A manufacturing order is not a static thing; it moves through a defined lifecycle from when it is created to when production is complete. Understanding that lifecycle is part of understanding how production works in Odoo. This piece explains it.
The manufacturing order as the unit of production
A manufacturing order is the request to produce a specific quantity of a product. It is the unit in which production is organised: production happens as manufacturing orders, each one a defined piece of production. And a manufacturing order has a lifecycle, it moves through a defined sequence of states, each state meaning something about where that piece of production stands.
The states of a manufacturing order
A manufacturing order in Odoo moves through a recognisable set of states. It begins as a draft: created but not yet committed, a manufacturing order being prepared. It becomes confirmed: committed, now a real piece of production that the system acts on, components reserved, work orders generated if the BOM has operations. It moves to in progress as production is genuinely under way, the work being done. And it reaches done when production is complete, the order produced. There is also the possibility of cancellation, an order that is not going to be produced. This sequence, from draft, through confirmed and in progress, to done, is the lifecycle of a manufacturing order.
Why the lifecycle matters
The states matter because each one means something definite, and together they make the status of every piece of production clear and visible. At any moment, a manufacturer can see, from its manufacturing orders' states, what is being prepared, what is committed, what is genuinely in progress, what is complete. This is the basis of production visibility: the state of an order is its status, unambiguously. Without a defined lifecycle, the status of a piece of production would be a matter of asking around; with it, the status is in the system.
What happens at the transitions
The transitions between states are meaningful events, not just labels changing. The transition from draft to confirmed is the moment of commitment: it is when the manufacturing order becomes a real piece of production that the system acts on, reserving components, generating work orders. The transition to done is the moment production is recognised as complete, with the finished product produced and, where production was only partial, a backorder potentially created for the remainder. Understanding the lifecycle means understanding that these transitions are where things happen, not just where a status word changes.
The lifecycle and managing production
Understanding the manufacturing order lifecycle is practically useful for managing production. A manufacturer manages its production largely by managing its manufacturing orders through their lifecycle: confirming the orders that should proceed, tracking the in-progress ones, completing the done ones, and seeing, across all the orders and their states, how production stands. Views that show manufacturing orders by their state, such as a Kanban view, present this lifecycle visually, so the whole of production can be seen as orders distributed across their states. The lifecycle is, in a real sense, the structure through which production is managed.
The takeaway
A manufacturing order in Odoo moves through a defined lifecycle: draft, where it is prepared; confirmed, where it is committed and the system acts on it, reserving components and generating work orders; in progress, where production is genuinely under way; and done, where production is complete; with cancellation possible. The states make the status of every piece of production clear and visible, the transitions are meaningful events, and the lifecycle is the structure through which a manufacturer manages production. For how we approach Odoo for manufacturers, see our manufacturing work.