WHAT WE SEE IN THE FIELD
Quality exists, but often outside the operational process
- A supplier delivery arrives at the warehouse.
- Someone checks a sample and records the result in Excel.
- Production starts.
- An operator notices something unusual and tells the supervisor.
- Later, Quality performs another inspection and files the result somewhere else.
By the time management sees the information, the goods may already have moved through several stages of the process.
None of these controls is necessarily wrong. The problem is that the quality process and the operational process are living separately.
The ERP knows that the material was received, moved or manufactured and the quality team knows whether it was acceptable. But those two pieces of information do not always meet.
A better approach is to place the quality control directly at the point where the relevant operation happens.
That is what Odoo Quality allows companies to do.
ODOO QUALITY IN PRACTICE
Put the control where the risk actually exists
In Odoo, Quality Control Points define when a quality check should be generated. They can be associated with specific products or product categories and triggered by operational events such as manufacturing or inventory movements. A control can also be attached to a particular Work Order operation rather than to the Manufacturing Order as a whole.
This changes the role of quality controls.
Instead of someone remembering that a product needs to be inspected, the operational process itself creates the requirement.
Imagine a manufacturer receiving a critical component.
When the receipt is processed, Odoo can request the required quality check before the material continues through the process.
Later, during manufacturing, another control can be triggered at a specific operation.
Before delivery, a final inspection may be required again.
The quality plan therefore follows the product through the operations where quality matters.
And importantly, not everything needs to be checked in the same way.
Odoo can generate checks for every operation, randomly for a defined percentage, periodically, or only on demand. Controls can also apply to an operation as a whole, to individual products or to a defined proportion of the quantity involved.
That gives us room to design the control around the actual risk rather than simply saying:
“Check everything.”
HOW WE WOULD CONFIGURE IT
Start with failure risk, not with the list of available checks
When implementing Quality, we would not start by creating Quality Control Points across every operation.
We would first understand where a failure matters.
- Which incoming materials are critical?
- Which production steps can create defects that are difficult or expensive to correct later?
- Which characteristics need objective measurement?
- Which products justify sampling rather than 100% inspection?
- Which controls are regulatory or customer requirements?
- And what should happen when a check fails?
That last question is particularly important.
A quality process is not defined only by how something is inspected. It is also defined by what happens after the result.
- If a measurement falls outside tolerance, can production continue?
- Does the product need to be quarantined?
- Should the supplier be investigated?
- Does the quality team need to decide whether the product can still be accepted?
- Should a corrective action be opened?
Only once those rules are understood does the Odoo configuration become useful.
For example, a low-risk incoming component may justify a random visual inspection. A critical dimension on a manufactured part may need to be measured on every batch. A final assembly may need explicit instructions before it can move to the next operation.
The controls should reflect the consequence of failure.
QUALITY CHECKS WHERE THE WORK HAPPENS
Operators should not need a second system to prove that quality was checked
Odoo quality checks can be processed directly from Manufacturing Orders, Inventory operations and, where they relate to a Work Order, from the Shop Floor interface.
That matters operationally.
If an operator is already producing a component in Odoo, asking them to stop, open another application, identify the product again and record the inspection elsewhere creates unnecessary friction.
Instead, the control can appear as part of the work they are already performing.
Odoo supports several types of quality check. A control may provide instructions, ask for a photograph, require a pass or fail decision, request a measurement, register consumed materials or production, print a label, or use a structured worksheet or spreadsheet.
The choice should follow the evidence the company actually needs.
- A visual packaging inspection may only need Pass or Fail.
- A precision component may require a recorded measurement.
- A particular assembly may need a photograph for traceability.
- A more complex inspection may require a structured worksheet.
The objective is not to digitise the paper form exactly as it exists today.
It is to capture enough evidence to make the quality decision reliable.
MEASUREMENTS AND TOLERANCES
“Looks acceptable” is not always a quality standard
Some controls require judgement.
Others should not.
Suppose a manufactured part should measure 50 mm, with an acceptable tolerance between 49.8 and 50.2 mm.
Odoo Measure checks can define a norm and tolerance range. The operator records the measured value, and Odoo can determine whether it falls inside or outside the acceptable range.
This provides something more useful than a checkbox saying that inspection happened.
It preserves the actual measurement.
Over time, those values may tell a more interesting story than simple Pass or Fail results.
A product may still be within tolerance while measurements gradually move towards the upper limit.
The individual checks are passing.
The process may nevertheless be changing.
Odoo Quality provides the operational data. Whether the organisation analyses those patterns and responds to them is a management decision.
QUALITY ALERTS
A failed check should lead somewhere
Detecting a problem is only useful if the organisation does something with it.
Odoo Quality Alerts are designed to notify quality teams about defects and other problems. Alerts can be created from manufacturing and inventory operations, from Shop Floor or directly within the Quality application.
This creates an important separation.
- A quality check answers: Did this product or operation meet the defined requirement?
- A quality alert answers: There is a problem. What are we going to do about it?
Those are different processes.
Imagine a component fails the same dimensional check three times in one month.
The immediate issue is the failed component.
The more important question may be why the process keeps producing the same failure.
The answer could be supplier variation, machine calibration, an incorrect setup, tooling wear or another underlying cause.
If every failed check is treated simply as an isolated rejection, the company is controlling defects without necessarily improving quality.
A quality alert gives the organisation a place to investigate and manage the issue rather than losing that information inside the individual transaction.
THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE
Creating a quality check for everything
Once a company sees how easily Odoo can create Quality Control Points, there is a natural temptation to add controls everywhere.
- Every receipt.
- Every operation.
- Every product.
- Every delivery.
The result can look extremely robust on paper.
Operationally, it can become a checkbox factory.
If operators know that 95% of the checks add no value, they will eventually treat all of them as administrative requirements. The important controls then lose credibility together with the irrelevant ones.
We would therefore challenge each control.
- What risk does it address?
- Why is it performed at this particular stage?
- Does it need to happen every time?
- Could sampling provide sufficient control?
- What evidence needs to be recorded?
- What happens when it fails?
A quality check without a clear answer to those questions may simply be another click.
ANOTHER COMMON MISTAKE
Inspecting quality only after the product is finished
Final inspection is important in many businesses.
But relying primarily on final inspection means defects may be discovered after the company has already invested materials, labour and machine time into the product.
Imagine a five-step production process where an error introduced in step two only becomes visible after step five.
The company has now completed three additional operations on something that may need to be scrapped or reworked.
If the relevant characteristic can be controlled after step two, that is often the more useful place for the quality check.
Odoo allows Quality Control Points to be linked to specific Work Order operations, meaning the control can be performed during the manufacturing process rather than waiting until the Manufacturing Order is complete.
This is one of the principles we would use when designing the quality process: detect the problem as close as possible to the point where it can occur.
Earlier detection usually means more options and less wasted work.
OXALYO'S TAKE
Quality should be part of the process, not a department at the end of it
A quality team can define standards, investigate problems and improve processes, it cannot inspect quality into a product after everything else has already happened.
A strong Odoo Quality setup therefore starts with the operational flow.
- Where can something go wrong?
- Where can we detect it?
- How much inspection is justified by the risk?
- What evidence do we need?
- And what process starts when the result is not acceptable?
Odoo then provides the mechanics to embed those decisions into Inventory, Manufacturing and Shop Floor.
The important word is embed.
If production happens in Odoo but quality is still managed through separate spreadsheets, paper forms and conversations, the organisation is maintaining two versions of the same operational reality.
When both processes are connected, quality stops being a final administrative confirmation.
It becomes part of how the product moves through the business.
FAQ: ODOO QUALITY
What is Odoo Quality?
Odoo Quality is used to define and perform quality checks during manufacturing and inventory operations and to manage quality issues through Quality Alerts.
What is a Quality Control Point in Odoo?
A Quality Control Point defines when Odoo should generate a quality check. It can be configured for particular products, product categories and operations, including specific manufacturing Work Orders.
Can Odoo perform quality checks during manufacturing?
Yes. Quality checks can be generated for Manufacturing Orders and specific Work Order operations and can be processed directly in the manufacturing flow or Shop Floor.
Can Odoo perform quality checks when goods are received?
Yes. Quality Control Points can be associated with inventory operations, allowing quality checks to be generated during receipts and other stock movements.
Can Odoo record measurements with tolerances?
Yes. Measure checks can define a target value and acceptable tolerance. Odoo can compare the value recorded by the operator with that range and determine whether the check passes or fails.
Does every product need to be inspected?
No. Quality Control Points can run every time, randomly, periodically or on demand. They can also be configured to inspect only a defined percentage of the relevant quantity.
What is a Quality Alert in Odoo?
A Quality Alert records a defect or other quality issue that needs further attention from the quality team. Alerts can be created from manufacturing, inventory, Shop Floor or directly from the Quality application.
Can Odoo require pictures during a quality inspection?
Yes. One of the available Quality check types requires the operator to attach a picture as part of the inspection.
Are you controlling quality where problems happen, or only discovering them at the end?
If inspections, measurements and non-conformities still live outside the operational process, Odoo Quality can bring those controls directly into Inventory and Manufacturing.
Talk to Oxalyo about your Odoo Quality setup.