Tiếng Việt
日本語“I can tell you exactly which order is running late, but I can’t tell you exactly how much MDF board is left in stock” that’s how Mr. Tuan, the owner of a 40-person furniture workshop in Binh Duong, described his operations before implementing Odoo for his furniture workshop with Sonix. Five months later, the workshop had not only solved its inventory problem, but also drew 5 operational lessons that any manufacturing workshop can apply. If your business is also considering, this is a real-world story worth reading.
Table of Contents
💡 Insight: According to Panorama Consulting, material management is one of the three most common operational pain points that push small and medium manufacturers toward Odoo especially in industries with many material types and specifications, such as furniture.
BUSINESS REALITY
Inventory situation before Odoo
The problem wasn’t with orders it was with the raw material warehouse
Mr. Tuan’s workshop has 40 workers, producing both make-to-order and display-sample furniture, using dozens of types of wood, boards, metal fittings, and upholstery fabric. Orders were tracked reasonably well on paper, but the raw material warehouse was a “black box”: the stock figures on paper never matched what was actually on the shelves, causing the workshop to repeatedly run short of materials mid-order or over-purchase unnecessarily.
Every time a large order needed to be confirmed, the workshop manager had to physically walk the floor and check stock by eye, because he didn’t trust the numbers on paper. This slowed down customer response times, and more than once the workshop accepted an order only to later discover a material shortage and have to ask for a delivery extension.
40
Total workshop staff
120
Raw material types managed
18%
Inventory discrepancy rate before implementation
SONIX’S APPROACH
How Odoo was rolled out for the workshop
Instead of digitizing the entire process all at once, Sonix started implementing for the furniture workshop from its single biggest pain point: material management, and connecting it to the production process only expanding to other departments afterward. This is also the approach Sonix takes with most of its clients in the manufacturing sector.
Standardizing material lists and Bills of Materials (BOM)
Sonix worked with the workshop to review and standardize its entire raw material catalog, building a Bill of Materials (BOM) for each product model the foundational step that lets automatically deduct stock during production.
Connecting the warehouse to manufacturing orders in Odoo
Every manufacturing order in Odoo now automatically deducts the correct materials based on the BOM, instead of relying on manual logging. The workshop manager can immediately see which materials are running low before accepting a new order.
Training production leads first, expanding later
The first group trained on Odoo was the production team leads the people who record material usage every day before training was extended to accounting and procurement.
5 REAL-WORLD LESSONS
5 lessons from Odoo for a furniture workshop
After completing the rollout, here are 5 lessons about production process and workshop operations that Mr. Tuan took away and lessons Sonix has also observed at many other furniture workshops.
The Bill of Materials (BOM) is the foundation, not a minor detail
Without standardizing the BOM from the start, every inventory report Odoo produces later will be inaccurate no matter how powerful the software is.
The production lead determines whether the data is accurate
Inventory data in Odoo is only correct when the person recording it on the shop floor not the person reading the report in the office understands and follows the new process.
Periodic stock counts are still necessary, but can be far less frequent
Once manufacturing orders automatically deduct stock, the workshop no longer needs a full count every week only periodic checks to catch unusual discrepancies.
Knowing about a material shortage in advance matters more than knowing an order is late
Seeing a shortage warning before accepting an order lets the workshop proactively negotiate delivery timelines, instead of reactively apologizing to customers mid-project.
Digitizing one pain point at a time beats digitizing everything at once
Focusing on solving the inventory problem before expanding Odoo into other departments let the workshop see clear results within just a few weeks, instead of waiting on a rollout project that drags on for months.
“I used to have to walk the floor and check stock by eye before every big order. Now I just open Odoo and I know right away what’s missing.” Mr. Tuan, owner of a 40-person furniture workshop, Binh Duong
LESSONS FROM THE FIELD
Advice for manufacturing businesses implementing Odoo
This furniture workshop’s story reflects a pattern common to many small and medium manufacturers in Vietnam: the issue isn’t a lack of technology, but the fact that raw materials had never been systematically standardized before being brought into Odoo. If you’d like to learn more about a detailed rollout process, see Sonix’s Odoo implementation process.
| Common mistake | Sonix’s approach |
|---|---|
| Digitizing the entire process all at once | Start Odoo from the single biggest pain point material management |
| Skipping the BOM standardization step | Build a detailed BOM for each product model before going live on Odoo |
| Training the entire staff all at once | Train the people who actually record the data (production leads) first |
KEY TAKEAWAYS
| Key point | What it means for your business |
|---|---|
| The BOM is the foundation of accurate inventory data in Odoo | Without a clear Bill of Materials, Odoo cannot automate stock deduction correctly. |
| The person recording the data matters more than the person reading the report | Training production leads first keeps the data accurate right from the source. |
| Proactive, not reactive, material management | Knowing about shortages in advance lets the workshop negotiate delivery times instead of apologizing to customers. |
| Rolling out Odoo one pain point at a time delivers faster results | Solving the right pain point first shows clear results in a short amount of time before expanding further. |
Is your manufacturing workshop also struggling with inventory?
Sonix can help you standardize your Bill of Materials and connect your warehouse to your production process on Odoo starting from the pain point that matters most, with no need to digitize everything at once.
Hundreds of manufacturers using Odoo in Vietnam have started their journey this way.
Sonix — Our customers’ success is our joy.
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