How to Digitize Your Entire Print Workflow Using Odoo ERP

Most print shop delays don’t come from bad operators or lazy planners. They come from a broken workflow. One that looks smooth on a whiteboard but falls apart in real life.

You’ve seen it:

• Sales promises a timeline- without checking stock.
  
• The prepress team waits for specs stuck in someone’s inbox.
  
• Operators set up the press, only to discover that someone approved the wrong version.
  
• The team runs the job, then reruns it, because no one completed or logged the QC steps.

And all of it happens while dashboards say “green.”

That’s not just frustrating-it’s expensive.

According to Access Group’s workflow audit data, packaging and print manufacturers lose up to 20–30% of daily productivity from untracked bottlenecks, unclear job flows, or missing approvals. In high-volume shops, that translates to tens of thousands lost per month.

And it’s not for lack of tools. Most teams already use MIS platforms, CRMs, spreadsheets, scheduling boards, Dropbox folders, and a dozen PDFs to manage each job.

But the problem isn’t the number of tools. It’s that they don’t talk to each other.

Digitization Doesn’t Mean “Adding Software”

When people hear “digitizing your workflow,” they think it means more tech. Another dashboard. Another tab and another training session.

That’s not what Odoo does.

Odoo doesn’t add to your chaos. It connects it.

• A quote becomes a job card.
  
• The job card pulls the correct BOM and specs.
  
• The work order triggers real-time inventory and machine assignments.
  
• QC checks are embedded into routing steps.
  
• And shift handovers no longer live in a notebook.
  

Each part of your workflow-quote, prepress, production, dispatch-becomes part of a single, trackable, correctable system.

That’s what digitization actually means. Not more apps. Fewer handoffs. Fewer reruns and Fewer surprises.

The Manual Print Workflow: Where It Breaks Down

Even in plants with modern machines, teams still rely on a patchwork of spreadsheets, folders, and habits to hold the workflow together.

1. Here’s What That Looks Like in Real Life:

1. Sales creates a quote in Excel or PrintSmith.
   
2. They email the quote for approval-sometimes to finance, sometimes to the client, sometimes both.
   
3. After approval, someone prints the job ticket and hands it to the planning team.
   
4. Prepress pulls the files from email or a shared folder-if they’re there.
   
5. Operators read a printed spec sheet that may or may not be current.
   
6. Team members fill out QC logs by hand and scribble shift notes on the back of job cards.
   

At each step, someone has to chase someone else. And at any point, the job can go off-track because:

• Someone used the wrong version of the artwork.
  
• No one flagged the missing die.
  
• Materials weren’t reserved.
  
• Copied setup instructions from an old job that didn’t match this one.
  

It’s not that people aren’t doing their jobs. It’s that the workflow has too many gaps.

2. Common Breakdown Points

These aren’t edge cases-they’re daily realities.

According to the PRINTING United Alliance’s 2023 State of the Industry Update, over 60% of plants experience production delays weekly due to incomplete job information or unclear handoffs.

And as jobs get more customized, shorter-run, and deadline-sensitive, the risk compounds.

3. Why Excel, MIS, and Email Can’t Fix This

Excel doesn’t know what stock is in the warehouse. Print MIS tools don’t always connect to production planning. And email threads are invisible to everyone who wasn’t CC’d.

That’s not a workflow. That’s a patchwork.

Digitizing your print process doesn’t mean tossing what works. It means connecting what’s already happening, so teams stop wasting time asking “Where’s the file?” or “What changed on this job?”

What a Digital Workflow Looks Like in Odoo (With Real Job Data Flow)

The key shift isn’t new software-it’s a new flow of information. In Odoo, quoting, job creation, production, and dispatch aren’t separate steps. They’re connected, and each action triggers the next.

Here’s how that works:

Stage 1: Sales Quote with Built-In Accuracy

• Sales team builds a quote in the Sales module.
  
• Odoo pulls real-time data from Inventory: stock levels, batch status, reorder alerts.
  
• It links to actual BOMs and routing from MRP: no more guessing about setup steps or material costs.
  
• Triggers margin alerts and approval rules automatically when a quote misses set thresholds.
  

Once the quote is approved?

One click → Job card gets generated.

Stage 2: Job Card That’s Already Ready

• Odoo builds the Work Order directly from the quote and BOM.
  
• It includes:
  
  • Machine routing (print → die-cut → fold → glue)
    
  • Setup notes from sales
    
  • File attachments (artwork, dielines, approval forms)
    
  • Material reservations from Inventory
    
• Operators see the job card in real time-no printing, no chasing.
  

If shift 1 finishes printing and shift 2 takes over gluing? The handoff is digital, tracked right in the work order.

Stage 3: Quality & Maintenance Built In

• QC checkpoints are embedded into the workflow:
  
  • Visual checks before press start
    
  • Barcode scans at key transitions
    
  • Deviation logs and photo uploads
    
• Maintenance logs and machine availability sync with planning.
  
  • Odoo alerts planners during scheduling if any machine enters preventive service.
    
  • Operators can flag issues directly from the floor.
    

Stage 4: Dispatch Without Guesswork

• As soon as production completes, Inventory updates in real time.
  
• Dispatch teams see:
  
  • Which jobs passed QC
    
  • What’s boxed and ready
    
  • What still needs final approval or packing
    
• Odoo links each delivery to the original job and sales order, eliminating the need for manual re-entry.
  

What Gets Unlocked

When every team works from the same data, departments naturally stay aligned.

It’s not about one big change. It’s about removing the need to re-enter or recheck at every stage. And that adds up-fast.

What the Job Flow Looks Like – When It’s Not a Mess

Everyone talks about “workflow visibility,” but in most shops, what really happens is this:

• Sales finishes a quote and emails it to planning.
  
• Planning prints the job card and hands it off.
  
• The operator squints at it and asks, “Is this even the latest file?”
  
• And when the shift changes? Teams lose half the job details by the next morning.
  

This is what happens when quoting, inventory, production, and dispatch aren’t talking to each other.

Now, here’s how it looks when they are.

Step 1: Quoting That Doesn’t Need a Follow-Up

Tool: Odoo Sales Module

Sales builds the quote directly inside Odoo. The system pulls live prices from your parts list and checks inventory on the spot. If margin is too low, finance gets pinged right then.

No “let me confirm and get back to you.” The quote is ready to move the moment it’s approved.

What changes:

• Material availability is already confirmed
  
• Margin rules are already enforced
  
• No one’s chasing spreadsheets to double-check
  

Step 2: Job Card Auto-Builds Itself

Tools: Odoo MRP + Inventory

Once the quote is approved, Odoo spins up the full work order. It doesn’t just give you a job number-it pulls in:

• All the routing steps: print, die-cut, fold, glue
  
• Attached files (no one’s emailing PDFs last minute)
  
• Operator instructions
  
• Assigned machine based on live capacity
  
• Materials already reserved- nothing gets double-booked
  

What changes:

• Job cards show up with everything inside
  
• Operators stop guessing what spec to follow
  
• Planners don’t have to call around asking what’s ready
  

Step 3: QC Built Into the Actual Job

Tool: Odoo Quality Module

Instead of doing quality checks when something goes wrong, Odoo puts the checks right inside the workflow. Each step can ask for visual confirmation, photo uploads, or approval before continuing.

If the job fails a QC check, it’s blocked-automatically.

What changes:

• Operators don’t skip steps because they can’t
  
• Managers see the issue as it happens, not after
  
• Fixes happen on the floor, not after rework
  

Step 4: Handoffs Don’t Break the Chain

Tools: MRP Notes + Dashboards

No more guessing where the last shift left off. With Odoo, shift notes go straight into the job card.

One operator can write: “Adjusted ink flow to prevent streaking.”
The next team sees it before they even press ‘Start.’

What changes:

• Teams walk in knowing what’s done, what’s left
  
• Notes don’t get lost in notebooks
  
• Recurring problems get spotted faster
  

Step 5: Shipping Starts Without Waiting

Tools: Odoo Delivery + Inventory

Once the job clears QC, Odoo knows it’s ready to ship. Labels print, delivery is logged, and stock updates in real time-no clipboard, no lag.

What changes:

• Dispatch doesn’t wait for manual sign-off
  
• Everything ties back to the original job
  
• Delivery status is visible to the sales team without asking
  

Recap: What It Looked Like Before vs. After

How It All Comes Together: ERP Isn’t Extra Work – It’s the System That Stops the Firefighting

If you’ve ever built a workaround just to get a job out the door-chased down a quote, triple-checked inventory manually, or told your team to “just run it and we’ll fix it later”-then you already know the cost of not having a connected system.

What Odoo does is simple: it replaces those reactive moments with proactive ones.

• Instead of “Do we have enough stock?” → You already know.
  
• Instead of “Who approved this spec?” → It’s logged with the job.
  
• Instead of “Why didn’t QC catch this?” → The check was required before moving forward.
  

Each fix feels small in isolation. But when every team is working from the same set of real-time data-quoting, planning, production, QC, and dispatch-it removes the gaps where errors used to hide.

And that’s the real point of digitizing your workflow. Not to add new steps. But to remove the ones you didn’t even realize you were wasting time on.

Let’s Map Your Actual Workflow – Not Just Your Software

Most plants don’t need more software. They need less stress. Less rework. Less time spent chasing approvals, stock checks, or job specs.

At Softeko, we don’t pitch platforms-we start with your actual process. The one that runs across your quoting, job cards, approvals, and dispatch.

We’ll walk through:

• Where the handoffs are breaking
  
• What gets lost between sales and production
  
• How your floor teams are working around the system-because the system doesn’t work for them
  

And we’ll show you exactly where Odoo ERP closes those gaps with live data and real workflows.

Schedule a free workflow mapping session – no slides, no sales script. Just your jobs, your teams, and what it’ll take to stop the delays.

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