Lead times

Lead times in Odoo Inventory let a business schedule manufacturing, purchasing and delivery accurately, so that customer orders are fulfilled on time.

What lead times do

A lead time is the number of days a stage of the order process is expected to take. Odoo combines several lead time settings to calculate realistic dates for sales orders, purchase orders and manufacturing orders, and to warn when a requested date is not achievable.

Sales lead times

Two settings affect the expected delivery date shown on a sales order:

• Customer Lead Time: set on the Inventory tab of each product, this is the number of calendar days from order confirmation to shipping.
• Security Lead Time for Sales: a global buffer set in Inventory > Configuration > Settings, under Advanced Scheduling, which moves the scheduled delivery date earlier to leave preparation time.

For orders with several products on different lead times, the Shipping Policy field on the quotation’s Other Info tab controls the scheduled date: As soon as possible uses the shortest lead time among the products, and When all products are ready uses the longest.

Purchase lead times

On a request for quotation, the Order Deadline is the last day to confirm it, and the Expected Arrival is calculated as the order deadline plus the vendor’s lead time. Three settings feed into this:

• Vendor Lead Time: set per vendor, on the Purchase tab of a product’s vendor pricelist.
• Security Lead Time for Purchase: a global buffer, set in Inventory > Configuration > Settings, that widens the forecast window used by reordering rules and make to order, without changing the RFQ’s own dates.
• Days to Purchase: also set in Configuration > Settings, the number of days a vendor typically needs to confirm an RFQ.

Manufacturing lead times

Manufacturing lead times are configured on a product’s bill of materials, in the Miscellaneous tab:

• Manuf. Lead Time: the calendar days needed to manufacture the product. The manufacturing order’s scheduled date is calculated as the expected delivery date minus this lead time.
• Days to Prepare Manufacturing Order: the days needed to gather or manufacture components. Clicking Compute sets this to the longest lead time among the bill of materials’ components.
• Security Lead Time: set globally in Manufacturing > Configuration > Settings under Planning, this pushes the manufacturing order’s scheduled date earlier as a buffer.

Lead times are always calculated in calendar days and do not account for weekends, holidays or work centre capacity.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between customer lead time and sales security lead time?

Customer lead time is the number of days from order confirmation to shipping, set per product. Sales security lead time is a global buffer, in days, added on top to protect against delays.

Where is the manufacturing lead time set?

On the product’s bill of materials, in the Miscellaneous tab, in the Manuf. Lead Time field.

Do lead times account for weekends and holidays?

No, lead times in Odoo are calculated in calendar days and do not account for weekends, holidays or work centre capacity.

Need help?

Need help configuring lead times in Odoo Inventory or Manufacturing? Contact support@thoughtlogik.com or see our Odoo optimisation services.