Need help in modelling requirements for a catering business

[senthilcool]

Hi,

I am looking at building something for a catering business. I have looked at the demos of OFBiz and have seen what it offers for order, inventory, product and facility management. I need some suggestions on how to map my requirements to the features offered by OFBiz.

The basic idea is that the system is fed with the fixed menu offered by the business and also the ingredients required to make each item in the menu. Somebody (event manager?) enters the order (lets call it catering order) for an event (say 200 dinners ...). This is used to create a corresponding order of the actual ingredients required and sent to the stores department. The stores department will need to see what is available in stock and procure the items not in stock.

Based on my understanding of OFBiz, I think my requirements can be incorporated in the following manner:
1. Use the ecommerce application to accept the catering order from the items in the menu
2. Automatically create a sales order for the actual ingredients required to cook the catering order
3. Depending on the inventory, automatically create a purchase order for the ingredients not in stock
4. Use the "Receive Items" feature of the purchase order to update the inventory after procurment

Following are the questions I have:
1. Is my design going in the right direction!
2. How would I model the menu items and the ingredients for each item? Menu items are used in the catering order and ingredients are used in the sales/purchase order. I guess the ingredients are the products in OFBiz.
3. Should the catering order be modelled as just another sales order?  For every sales order, I will also need to keep track of the corresponding catering order. How would I do this?
4. Is there a way to automatically create a purchase order for all the missing items in the inventory required to fulfill all the approved sales orders at any point of time?

Thanks for your help.

cheers,
senthil

[Anil Patel-3]

Senthil,
Ofbiz demo data has sample of PIZZA product. You can order it from  
ecommerce application. This simple example that will give you good  
start to design your system.

Regards
Anil Patel


On Aug 8, 2009, at 8:59 PM, Senthil Saivam wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am looking at building something for a catering business. I have  
> looked at the demos of OFBiz and have seen what it offers for order,  
> inventory, product and facility management. I need some suggestions  
> on how to map my requirements to the features offered by OFBiz.
>
> The basic idea is that the system is fed with the fixed menu offered  
> by the business and also the ingredients required to make each item  
> in the menu. Somebody (event manager?) enters the order (lets call  
> it catering order) for an event (say 200 dinners ...). This is used  
> to create a corresponding order of the actual ingredients required  
> and sent to the stores department. The stores department will need  
> to see what is available in stock and procure the items not in stock.
>
> Based on my understanding of OFBiz, I think my requirements can be  
> incorporated in the following manner:
> 1. Use the ecommerce application to accept the catering order from  
> the items in the menu
> 2. Automatically create a sales order for the actual ingredients  
> required to cook the catering order
> 3. Depending on the inventory, automatically create a purchase order  
> for the ingredients not in stock
> 4. Use the "Receive Items" feature of the purchase order to update  
> the inventory after procurment
>
> Following are the questions I have:
> 1. Is my design going in the right direction!
> 2. How would I model the menu items and the ingredients for each  
> item? Menu items are used in the catering order and ingredients are  
> used in the sales/purchase order. I guess the ingredients are the  
> products in OFBiz.
> 3. Should the catering order be modelled as just another sales  
> order?  For every sales order, I will also need to keep track of the  
> corresponding catering order. How would I do this?
> 4. Is there a way to automatically create a purchase order for all  
> the missing items in the inventory required to fulfill all the  
> approved sales orders at any point of time?
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> cheers,
> senthil

[Yoke Power]

Hi Senthil,
Good luck with your new product for the catering business. I believe you are
heading in the right direction. Let me add my perspective to it

Ofbiz has a Suite of back office applications including Party, Catalog,
Accounting (AP, AR), Manufacturing, Order and the front office application
which is eCommerce

*Party* -

   - Configure your Company for Accounting
   - Configure customers (who is ordering food), or they could create a
   account online using the eCommerce Module
   - Configure Suppliers (for the raw materials like Wheat, Rice, Flour etc)
   or in some cases you will be buying finished products from outside party

*Catalog* -

   - Add all your ingredients with the Product type Goods etc
   - Add your product to be delivered e.g. Thali etc as Finished good etc,
   You could create deliverable produts using the Manufacturing module using
   the ingredients that have configured in the previous step

*Order Manager*

   - Purchase Order to your Suppliers for buying ingredients
   - Customers could place order using the phone and your Customer Support
   could add Sales Order on behalf of your customers if the customers call in
   by phone.

*eCommerce*

   - Customers could place order directly using internet


*Facility
*

   - * *Configure your warehouse and Use the Receive Orders to manage your
   inventory in your warehouse.

*Manufacturing *

   - Configure your Food production process using Manufacturing module.
   Track the inventory of the ingredients based on the food production process;
   You will be configuring your food production process namely time to produce
   the food, ingredients required for the food. When ever you need the food run
   the Production Job this will update your inventory, Work effort etc based on
   the configuration.

Your questions
- Your sales order is your catering order, but by setting up Manufacturing
module for the food you could link your sales order with the inventory, work
effort etc.
- You may want to replenish your inventory based on the QOH and ATP and may
be not wait for the sales order to come thru. I believe you may have to
create purchase order manually based on the inventory level; I'm not aware
of an automatic replenishment

Regards
Sakthi





On Sun, Aug 9, 2009 at 5:09 AM, Anil Patel <[hidden email]>wrote:

> Senthil,
> Ofbiz demo data has sample of PIZZA product. You can order it from
> ecommerce application. This simple example that will give you good start to
> design your system.
>
> Regards
> Anil Patel
>
>
>
> On Aug 8, 2009, at 8:59 PM, Senthil Saivam wrote:
>
>  Hi,
>>
>> I am looking at building something for a catering business. I have looked
>> at the demos of OFBiz and have seen what it offers for order, inventory,
>> product and facility management. I need some suggestions on how to map my
>> requirements to the features offered by OFBiz.
>>
>> The basic idea is that the system is fed with the fixed menu offered by
>> the business and also the ingredients required to make each item in the
>> menu. Somebody (event manager?) enters the order (lets call it catering
>> order) for an event (say 200 dinners ...). This is used to create a
>> corresponding order of the actual ingredients required and sent to the
>> stores department. The stores department will need to see what is available
>> in stock and procure the items not in stock.
>>
>> Based on my understanding of OFBiz, I think my requirements can be
>> incorporated in the following manner:
>> 1. Use the ecommerce application to accept the catering order from the
>> items in the menu
>> 2. Automatically create a sales order for the actual ingredients required
>> to cook the catering order
>> 3. Depending on the inventory, automatically create a purchase order for
>> the ingredients not in stock
>> 4. Use the "Receive Items" feature of the purchase order to update the
>> inventory after procurment
>>
>> Following are the questions I have:
>> 1. Is my design going in the right direction!
>> 2. How would I model the menu items and the ingredients for each item?
>> Menu items are used in the catering order and ingredients are used in the
>> sales/purchase order. I guess the ingredients are the products in OFBiz.
>> 3. Should the catering order be modelled as just another sales order?  For
>> every sales order, I will also need to keep track of the corresponding
>> catering order. How would I do this?
>> 4. Is there a way to automatically create a purchase order for all the
>> missing items in the inventory required to fulfill all the approved sales
>> orders at any point of time?
>>
>> Thanks for your help.
>>
>> cheers,
>> senthil
>>
>
>

[Pal Infocom Technologies-2]

Ofbiz has demo data where different types of sample products are created. Take the example of  Configurable PC. Order this product from ecommerce application. This will help you to structure your catering business products.  
start to design your system.

If you need any further support on how to do this, please feel free to email us at [e-mail]

--
Best regards,
Ajay S

PIC Technologies,
Mohali

senthilcool wrote

Hi,

I am looking at building something for a catering business. I have looked at the demos of OFBiz and have seen what it offers for order, inventory, product and facility management. I need some suggestions on how to map my requirements to the features offered by OFBiz.

The basic idea is that the system is fed with the fixed menu offered by the business and also the ingredients required to make each item in the menu. Somebody (event manager?) enters the order (lets call it catering order) for an event (say 200 dinners ...). This is used to create a corresponding order of the actual ingredients required and sent to the stores department. The stores department will need to see what is available in stock and procure the items not in stock.

Based on my understanding of OFBiz, I think my requirements can be incorporated in the following manner:
1. Use the ecommerce application to accept the catering order from the items in the menu
2. Automatically create a sales order for the actual ingredients required to cook the catering order
3. Depending on the inventory, automatically create a purchase order for the ingredients not in stock
4. Use the "Receive Items" feature of the purchase order to update the inventory after procurment

Following are the questions I have:
1. Is my design going in the right direction!
2. How would I model the menu items and the ingredients for each item? Menu items are used in the catering order and ingredients are used in the sales/purchase order. I guess the ingredients are the products in OFBiz.
3. Should the catering order be modelled as just another sales order?  For every sales order, I will also need to keep track of the corresponding catering order. How would I do this?
4. Is there a way to automatically create a purchase order for all the missing items in the inventory required to fulfill all the approved sales orders at any point of time?

Thanks for your help.

cheers,
senthil