Odoo 10: what’s new?

Camptocamp, Odoo Gold partner, reveals a preview of the main innovations of Odoo 10, whose release is imminent.

For Odoo 10 (Enterprise Edition), the focus of the editor has been the deep re-architecting of  the production management module. New features are also involved: quality management, maintenance management and management changes in the product design process/manufacturing.

Odoo 10 Production

Let’s look at the changes made by Odoo 10 to the module “Production”. First, it has now a “Master Production Schedule” (MPS).

Thus, depending on customers’ confirmed ordes, inventory levels and sales forecasts, the ERP will automatically launch supplies and/or production orders at the appropriate time, taking into account the required production time and lead times of the components of the associated nomenclature.

Odoo 10 PLM (product life cycle)

The versioning of nomenclatures and routings is now supported and orchestrated by the new “Product Lifecycle Management” (PLM) module.
Here you ca define the types of changes that can be applied, such as the replacement of a component or the changing a process. The related approval workflow can be also customized to see which users/departments are allowed to validate (or just comment) the change request.

When the change request “Engineering Change Order” (ECO) is enabled, a new version of the nomenclature and/or routing can be created and applied immediately, or from a specific date.

Odoo 10 barcodes, nomenclatures and work centers

Interesting finding: the support of barcode scanners is extended beyond the simply scan of EAN13 products and lot numbers/series.

Indeed, many operations are now possible via a simple scan of the appropriate barcode. For example: displaying a production order on the screen, checking the availability of components, the action of consuming components, or set as finished the MO.

The management of work orders is also facilitated. It is indeed expected to flash a barcode to start a work order, pause it and finish it. Convenient!

Note that other operations emulated by barcodes are available in the Warehouse module. For example: edit, validate or cancel a logistical operation, put in a package, previous operation, next operation.

On the other hand, a new menu appears for dismantling goods – whether manufactured or purchased – if there is an associated nomenclature. It is therefore unlikely that Camptocamp will migrate to Odoo 10 a similar module that we developed on Odoo 9 for a customer in German-speaking Switzerland.

Regarding work centers, you can track the percentage of efficiency and identify productivity losses (failure, decreased performance, lack of parts …).

Also, a work center can now be linked to one or more equipments. To recall, the concept of equipment appeared on Odoo 9 to manage employees to material assignments and associated support requests.

Odoo 10 maintenance and quality

Therefore, the “Equipment” module expands too and it is naturally renamed “Maintenance” by the editor.

Indeed, the equipment can now be preventive and/or corrective maintenance. You are free to set the maintenance teams, the categories of your equipment and workflow maintenance.

This “Maintenance” comes as standard with Odoo 10 is undeniably meant to replace the excellent community module suite on the subject; but it may not be the case immediately, as these community modules are more advanced.

For one of our major customers in the building sector in France, the functionality of these modules have been extended to allow to replace equipment components in connection with the inventory management module.
Finally, we regret the lack of connection that persists between equipment in the physical sense and an asset in the accounting sense.

Quality management process begins to dawn as standard in Odoo 10; since OpenERP 6, there is a proven community following modules dealing with this theme. For now, these community modules go beyond the standard currently proposed by the editor.

We have previously seen Odoo 10 recent additions related to manufacturing, life cycle management products, but also the equipment maintenance and quality management. But that’s not all !

Odoo SA, the publisher, worked very well to truly position Odoo as a key ERP for SMEs, MMIs, organizations and subsidiaries of large groups.

Odoo 10 Human Resources

First, regarding expenses, we return to a more conventional operation, where not every line of expenses is submitted for approval to the manager (as was the case in version 9) but lines of expenses that are associated with a global expense sheet.

As a bonus, you now have the option to specify an email address to which your employees send their lines of expenses. Put the reference product and the net amount in the subject of the email, and send it with your attachment so Odoo automatically creates a new line: simple and practical!

Also, since it is an employee who is linked to a line/expense sheet and not a user, an employee who only needs Odoo to enter expenses may not be counted as a paid user in the Enterprise edition (20 € + VAT / month / user). Interesting.

To conclude on the main developments on the Odoo 10 HR module, there is no need to have a user account for an employee who only records its attendances. Now, a central workstation (or tablet) will allow to scan the badge of the employee (with a barcode scanner as a supplement); or, the employee selects and enters his/her personal code.

Odoo 10 helpdesk & ticketing

Then a “Helpdesk” module is new in Odoo 10, or rather reappears as an embryo of the features that existed in Odoo 8 (but not Odoo 9). In Odoo 9, the ticketing functionality is actually in the module “Projects”.

This “Helpdesk” module is intended as a tool for ticketing and universal customer support (customer problems sent by e-mail, “live chat” with visitors to your website, if you use the Odoo module provided for this purpose). Incidentally, this ticketing portion is almost identical to what can be found to deal with incidents related to projects in Odoo 10 or 9.

The essential news is that you can set standard service level agreements (SLAs) to meet these customer demands, by type. Presumably, the standard will replace the very popular community module on the same theme on OpenERP 7 and Odoo 8.

Odoo 10: other improvements

Regarding the other modules, you will not really be disoriented compared to the previous version. Here is what was found after a quick overview: 

• “Sales”: subtotals by sold products lines can be tax-included (in addition to tax-excluded), can lock a customer order (since the latter is changed from version 9), end of the “Service” menu (this theme will now covered by the “Helpdesk” module);
• “Subscriptions”: additional reporting and analysis;
• “Purchases”: change of confirmed purchase orders, definition of framework agreements related to tenders;
• “Projects”: possibility of sending an e-mail to the client when a job goes to a particular stage, notion of subtasks that seems to reappear;
• “Website”: a more complete back-office, the ability to see information from Google Analytics directly in Odoo, better track sources of leads;
• “Client Portal”: your client can now access their projects, tasks and tickets, in addition to  orders, invoices and subscriptions. 

Besides all these improvements and significant functional extensions, Odoo developers should be aware that all modules were eventually migrated to the new API, cleaner and easier to use (which had appeared with Odoo 8). The old API is de facto no longer supported in Odoo 10, which suggests – based on our technical experts at Camptocamp – gains in overall performance.

Last but not least…

Finally, we give you a little tip to prevent you from searching too long… Enabling the developer mode in Odoo 10 is no longer done in the menu “About” accessible by clicking on the top right, but is found in the “Settings” menu on the right (see screenshot below).

In summary, Odoo 10 introduced an overhaul of the management of production with maintenance and quality modules and a lot of small improvements here and there on a functional base already very successful.

A number of innovations have been inspired by the Odoo community, proving its essential importance for the solution to evolve pragmatically, qualitatively and rapidly. That’s why at Camptocamp our team has done the maximum – for over 10 years! – to redistribute the developments we are making to the community.

Do you want to integrate Odoo within your company? You can start by familiarizing yourself with the ergonomics and features by watching this video. Then do not hesitate to contact Camptocamp, Gold Odoo integrator since 2006!