Accurate lead times allow businesses to fulfill orders quickly, meeting or exceeding customer expectations
Customer satisfaction is an important component of running a successful business. From the customer’s perspective, knowing when the items will be delivered and receiving them on time helps to build trust and reliability in the company.
Odoo allows us to manage all of these tasks from a single platform and operate more efficiently to push the company forward.
Lead Time in Odoo 17
In Odoo 17, lead time refers to the period between the start and end of a process. Businesses in manufacturing, supply chain management, and project management evaluate lead times at the start, middle, and finish of the process.
Odoo 17 support a wide range of lead times, including customer lead times, vendor lead times, manufacturing lead times, and security lead times for sales, purchasing, and manufacturing. In this blog, we will go into great detail on Odoo 17’s lead time.
So, the various lead times accessible in Odoo
Customer Lead Time:
Customer lead times for a product can be specified at the product level. In the product’s inventory tab, we may add the customer lead time.
Security Lead Time for sales:
The security lead time for sales in Odoo helps to add days to the estimated delivery date.
This works on any delays that may occur during product delivery and guarantees that the consumer receives their item on time; that is, when we use the delivery lead time feature, the product is delivered to the customer before the expected delivery date.
This is the general security lead time, which will be applied to all items. For that, go to Inventory --> Configuration --> Settings.
Under Advanced Scheduling, we have the option ‘Security Lead Time for Sales.’ When we enable it, a field appears in which we can enter the number of days to move the projected delivery date forward.
Delivery lead time:
The number of days between when we place an order with the vendor and when those things appear in our store is also known as vendor lead time or purchase lead time. Vendor lead times can be found on the product’s purchase tab.
Security Lead Time for Purchase:
The security Lead Time for Purchase option in Odoo 17 allows you to add extra days to the estimated delivery date to account for any unexpected vendor delays.
So the receipt deadline will be pushed up by that many days. This is the general security lead time, which will be applied to all items. For that, go to Inventory → Configuration --> Settings.
Under Advanced Scheduling, we may select security Lead Time for Purchase. When we allow this, a field will appear where we can input the days we want to shift the receipt deadline forward.
Manufacturing Lead Time:
Manufacturing lead time is the number of days required to make a product from raw materials. The manufacturing lead time for a product can be found on the miscellaneous tab of the Bills of Materials.
Security Lead Time for Manufacturing:
Security lead time in manufacturing is scheduling the manufacturing order earlier by the specified number of days to avoid potential delays. This is the overall security lead time that will be applied to the entire production.
To do so, go to Manufacturing --> Configuration --> Settings, and under planning, there is an option called ‘Security Lead Time’, which when activated displays a field where you may enter the number of days to arrange manufacturing orders earlier to avoid delays.
To get a better understanding of the lead times in Odoo 17, we may look at a specific case.
Suppose we own ABC company that sells office furniture and has various readily available products. We also accept customization orders from consumers and build products to meet their specific demands.
On May 4th, we received an order from the customer ‘Azure Interior’ for a customized desk. We must manufacture the product because we do not have it in stock. The products BOM comprise wood and steel.
Our stock of raw materials includes wood, but steel must be acquired. We want to purchase the steel from one of our trusted dealers, Wood Corner. We will require 3 days to manufacture the product, thus the production lead time can be three days.
Since Azure Interior is one of our faithful customers, we must ensure that the order is delivered on time and without delay. So we may set the security lead time for manufacture at two days, allowing the manufacturing process to begin two days earlier.
To begin production, we will first acquire the raw material steel from the vendor, and the vendor will deliver the product in 4 days, resulting in a 4-day purchase lead time for that product from that vendor.
To avoid any delays in obtaining the product from the vendor, we can add two security data for purchase, which will bring the deadline for receipt from the vendor forward by that number of days. The customer lead time for the product is specified as 16 days.
The order was placed on May 4th and is scheduled to be delivered to the customer on May 20th. The security lead time for sales is three days, and the scheduled delivery date is three days earlier, on May 17th.
We have specified a security lead time of two days and a production lead time of three days, so the last date to begin manufacturing the product is May 12th.
To begin the manufacturing process, raw materials must be received, and with a vendor lead time of 4 days and a security lead time of 2 days, the final date to confirm the purchase order is May 6th.
As a result, we can efficiently ensure customer satisfaction by accurately accounting for all lead times when managing delivery methods. Customer satisfaction is an important factor in running a successful business.
Managing all lead times is significantly easier in Odoo 17 since it can be done from a single platform, allowing for efficient maintenance of all manufacturing, reception, and delivery activities.
