This really relates to manufacturing which I know does not exist as a module in Zoho however... As Inventory stands it has the "beginnings" of a Bill of Materials however as it is only partially implemented and Zoho use its own terms for describing how raw material, item and composite item inventory is managed it all gets very confusing and fails to quite deliver a practical solution although it is so close you can smell it.

I am interested to know how anyone else has tackled the issue of a manufacturer producing finished goods (being composite items) using raw materials listed in inventory but without holding any stock on hand... all raw materials are ordered on a just-in-time basis on the basis of a customer order being accepted. Finished goods are also not held in inventory as they are only produced to order.

Whilst you can raise a Sales Order for the Composite Items, all that occurs is recognition of the Composite Items being committed qty. You can't actually create a bundle in relation to the customer sales order because you have no stock on hand. The dilemma is that you then can't order the stock until you know what is required and there is no report or means of identifying the backorder requirements for raw materials required to fulfil the required Bundles.

Let's take a simple example... I produce timber sheets that have 2 raw material items - core timber panel and timber veneer to be glued to both surfaces. To produce this sheet I then add some labour (a service item). I have now defined my composite item. Customer XYZ order 25 of these sheets to be made up in which case I create a bundle of 25 of the composite item. Wrong... no can do because I have no stock of the raw material. I now need the system to enable me to somehow create a Purchase Order (or backorder) on 25 timber cores panels from Supplier A and 50 laminate sheets from Supplier B and when I view the PO/Backorder I can see that those raw material items are allocated to the Sales Order for Customer XYZ. When they arrive and received into stock I know I can start manufacturing.  If another customer places an order for the same finished product (a mix of the particular timber panel with the same laminate selection) then that would raise its own PO/BO. 

Anyone had any experience with this sort of situation and actually managed to implement a working solution? I am keen to hear from anyone who can provide a solution for this?

Thanking you... Greg