Not every manufacturing decision should simply happen because someone made it; some should be approved first. This piece is about setting up a manufacturing approval workflow in Odoo.
What an approval workflow is for
An approval workflow makes a particular action require a deliberate approval before it takes effect. Rather than the action happening the moment someone initiates it, it is held until someone with the appropriate authority approves it. The purpose is control: for actions where it matters that they are deliberately authorised, an approval workflow ensures they are, by someone who can judge them, rather than just happening.
Where approval workflows fit in manufacturing
In a manufacturing operation, there are decisions and actions where approval genuinely adds value, and decisions where it does not. Approval fits where an action is consequential enough that it should be deliberately authorised: significant decisions, things with real cost or risk, changes that should be reviewed. A clear example, covered elsewhere, is engineering change: a change to a product should be approved before it takes effect, which is what the engineering change order workflow provides. Beyond that, a manufacturer may identify other manufacturing actions where it wants an approval step. The first task in setting up a manufacturing approval workflow is deciding where approval genuinely belongs.
Deciding where approval belongs, and where it does not
This deciding is the most important part, and it requires honesty in both directions. Approval should be put where it genuinely adds control worth the friction it introduces, on the consequential, the costly, the risky. Approval should not be put on routine, low-consequence actions, because there it adds friction, slows the operation, and provides little real control. An operation cluttered with approval steps on everything becomes slow and bureaucratic, and the approvals become rubber stamps because there are too many to take seriously. Setting up a manufacturing approval workflow well means a focused set of approvals, on the things that genuinely warrant them, and leaving routine actions to flow.
Setting it up in Odoo
Odoo supports approval, both through specific capabilities like the engineering change order workflow and through Odoo's broader ability to require approval steps in processes. Setting up a manufacturing approval workflow means establishing, for the actions the manufacturer has decided should be approved, that they require approval before taking effect, and who approves them. It is partly configuring the system to require the approval and partly establishing the manufacturer's own approval process, who has the authority, how the approval is given, within it.
Approval must be a genuine decision
For an approval workflow to be worth having, the approval must be a genuine decision, not a formality. This is the same point that applies to engineering change approval: an approval given without real consideration, a rubber stamp, provides the form of control without the substance. Setting up a manufacturing approval workflow well means not only requiring the approval but ensuring that whoever approves genuinely engages with what they are approving, and has the authority and knowledge to judge it. The workflow provides the gate; the genuine decision is what makes the gate real.
The takeaway
Setting up a manufacturing approval workflow in Odoo makes certain manufacturing actions require deliberate approval before they take effect, for control over consequential decisions. The most important part is deciding where approval genuinely belongs, on the consequential, costly, or risky, and not cluttering routine actions with it, since too many approvals make the operation slow and the approvals meaningless. Odoo supports approval through specific capabilities and its broader process capabilities. And the approval must be a genuine decision, by someone with the authority and knowledge to judge it, not a rubber stamp. For how we approach Odoo for manufacturers, see our manufacturing work.