1. Overview

Glass Manufacturing Management turns Dolibarr into a genuine glassworks ERP/MES. It covers the complete life cycle of a glass plant, from the vitrifiable batch recipe through to the product shipped on its rack: batching, melting, forming, annealing, secondary processing (tempering, lamination, insulating glazing, decoration) and standard-based quality control.

The module is designed so that a glassworks no longer needs any software outside Dolibarr: no batch spreadsheet, no paper furnace logbook, no separate breakage-tracking application.

1.1 Trades covered

Trade	Coverage
Flat glass / float	Tin bath, ribbon, cutting, thicknesses, coatings
Hollow glass / containers	IS machines, gobs, moulds, rings, gob weight
Processed glass / glaziery	Tempering, PVB lamination, double and triple glazing, edgework
Technical / borosilicate glass	Laboratory ware, thermal shock resistance, ISO 719
Art glass / blown / crystal	Pot furnaces, blowing irons, one-off pieces, lead crystal

 

1.2 Key figures

·       29 dedicated business objects, each with a searchable list, a column selector and a detail card.

·       32 granular permissions spread over 10 functional groups.

·       36 menu entries plus an in-page tab bar synchronised with the Dolibarr left menu.

·       16 situation reports, each exportable to CSV, Excel, Word and PDF.

·       635 translation keys in 5 languages, all module-prefixed to avoid cross-module collisions.

·       A versioned demonstration dataset that can be installed and cleared from the setup page.

 

2. Functional scope

2.1 Batch composition and raw materials

·       Glass batch recipes: glass family (soda-lime, borosilicate, crystal, opal, technical), weight percentages of silica, soda, lime, alumina, magnesia and other oxides, density, expansion coefficient, refractive index, characteristic temperatures (melting, working, Littleton, annealing), target cullet rate, recipe versioning and validation status.

·       Vitrifiable raw materials: silica sand, soda ash, limestone, dolomite, feldspar, sulphate, nitrate, borax, colouring and decolouring oxides. Each material carries its particle size, iron content in ppm, purity, moisture, bulk density, minimum stock, stock in tons, price per ton and lead time.

·       Material lots and analyses: full traceability per lot, supplier certificate, chemical analysis (SiO2, Na2O, CaO, Al2O3, Fe2O3), receipt date, conformity flag and quality blocking.

·       Cullet: internal or external origin, incorporation rate, sorting by tint, impurity rate and the associated energy saving.

2.2 Melting and furnaces

·       Furnace fleet: tank furnaces (regenerative and recuperative), electric furnaces and pot furnaces, with daily capacity, tank volume, burner count, refractory type, campaign start date, planned campaign length and refractory wear rate.

·       Melting campaigns: nominal versus actual pull, crown, tank, throat and feeder temperatures, gas and electricity consumption, kWh per ton of glass, refining quality and bubbles per kilogram.

·       Furnace alerts: temperature drift, end of refractory campaign, abnormal pull.

2.3 Forming and production

·       Forming lines and machines: IS machine (sections, moulds, rate), float bath, drawing, pressing, blow-blow, press-blow, spinning and casting.

·       Work orders across eight stages: batching, melting, forming, annealing, processing, inspection, packaging and shipping, with launched, good and scrapped quantities, planned and actual dates, progress and yield.

·       Routings and operations: setup time, unit time, work centre, assigned operator, actual time and load variance.

·       Forming records: rate, gob weight, gob temperature, scrap rate at the station, stops and micro-stops, and OEE.

·       Moulds and tooling: rings, blank moulds, blow moulds and float moulds, with cycles performed, theoretical service life, wear rate and refurbishment due date.

·       Workshop kanban by stage and an eight-week rolling load plan per line.

2.4 Annealing and secondary processing

·       Annealing (lehr): cooling curve, soak plateau, cooling rate, residual stress measured with a polariscope and conformity flag.

·       Thermal and chemical tempering: surface stress in MPa, fragmentation test (fragment count), flatness and bow, conformity to EN 12150.

·       Lamination: PVB, EVA or SGP interlayer, thickness, autoclave cycle (pressure, temperature, duration), optical quality, conformity to EN 14449.

·       Insulating glazing: double or triple build-up, spacer (aluminium, warm-edge), fill gas (argon, krypton) and fill rate, Ug value, solar factor g, light transmission, acoustic reduction Rw and conformity to EN 1279.

·       Edgework: flat ground, arrised, polished, drilled, notched and bevelled edges.

·       Decoration: screen printing, enamelling, sand blasting, acid etching, lacquering, metallising and engraving, with colour count, decorating lehr and adhesion test.

2.5 Quality, defects and breakage

·       Standard-based inspections: internal stress, thickness, flatness, dimensions, thermal shock, mechanical strength and light transmission, referencing ISO 719, EN 12150, EN 1279, EN 14449, EN 1096 and EN 572.

·       Glass defect catalogue: bubble, seed, stone, cord, string, devitrification, scratch, chip, geometrical and optical defects, each with criticality and zone.

·       Non-conformities: opening, root-cause analysis, corrective action, cost of poor quality and recurrence tracking.

·       Breakage and scrap: rate per station, per line and per cause, financial valuation and reinjection as internal cullet.

2.6 Logistics, stock and shipping

·       Finished goods stock by reference, tint, thickness and format, with packaging type (pallet, rack, crate, box), warehouse location and minimum stock.

·       Shipments: rack or crate, total weight, square metres, glass carrier, rack deposit and delivery note.

·       Rack deposits are valued and tracked until the support is returned.

2.7 Energy, CSR and maintenance

·       Energy and CO2: gas, electricity and oxygen consumption per furnace and period, kWh per ton of glass, CO2 emissions and the energy saving attributable to cullet.

·       Maintenance: preventive and corrective work, mould changes, refractory repairs, machine downtime, MTBF, MTTR and maintenance cost.

·       Health and safety: incidents, burns, cuts, PPE, cut-resistant glove compliance and safety training.

2.8 Staff

·       Glassworks staff and certifications: furnace operator, blower, hand glassmaker, IS setter, quality inspector and forklift driver.

·       Certifications carry an expiry date with an automatic alert, and versatility is tracked per station.

2.9 Sales and purchasing

·       Business cases linked to native Dolibarr projects.

·       Glass estimating: material cost per kg, transformation coefficient, forecast breakage rate, hours per stage, treatments, packaging and transport, producing a cost price, a margin and a selling price.

·       Purchasing: native supplier links, supplier orders and goods receipts feeding the material lots.

 

3. The "Sand & Crystal" dashboard

The dashboard deliberately breaks with the classic Dolibarr layout and evokes glass and the glass furnace. Its palette is built on glass turquoise (#12A5BD), deep glass blue (#0D5B6B), bottle green (#1B6B4A), furnace amber (#E8952D), sand (#D9C8A9) and crystal (#F2F7F9).

·       A molten-glass hero band in a turquoise-to-amber gradient, with a frosted-glass edge highlight evoking the cross-section of a pane, carrying four headline figures.

·       Eight clickable alert tiles: furnace campaigns near end of life, blocked material lots, pending inspections, open non-conformities, moulds near end of life, certifications to renew, materials below minimum stock and late work orders.

·       Four half-circle performance gauges: average OEE, conformity rate, cullet rate and furnace availability.

·       Around thirty KPI cards in translucent glassmorphism styling, grouped into four zones and each linking to its filtered list.

·       An eight-stage workshop kanban with per-stage counters and tonnage.

·       Eight decision charts, all with HTML-decoded legends so accented labels render correctly.

3.1 The eight charts

#	Chart	Type
1	Tonnage melted per month (12 months)	Bars
2	Breakdown by glass type	Pie
3	Breakage rate per forming line	Bars
4	Main glass defects	Bars
5	Energy consumption per month (kWh/t)	Lines
6	Revenue per month	Bars
7	Conforming versus non-conforming inspections	Pie
8	Forming line load	Bars

 

 

4. Reporting

The Reporting menu offers sixteen situation reports. Every report can be exported to CSV, Excel and Word, printed to PDF, or sent to the browser print dialog. All exports carry real accented characters (no HTML entities).

#	Report
1	Production status per line
2	Melting and pull report per furnace
3	Glass yield and losses
4	Breakage analysis by cause
5	Non-conformities and cost of poor quality
6	Quality inspections and standard conformity
7	Raw material and cullet consumption
8	Energy and CO2 report
9	Raw material and finished goods stock
10	Mould and tooling life cycle
11	Furnace campaigns and refractories
12	Annealing and tempering log
13	Insulating glazing performance
14	Shipments and rack deposits
15	Staff certifications and expiries
16	Profitability per business case

 

 

5. Integration with native Dolibarr modules

Native module	Integration
Third parties	Glass customers, raw material and cullet suppliers
Proposals / quotations	Linked to the glass estimate
Sales orders	Linked to business cases and work orders
Customer and supplier invoices	Glass revenue and material cost
Supplier orders and receipts	Feed the material lots
Products and services	Glass catalogue, prices, weights
Stock and warehouses	Raw materials, finished goods, cullet
Shipments	Racks and delivery notes
Projects	Glass business cases
Users	Furnace operators, blowers, inspectors
ECM / document management	Drawings, certificates, safety data sheets
Agenda	Maintenance and certification due dates

 

 

6. Business object reference

The module ships 29 business objects, each with a full list, a detail card and a permission group.

#	Object	Purpose
1	Business case	Commercial and technical glass dossier
2	Estimate	Glass cost breakdown and selling price
3	Batch recipe	Glass composition and characteristic temperatures
4	Raw material	Vitrifiable material and its stock
5	Material lot	Receipt traceability and chemical analysis
6	Cullet	Internal and external cullet
7	Furnace	Glass furnace and its campaign
8	Melting record	Pull, temperatures and energy
9	Glass product	Catalogue reference
10	Mould	Tooling and cycle count
11	Forming line	Machine, rate and OEE
12	Work order	Eight-stage production order
13	Routing	Operation sequence per product
14	Operation	Routing step with planned and actual time
15	Forming record	Rate, gob weight and scrap
16	Annealing	Lehr curve and residual stress
17	Tempering	Surface stress and fragmentation
18	Lamination	Interlayer and autoclave cycle
19	Insulating glazing	Ug, solar factor and Rw
20	Decoration	Decor and edgework
21	Inspection	Standard-based quality control
22	Defect	Glass defect and non-conformity
23	Breakage	Breakage, scrap and valuation
24	Maintenance	Preventive and corrective work
25	Stock	Finished goods and packaging
26	Shipment	Racks, carrier and deposit
27	Energy	Consumption, kWh/t and CO2
28	Staff	Glassworks staff and certifications
29	Safety	HSE events

 

 

7. Permissions

Rights are granted per functional group, with read, create/modify and delete actions. Read and write are granted by default so the module is usable immediately after activation; delete and administration are not.

Group	Scope
affaire	Business cases and estimates
composition	Batch recipes, raw materials, lots and cullet
fusion	Furnaces, melting records and energy
produit	Glass products, moulds and routings
production	Forming lines, work orders and forming records
transformation	Annealing, tempering, lamination, glazing, decoration
qualite	Inspections, defects and breakage
moyens	Maintenance
logistique	Finished goods stock and shipments
rh	Glassworks staff and HSE
reporting	Access to the sixteen reports
admin	Module administration

 

 

8. Demonstration data

The module setup page carries two buttons that let an evaluator explore every feature with meaningful content and then return to a clean database before going live.

·       "Install demonstration data" generates a complete, realistic and FK-coherent glassworks dataset: furnaces in campaign, twelve full months of melting and energy history, work orders spread across the eight stages, inspections that are around 95% conforming, a realistic breakage rate, native Dolibarr customers and suppliers, and a handful of certifications close to expiry so the alert tiles are meaningful.

·       "Clear demonstration data" purges the whole dataset by import key, cascading to child records that a user may have created on a demo parent, and removes the native third parties and products the generator created.

·       The dataset is versioned, so upgrading the module regenerates an improved dataset rather than silently keeping the old one.

The seeded data is validated against the exact aggregates the dashboard prints, not merely against row counts. For example the CO2 figure is derived from the melting records so that the plant ratio stays at a physically correct 0.52 tonne of CO2 per tonne of glass.

8.1 Configuration parameters

Parameter	Default
Default workshop hourly rate	46 EUR/h
Batch price per ton	128.00 EUR/t
Energy cost per ton of glass	96.00 EUR/t
Target cullet rate	55 percent
Acceptable breakage rate	4 percent
Certification expiry alert	60 days
Default glass standard	EN 572-1
Refractory wear alert threshold	80 percent

 

 

9. Technical characteristics

·       Full multilingual support in French, English, Italian, German and Spanish, with every key prefixed so that no label can be overwritten by another installed module.

·       A ForceLabels helper re-asserts the module's own translations on every page, guaranteeing that the module wording always wins on its own screens.

·       Automatic schema self-healing on upgrade: missing columns are added rather than silently absent.

·       Font Awesome 5 icon set only, so no icon renders as an empty box.

·       Searchable columns and a column show/hide selector on every list.

·       An in-page tab bar that keeps the Dolibarr left menu in sync through both globals and session state.

·       Module-unique menu positions and URLs so activation never collides with another installed module.

·       GPL v3 licence.

 

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