Work centers¶

Work centers are where Manufacturing work orders are processed, and can be used to track costs, make schedules, plan capacity, organize equipment, and track efficiency. Specifying a work center is required when a work order is defined in the Operations tab of a bill of materials (BoM) for a product.

Important

Work centers only appear if the Work Orders setting is enabled. To do so, navigate to Manufacturing app ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings, then tick the Work Orders checkbox. Work orders can be managed in the Manufacturing app by selecting Operations ‣ Work Orders.

Work center configuration¶

Create a new work center¶

In the Manufacturing app, select Configuration ‣ Work Centers and click the New button to open a new work center form.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-form

menu: Manufacturing ‣ Configuration ‣ Work Centers ‣ (work center)
shows: A fully configured work center form with Work Center Name, Tag, Alternative Workcenters, Code and Working Hours filled in.
data: Work center "Assembly Line 1"; tag "Assembly"; working hours "Standard 40 hours/week".
module: mrp
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Work Center Name: the label for the work center used to select it on a work order or on the reporting dashboards
Tag: reusable labels that can be used to sort work centers in list view
Alternative Workcenters: where a work order should be carried out if this work center is not available
Code: reference id for the work center that is displayed in the list view
Working Hours: the hours that work center can be used during the week

Working hours¶

Working hours define when a work center should operate, based on a one- or two-week schedule. These hours also form the basis for calculating overall equipment efficiency (OEE).

Note

By default, Odoo uses the Standard 40 hours/week working hours, which expects work centers to operate between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM on Monday through Friday.

To change the working hours, hover over the current Working Hours value and click the (Internal link) icon to open the working hours form.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-working-hours

menu: Manufacturing ‣ Configuration ‣ Work Centers ‣ (work center) ‣ Working Hours ‣ Internal link
shows: The "Standard 40 hours/week" working hours form with five lines, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
module: resource, mrp
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

To create a new set of working hours, click the New button and give it a name. From here, edit any Work from or Work to value to adjust the time range. Remove a line by clicking click the (trash) icon. To create a new time range, click Add a line at the bottom of the list.

Set productivity standards¶

The General Information tab on the work center form allows for productivity goals to be assigned to a work center. These are used as the basis for calculating how much of the potential time the work center is being used and its operating costs.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-general-info

menu: Manufacturing ‣ Configuration ‣ Work Centers ‣ (work center) ‣ General Information tab
shows: The General Information tab with Time Efficiency, Capacity, OEE Target, Setup Time, Cleanup Time and Cost per hour fields filled in.
data: Work center "Assembly Line 1".
module: mrp
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width, crop to the tab.

Time Efficiency: a multiplier for how using this work center affects the normal speed of execution of a work order

Example
If a work center has older equipment and work orders take twice as long to produce, the Time Efficiency would be 50.00%.
Capacity: the number of products that can be processed at the work center simultaneously
OEE Target: the target for efficiency at the work center

Example
If a work center is available for 8 hours per day but is only expected to be used for 7 hours per day, the OEE would be 87.50%. \(7/8*100=87.5\)

See also
Overall equipment effectiveness
Setup Time: the time required before work can commence on a work order
Cleanup Time: breakdown or cleanup time required after a work order is finished
Cost per hour: the operating expense of operating this workstation.

See also
Manufacturing order costs

Set production capacities¶

The Capacity setting on a work center creates a default value for how many units can be produced at one time in a work center. To specify that a work center can produce different quantities of different products, select the Specific Capacities tab.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-specific-capacities

menu: Manufacturing ‣ Configuration ‣ Work Centers ‣ (work center) ‣ Specific Capacities tab
shows: The Specific Capacities tab with two lines, each specifying a different capacity for a different product.
data: Work center "Assembly Line 1"; products "Chair" (capacity 4), "Table" (capacity 1).
module: mrp
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width, crop to the tab.

Tip

To specify production capacities in different measurements from a count of units, enable the Units of Measure feature in the Inventory app.

Work center performance¶

Performance for an individual work center can be viewed by selecting Configuration ‣ Work Centers, and clicking on a work center. Metrics are displayed in smart buttons at the top of the form.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-smart-buttons

menu: Manufacturing ‣ Configuration ‣ Work Centers ‣ (work center)
shows: A work center form's button box with the OEE, Lost, Load and Performance smart buttons, each showing a value.
data: Work center "Assembly Line 1".
module: mrp
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width, crop to the button box.

OEE: overall equipment effectiveness, the percentage of time that the work center has been productive out of its available work hours.
See also
- Overall equipment effectiveness
Lost: the amount of time lost due to work stoppages
Load: the amount of time it will take to complete the current workload
Performance: the real duration of work time, shown as a percentage of the expected duration

Use case: measuring performance by shift using work centers¶

Work centers support defined working hours, enabling the tracking of production efficiency by shift. To configure shift-based tracking, create working hours for each of the shifts, then duplicate versions of each work center for each of the shifts. With this setup, comparing shift productivity can be done with any of the available reporting tools.

Working hours for multiple shifts¶

To create working hours for multiple shifts, open a work center form and in the Working Hours field click the (Internal link), and then click the New button to create a new set of hours for the second shift.

Example

A manufacturer has two shifts: a day shift from 5 AM to 1 PM and a night shift from 1 PM to 9 PM. Starting from any existing work center, edit the existing working hours to match the day shift.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-shift-day

menu: Manufacturing ‣ Configuration ‣ Work Centers ‣ (work center) ‣ Working Hours ‣ Internal link
shows: A working hours form named "Day Shift" with one line per weekday, 5:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
module: resource
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Once the day shift is saved, click the (cog) icon and select Duplicate. Rename this new schedule Night Shift and change each Work from to 1 PM and Work from to 9 PM.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-shift-night

menu: Manufacturing ‣ Configuration ‣ Work Centers ‣ (work center) ‣ Working Hours ‣ Internal link
shows: A working hours form named "Night Shift" with one line per weekday, 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
module: resource
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

Work centers for multiple shifts¶

To create the duplicate work centers, return to the work center view by navigating to Configuration ‣ Work Centers and duplicating each of the work centers that are used by both shifts, either on the individual work center forms, or directly from the list view.

Tip

To duplicate work centers directly from the list view, click the (checkbox) that appears above the list items to select all. Then, click the Actions button at the top of the list and select Duplicate.

Example

A manufacturer has two work centers, Assembly Line 1 and Assembly Line 2, and two working hours, Day Shift and Night Shift.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-shift-workcenters
menu
Manufacturing ‣ Configuration ‣ Work Centers
shows
The Work Centers list with 4 entries: "Assembly Line 1 - Day/Night", "Assembly Line 2 - Day/Night".
data
Work centers "Assembly Line 1" and "Assembly Line 2", each duplicated for "Day" and "Night" shifts.
module
mrp
notes
English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

To create versions of Assembly Line 1 and Assembly Line 2 for each shift, duplicate each of the work centers. Select the first work center and add the shift name in that work center’s name and assign it the appropriate working hours. Optionally, configure each work center to use its opposite shift counterpart as an alternate work center to make sure that manufacturing orders get assigned to both. Tags can also help make a visual distinction between each shift.

Tip
Use the (left arrow) and (right arrow) buttons in the top left corner to move on to the next form in the list without returning to the list view.

Reports comparing different shifts¶

With multiple work centers created to represent shifts, reports that sort by work center will now compare shifts. This can be used to compare the number of work orders that are being assigned each shift, the OEE, or actual time that each shift is taking to produce a product.

Example

A report has been created to compare the time efficiency of two shifts producing the same product in the same work center.

screenshot: manufacturing-work-centers-duration-deviation

menu: Manufacturing ‣ Reporting ‣ Work Orders
shows: A bar graph comparing Duration Deviation (%) between "Day Shift" (-6.50%) and "Night Shift" (15.00%), grouped by work center.
data: Work orders for work centers "Assembly Line 1 - Day" and "Assembly Line 1 - Night".
module: mrp
notes: English UI, light theme, 1440px width.

To create this report, go to Reporting ‣ Work Orders and click to remove the Ready or Waiting or Pending or In Progress filter by clicking the Remove icon on its right side. Next, click the Measures button and select Duration Deviation (%)

In this case, the day shift has on average taken more than the expected time to produce products (-6.50%) while the night shift took less than the expected time (15.00%).