Odoo 19 Enterprise for a drone manufacturer with a regulated parts trail
A part-change register that answers the one question a drone auditor asks: open any airframe by its identification number and see the factory build and every part changed since, across a network of 26 service centres.
Agriculture & defence
R&D and multi-site service
India
Project snapshot
Odoo modules in scope
Custom-built by Ochre
- A drone part-change register: open any airframe by its identification number and see the factory build, every part change since, the date, the service centre, the person and the serial numbers in and out
- Serial-number genealogy: on a closed manufacturing order, component serials are locked against the finished airframe serial as the as-built baseline
- A central-stores certification step, so unverified stock cannot leak into production before it is cleared
- Allocation and acknowledgement between R&D and production verticals, timestamped and running in parallel against the same receipt
- Per-user accountability across 26 service centres: named logins with record rules by location and region, every stock move and payment carrying its author
- Warranty jobs that zero the customer price while still recording the material issue, making warranty cost measurable by drone type and part
The business
This company designs, builds and services drones for agriculture and defence use cases. It runs its own R&D and production lines and supports customers through a service centre network spread across two states. Every drone it ships carries a unique identification number issued under India’s drone rules, which makes the company answerable for that airframe long after it leaves the factory.
What was breaking
The business ran its accounts on a standard package and had no system underneath it for material. That gap showed up in five places.
No single trail for a spare
A part such as a motor or a flight controller moves through procurement, central stores, an internal vertical, a service centre, a customer sale and sometimes a free warranty replacement. Each leg lived in a different sheet or a different person’s head.
A regulatory obligation with no backbone
India’s drone rules require the manufacturer to hold a trail of every part replaced against a drone’s identification number, including replacements after sale. An auditor asking what changed on a specific airframe needed an answer a spreadsheet could not defend.
Many service points, no accountability
Sales and stock movement happen at each service centre, and both cash and material move. Management wanted every entry traceable to a named person, not to a shared branch login.
A handover nobody could see
Material received against a purchase order has to be certified by central stores, then allocated to R&D or a production vertical, then acknowledged by the receiving team. Several ran in parallel, and nothing recorded the acknowledgement. Monthly MIS was compiled by hand, so management always looked at a picture weeks old.
Why Odoo 19 Enterprise
The company was evaluating several platforms when Ochre came in. Three things decided it.
Traceability is native
Odoo tracks products by unique serial number through receipt, manufacturing, internal transfer, delivery and repair, and the lot and serial traceability report reads that history back in one view. The whole chain, from purchase to service to accounting, shares the same product and partner records.
Open at the edges
The parts of the process specific to drone regulation could be built as extensions on top of standard objects rather than as a parallel system, so a part changed at a service centre is the same record the compliance report reads.
Inside the build
Inventory
The central store and all 26 service centres were modelled as stock locations under a warehouse structure, with internal transfer routes between them. Stock on hand, in transit and reserved is visible per location at any moment.
Employees · Studio
Every service centre operator got an individual login. Record rules restrict each operator to their own location, supervisors see their region, and the corporate team sees everything. Every stock move, invoice and payment carries the name of the person who created it.
Purchase · Inventory
Purchase orders track ordered against received quantity, so partial receipts and pending quantities are visible without a side register. Central stores clears each receipt through a certification step before the material becomes available, so unverified stock cannot leak into production.
Inventory · Studio
Internal transfers move certified material to R&D or to a production vertical, and the receiving team acknowledges the transfer in the system, which closes the loop and timestamps the handover. Parallel allocations run independently against the same receipt.
Manufacturing
Each drone type carries a bill of materials. When a manufacturing order closes, the serial numbers of the components consumed are locked against the serial number of the finished airframe. That record is the factory build baseline for every drone shipped.
Repairs · Studio
This is the part that mattered most. Any part replaced after build, at a service centre or in the field, is recorded through a repair order carrying the drone’s serial number, the parts removed and fitted, and whether the work was under warranty. Because a repair posts real stock moves, removed and fitted parts both stay accounted for. Open any drone by its identification number and the screen shows the factory build, every change since, the date, the service centre, the person and the serials in and out. That is the document an auditor asks for.
Repairs · Accounting · Dashboards
Warranty jobs are flagged on the repair order, zeroing the customer price on parts consumed while still recording the material issue, so warranty cost by drone type and part became measurable. Service centres raise GST-compliant invoices from the same records that hold the stock, with proof of payment attached. Purchase against sale, stock by location, spares consumption, warranty cost and ageing are pulled from live data instead of assembled at month end.
The result
The question that used to take a search across sheets and memories, what changed on this airframe since factory build, is now answered from one screen against the drone’s identification number. Every stock move and payment across 26 service centres carries the name of the person who made it, unverified stock cannot reach production without a certification step, and management reads purchase against sale, stock by location and warranty cost from live data rather than a month-end compilation.
Carrying a compliance obligation your spreadsheets cannot defend?
Ochre builds regulated traceability on Odoo 19 Enterprise, from serial-number genealogy to a full part-change audit trail, on top of a standard database your team can extend.
