screens must be understandable. The registration must fit the work. Employees need to know why the change is necessary.
But that is an implementation question. It is not an argument to keep paper as the definitive solution.
Where is the boundary of Odoo?
Odoo manages the production process. It supports, among other things, production planning, work orders, material consumption, quality, maintenance, and reporting.
However, Odoo is not automatically the control of every machine.
When machines need to exchange data directly with software, an additional technical solution is often required. Think of situations where:
a machine needs to automatically receive settings;
production data needs to be read directly from machines;
sensors continuously send measurement values;
machines independently report faults;
a PLC, IoT, or SCADA environment is part of the process;
machines need to automatically respond to production orders.
For this, a machine connection, IoT solution, or specialized system may be needed.
The division is then clear:
Odoo manages the business process;
a technical solution handles communication with machines;
data can be exchanged between both systems where necessary.
Therefore, Odoo does not have to do everything itself to be a good MES solution. The most important thing is that it is clear which system has which responsibility.
When is a separate MES advisable?
A separate MES can make sense when machine communication is at the heart of production.
This applies, for example, to production environments where:
machines continuously provide real-time data;
product parameters are automatically set;
production lines operate largely autonomously;
sensor data must be processed directly;
technical process control is more important than administrative registration.
Even in very complex process industries or advanced IoT applications, additional software may be needed.
But even then, a completely separate MES is not always the only option. Sometimes a targeted connection is sufficient. Sometimes Odoo remains the central ERP system and only a technical layer is added for the machines.
The right choice depends on the production process, not on the name of the software.
Start with the process, not with the software
Before you purchase an MES or start developing one yourself, you must first determine what information is needed.
Ask yourself these questions:
What information does an employee on the shop floor need to register?
What data is needed for planning and inventory?
What quality controls need to be recorded?
What information needs to be available immediately?
What data comes from employees and what comes from machines?
Where are errors, delays, or duplicate work occurring?
What functions can Odoo support as standard?
For what remaining needs is a connection or additional software required?
Often, a nuanced picture emerges. Odoo can manage the production process and business operations excellently, while a separate technical solution remains necessary for machine communication.
That is not a weakness. It is a logical division of responsibilities.
Conclusion
For many SME manufacturing companies, Odoo is a practical alternative to a separate MES. With production, Shop Floor, work centers, work orders, quality management, maintenance, and reports, you can digitally manage the production floor.
The big advantage is that production is not separate from inventory, purchasing, planning, sales, and administration. Everything works with the same information.
A separate MES is only wise when it demonstrably adds something that Odoo cannot provide. Especially direct communication with machines, sensor data, and advanced technical automation can be reasons for an additional solution.
A self-built MES may seem flexible, but it can make a company dependent on its own programmers and difficult-to-maintain software. Paper may seem to provide control, but often leads to delays, double entries, and limited steering information.
Therefore, start with the production process. Determine what information is needed, set up Odoo properly, and only add additional technology when it is truly necessary.
This way, you prevent purchasing an expensive system for functions that are already in Odoo. And you also prevent starting a software company while you actually want to make products.
For companies that want to explore how Odoo can support their production, a targeted Odoo implementation is a logical next step.
