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A true-to-life transformation of a Malaysian plastic injection moulding factory using Odoo MRP.
🔶 Before Odoo: Chaos Behind Closed Factory Doors
This is the story of Maju Precision Plastics, a mid-sized Malaysian injection moulding factory with 18 machines ranging from 120T to 650T.
From the outside, the factory looked successful.
Inside… everything was falling apart quietly.
1. Production was always behind schedule
Schedulers used Excel. Operators used paper job sheets.
Machines were often idle because:
• The mould wasn’t ready
• The previous job overran
• The material handler hadn’t arrived
• The planner didn’t know the machine finished earlier
Nobody had real-time updates.
Every day, supervisors ran around the shop floor like firefighters.
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2. Material shortages caused unexpected downtime
Material handlers received work instructions via WhatsApp.
Sometimes the wrong material arrived.
Sometimes the material arrived late.
Sometimes masterbatch colour was insufficient.
Every mistake meant:
• Purging
• Restart scrap
• Lost cycle time
• Lost profit
But no one tracked these losses.
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3. Machine breakdowns were frequent
Since maintenance was reactive:
• Oil leaks went unnoticed until the machine locked up
• Heaters burned out in the middle of production
• Sensors failed without warning
• Moulds jammed due to wear
One 350T machine failed three times in two weeks — and each time cost hours of stoppage.
Management had no data to understand why.
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4. QC found defects too late
QC only checked finished batches.
If defects existed early in the run, thousands of pieces were already produced.
And as usual:
• Operator got blamed
• Mould got blamed
• Material got blamed
But the root cause remained unknown.
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5. Nobody knew the TRUE costing
Their pricing was based on “experience”:
• Estimated cycle time
• Estimated scrap rate
• Estimated labour
• Estimated electricity
But injection moulding is a game of seconds.
Wrong estimates mean selling at a loss.
The factory thought they were profitable.
They were not.
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6. The owner felt trapped
Despite working harder, hiring more people, and buying more machines…
Profits didn’t grow.
Headaches did.
The owner, Mr. Tan, said something many Malaysian factory bosses feel:
“We’re producing more than ever…
but somehow making less.”
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🔷 The Turning Point: The Day Mr. Tan Finally Said “Enough”
After losing a major customer due to repeated delays, Mr. Tan made a decision:
“We cannot run this factory like it’s still 2005.
We must digitize.”
His requirement was simple:
“I want to see everything — real time.”
This is when he discovered Odoo MRP.
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⭐ After Odoo: Clarity, Visibility & Profit
The transformation didn’t take years — it took months.
Here’s what changed.
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1. Production became predictable
Odoo showed real-time data:
• Machine status: Running / Idle / Changeover
• Output vs target
• Cycle time trend
• Operator performance
• Expected job completion
Schedulers no longer guessed.
Operators no longer waited for instructions.
Supervisors no longer ran around.
Production became smoother.
Mr. Tan said:
“For the first time in 15 years, I can see exactly what is happening on every machine.”
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2. Material shortages disappeared
Odoo linked:
BOM → Inventory → Purchase → Production
The system warned:
• Material low
• Colour insufficient
• Delivery delayed
• Material needed in 3 days
Material handlers received digital job instructions.
Wrong material issuance dropped to near zero.
Downtime reduced significantly.
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3. Machine breakdowns fell by 30%
Odoo introduced:
• Preventive maintenance scheduling
• Spare part tracking
• Failure pattern analysis
Instead of fixing after failure, maintenance happened before breakdown.
Machines became more reliable.
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4. QC caught defects early — not at the end
Odoo implemented:
• In-process QC
• QC at machine start
• QC per shift
• Digital rejection logs
Defects were detected within minutes.
Not thousands of bad pieces later.
Reject rate dropped dramatically.
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5. Costing finally became accurate
Every job order recorded:
• Actual cycle time
• Actual material usage
• Actual reject rate
• Actual operator time
• Actual machine hours
The costing module recalculated profit per job.
The result shocked Mr. Tan:
“We thought 7 products were profitable.
Actually only 3 were.
The rest were losing money quietly.”
He adjusted prices and focused on high-margin customers.
Profit increased almost immediately.
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6. The factory grew without chaos
With digital clarity:
• Machines produced more
• Overtime dropped
• Operator morale improved
• Customer complaints reduced
• KPIs were transparent
Mr. Tan no longer feared losing customers.
He had full confidence in his operations.
He summed it up best:
“Odoo didn’t just digitize my factory.
It gave me back control.”
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🌟 Conclusion: Odoo MRP Is Not Software — It’s a Turning Point
Plastic injection moulding factories operate on thin margins.
Every minute of downtime… every wrong cycle time… every wrong material…
Costs money.
Odoo MRP stops these losses with:
• Real-time visibility
• Accurate costing
• Preventive maintenance
• Smart material planning
• Proper QC integration
• Data-driven scheduling
Factories that adopt Odoo don’t only become more efficient.
They become more profitable, more competitive, and more resilient.
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📞 Want to See Your Factory’s “Before & After Odoo” Potential?
We help Malaysian injection moulding factories transform step by step.