1. Overview and objectives

The Packaging Unit Management module turns Dolibarr into a dedicated ERP for the complete control of an industrial packaging unit. It covers 100% of the business needs of a packaging company, regardless of its industry.

1.1 Industries covered

·       Food processing; fresh, frozen and dry food products

·       Cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, cleaning products

·       Agricultural products; contract packaging and repackaging; industrial packaging

·       Liquid, powder, granulated, pasty and solid products

1.2 Functional scope

Without leaving Dolibarr, the solution manages: raw materials and packaging, lines and machines, packaging orders, finished goods, lots (use-by/best-before dates), pallets, cartons and parcels, operators and teams, maintenance, quality and controls, non-conformities, statistics and costs, sales, purchasing, shipments, stock, dashboards and reporting.

2. Technical architecture

The module strictly follows Dolibarr development standards and never alters any core file. It integrates exclusively through the module descriptor, business classes, menus, permissions, hooks and the native API.

 

2.1 Application security

·       Protection against SQL injection (all queries escaped)

·       XSS protection (all HTML output escaped)

·       CSRF protection (Dolibarr security tokens on forms and actions)

·       Form validation and permission checks on every sensitive action

·       No hard-coded strings: 569 translation keys across 5 languages

·       Responsive interface: PC, tablet, mobile, large and industrial touch screens

3. Industrial dashboard

A redesigned interface evoking a modern production floor. Industrial palette: industrial blue, production green, performance orange, aluminium grey and white. The display relies on dynamic cards with icon, value, sub-text and colour coding, together with charts.

3.1 "Today's production" indicators

·       Actual production and target achieved (%)

·       Number of lots produced, pallets and cartons

·       Scrap rate

·       Number of packaging orders of the day

3.2 Performance indicators OEE

·       Overall OEE

·       Availability

·       Performance

·       Quality

3.3 Charts

·       Production over 7 days

·       Scrap by cause

·       Orders by state

·       Downtime by type

3.4 Interactive line map

Each line is shown as a colour-coded card according to its state: green (running), orange (maintenance/cleaning), red (stopped/breakdown), blue (setup). The card shows the OEE, actual rate, yield and current product.

3.5 Alert area

·       Lots expiring soon

·       Open non-conformities

·       Open maintenance work orders

·       Measuring instruments out of validity

·       Non-conform controls

4. Master Data module

Multi-site, multi-workshop and multi-line management. Eleven objects structure the industrial setup. The main fields are detailed below.

4.1 Production sites

 

4.2 Workshops

Types: preparation, packaging, wrapping, palletising, storage, quality control. Fields: site, manager, area, min/max temperatures, utilisation rate.

4.3 Packaging lines

 

Equipment that can make up a line: filler, scale, conveyor, bagger, heat sealer, welder, labeller, inkjet printer, robot, vision camera, metal detector, checkweigher, palletiser, wrapper, pick & place robot.

4.4 Machines (asset park)

 

4.5 Locations

Logistics hierarchy: reception, storage, quarantine, quality control, shipping, preparation, picking, palletising zones, cold rooms. Fields: site, parent warehouse, type, capacity, capacity unit, maximum weight and volume, min/max temperatures, humidity, occupancy rate, barcode/QR code.

4.6 Packaging formats

Types: bag, sachet, box, bottle, jar, canister, carton, pallet, drum, big bag, glass bottle, tray, film, tube, capsule, blister. Fields: dimensions, weight, volume, capacity, unit, contact standards.

4.7 Packaging

Levels: primary, secondary, tertiary, films, labels, adhesives, dunnage, dividers, pallets. Fields: family, supplier, unit cost, stock and minimum stock, weight, dimensions, barcode, recyclability.

4.8 Consumables

Types: inks, ribbons, films, glues, labels, gases, lubricants, cleaning and disinfection products. Fields: supplier, cost, unit, stock/min stock, lot number, expiry date, safety data sheet.

4.9 Recipes

Versioned industrial recipes linked to a product. Fields: version, state (draft, validated, approved, obsolete), format, target weight, tolerance, allergens, shelf life (days), approval date, approver, components.

4.10 Routes and steps

A route describes the full sequence of packaging steps. Example: reception → control → preparation → weighing → dosing → filling → closing → sealing → labelling → marking → control → cartoning → palletising → storage → shipping. Each step is configurable: rank, type, machine, duration, number of operators, control step, instructions.

5. Production module (MRP/MES)

5.1 Packaging orders

The core of production management. Fields: customer, sales order, product, recipe, route, line, team, manager, planned/produced/good/scrap quantities, unit, priority, dates (planned, start, end), duration, yield, OEE, total cost, subcontracting.

Order life cycle:

 

5.2 Production declarations

Detailed entry per operator and per order: good production, scrap, rework, time spent, actual rate, comments.

5.3 Machine downtime

Types: planned, unplanned, micro-stop, maintenance, cleaning, breakdown, waiting for material, waiting for operator, waiting for quality, setup, format changeover. Feeds the automatic calculation of MTBF, MTTR and availability. Fields: line, machine, order, dates, duration, lost quantity.

5.4 Scrap

Categories: machine error, operator error, wrong packaging, quality defect, raw material, humidity, breakage, print error, label, tear, weight, leak, deformation. Fields: order, line, operator, quantity, cost, cause, corrective action.

6. Traceability module

Complete, instant traceability from raw material to the end customer: upstream, internal and downstream.

6.1 Lots

 

6.2 Pallets

Fields: reference, SSCC, lot, order, location, customer, type, number of cartons and layers, total quantity, net/gross weight, height, state (building, complete, stored, shipped), consignment.

6.3 Cartons and parcels

Logistics hierarchy unit → carton → pallet. Fields: parent pallet, lot, format, barcode, number of units, net/gross weight, state.

7. Quality module

A quality management system adaptable to the ISO 9001, ISO 22000, HACCP, BRCGS and IFS standards, good manufacturing practices and customer specifications.

7.1 Control plans

Defined by product, line and step. Fields: control point, method, instrument, frequency, sample size, target value, lower and upper limits, unit, mandatory flag, action on deviation, version.

7.2 Controls

Stages covered: reception control, start-up / first article, in-process (weight, volume, dosing, temperature, closure, sealing, tightness, labelling, barcode, metal detector, foreign bodies, organoleptic, microbiological) and finished product. Fields: plan, order, lot, instrument, controller, measured value, conformity, deviation, status.

7.3 Non-conformities

Full register. Origins: reception, storage, production, packaging, quality, maintenance, transport, customer, supplier, audit, hygiene, safety, documentary.

Possible decisions:

 

Root-cause analysis methods: 5 whys, Ishikawa diagram, 5W2H, Pareto, 8D analysis, FMEA, cause tree.

7.4 Corrective and preventive actions (CAPA)

Types: immediate action, correction, corrective action, preventive action. Fields: source non-conformity or audit, owner, due date, cost, state, effectiveness verification, verification date, action plan. Automatic alerts when overdue.

7.5 Audits

Types: internal, supplier, customer, regulatory, hygiene, quality, traceability, 5S. Fields: standard, site, audited party, auditor, dates, number of major/minor findings, score, state, conclusion.

7.6 Measuring instruments

Calibration register: scales, thermometers, probes, pressure gauges, detectors, laboratory devices, calipers. Fields: measuring range, accuracy, calibration and next-calibration dates, body, state. Automatic alert when an instrument is out of validity.

7.7 Cleaning and hygiene

Cleaning and disinfection plans by line and machine. Fields: type, frequency, product used, concentration, duration, operator, planned/actual dates, allergen change, control result, state. No production starts without validation of the mandatory cleaning.

8. Maintenance module (CMMS)

8.1 Work orders

Types: preventive, corrective, condition-based, improvement. Fields: machine, line, priority, technician, provider, dates (planned, start, end), duration, production stop, symptom, diagnosis, parts and labour costs, report.

Life cycle: reported → to qualify → planned → assigned → in progress → waiting for part → done → checked → closed (or cancelled).

8.2 Spare parts

Fields: compatible machine, supplier, location, unit cost, stock and minimum stock, lead time, criticality, quantity consumed. A purchase requirement can be triggered when the stock reaches the defined threshold.

8.3 Maintenance indicators

·       Number of failures, total downtime

·       MTBF (mean time between failures), MTTR (mean time to repair)

·       Availability rate

·       Costs per machine and per line

·       Most critical equipment and failure recurrence

9. Logistics, Stock, Purchasing and Sales module

9.1 Receptions

Reception wizard: order, supplier, product, lot, vehicle/seal/temperature/certificate checks, expected/received/refused quantities, quarantine or release, allocation to a location, state.

9.2 Shipments

Fields: customer, carrier, dock, driver and phone, tractor/trailer plates, seal, departure temperature, number of pallets and cartons, gross weight, volume, incoterm, state. Pre-shipment checks: quality conformity, lot release, sufficient use-by/best-before date, availability, mandatory documents.

9.3 Stock movements

Types managed and logged: supplier reception, production consumption, finished-goods production, transfer between warehouses/locations/sites, reservation, quality block/release, quarantine, downgrade, repackaging, customer/supplier return, destruction, inventory, shipment. Fields: product, lot, quantity, source and destination locations, reason, source document.

9.4 Inventories

Types: annual, cycle, permanent, surprise, post-incident. Fields: site, location, scope, freeze, number of gaps, gap value, state. Workflow: creation → scope → freeze → counting → validation → gaps → correction movements → closing → report.

9.5 Approved suppliers

Fields: supplied families, certifications, lead time, minimum quantity, conformity/service/late rates, number of claims and non-conformities, global score, approval status (prospect, evaluating, approved, conditional, suspended, banned), last audit date.

9.6 Customer claims

Full workflow: reception → identification of customer/product/lot/delivery → description → severity → lot block if needed → analysis → decision → control → reprocessing/replacement/credit/destruction → customer reply → closing. Linked to third parties, orders, shipments, products, lots.

10. Human Resources module

·       Operators: employee ID, role, skills, certifications, authorised machines, hire date, productivity, quality rate, number of errors

·       Teams: morning, afternoon, night, weekend — team leader, hours, headcount, performance

·       Timesheets: operator, team, order, worked hours, breaks, overtime, absences

11. Reporting and decision centre

Twelve automatically generated reports, each exportable to CSV, Excel, Word and PDF:

 

12. Rights and permissions

34 granular permissions. Each functional group holds read, create/modify and delete rights; reporting read access and module administration are added.

 

13. Integration with native Dolibarr modules

The module primarily leverages native objects, without duplicates, and enriches them: Third parties, Contacts and addresses, Prospects and customers, Suppliers, Products and services, Variants, Lots and serial numbers, Stock and warehouses, Stock movements, Supplier price requests and orders, Receptions, Supplier invoices, Commercial proposals, Sales orders, Shipments, Invoices, Payments, Contracts, Projects, Tasks, Agenda, Resources, Users and groups, DMS, E-mails, PDF templates, Barcodes, REST API, Accounting, Banks, Multi-company.

Examples of relationships visible from the records: from a sales order, the associated packaging orders; from an order, the sales order, customer, lots, controls and shipments; from a lot, its full genealogy; from a machine, its work orders and costs.

14. REST API

A secure API exposed at /api/index.php/conditionnement/{object}/{id}. Operations: single read, paginated and sorted list, create and delete over all business objects. Authentication via Dolibarr API key; permission checks per functional group (invalid key → HTTP 401; missing right → HTTP 403).

15. Automations and notifications

The module provides configurable workflows and alerts, notably:

·       Automatic creation of packaging orders from customer orders

·       Reservation of raw materials and packaging; stock decrement at launch

·       Generation of finished goods, lots, pallets and parcels; real-time indicator updates

·       Notification of managers on incidents; creation of maintenance tasks based on thresholds

·       Alerts: stock below minimum, shortage risk, lot near expiry or expired, late reception, non-conform control, blocked lot, overdue corrective action, upcoming audit, instrument to calibrate, maintenance due, low rate, low OEE, excessive scrap

·       Channels: Dolibarr notification, e-mail, agenda event, task, webhook, SMS (if configured), dashboard alert

16. Consistency rules and business blocks

The system warns about or prevents, in particular, the following situations (configurable mode: strict block, warning with confirmation, or plain information):

·       Consumption of an expired, blocked or unreleased lot

·       Use of an incompatible packaging or a product not approved for a customer

·       Issue greater than available stock; shipment of an unreleased lot; insufficient remaining shelf life at delivery

·       Use of a non-calibrated instrument; start of a non-cleaned line or a machine under maintenance

·       Validation of a reception without mandatory information; exceeding a location's capacity

·       Closing a non-conformity without action or justification; closing a work order without a report

17. Imports, exports and demonstration data

Controlled import from Excel/CSV (products, packaging, materials, initial stock, lots, locations, suppliers, prices, control plans, equipment, spare parts, maintenance plans, customers) with template file, preview, error checking and report. Excel, CSV and PDF export of lists and reports.

A realistic and consistent demonstration dataset is installed on first activation and remains reinstallable/removable from the configuration. Removal only deletes records tagged by the generator, without touching real Dolibarr data.

 

© 2026 DoliResources — www.doliresources.com · Packaging Unit Management v1.0.0 · Detailed Functional Specification