Katana Cloud Manufacturing Erfahrungen

Vorteile

It answers my questions easily, what purchase orders do I need to make to satisfy the orders I have coming in. What should I work on next and when will it be ready for the customer! I can see delays in deliveries and the effect on production. It manages very complex bill of materials for our vast number of products. and it does so with a user experience that is simple and easy.

Nachteile

Where there has been anything I didn't like about the software, I chat instantly to the development team and they listen, they come back to me with an instant work around; then in the longer term they have provided updates that fix the problem. They are an adorable bunch of people and really want to make this work for our busy little workshop.

Vorteile

Handling of inventory, items, products, ingredients, sales orders - all this is handled in a very efficient, clear and easy to use way. Makes the difference compared to many alternative MRP-/ERP-systems.
Connector to QuickBooks with automatic trigger for invoices in QB once the products are marked as shipped in KATANA.
Connector to Shopify for on-line sale of spare parts.
100% helpful and open minded customer service - very helpful in helping to understand all features and finding the best workflow for specific situations.

Nachteile

There are some functions/features which need improvement, e.g. the customization of documents such as Quotations so every company can generate a set of individual template to serve different areas (machines, spare parts, service,..). 3-5 custom fields for Quotes/Sales Orders/Products would be helpful. Althoug KATANA is intended to be a MRP-system it would be helpful to integrate SERVICE-articles (not only MAKE or BUY articles). This would allow to add a possible service portion to a spare parts quote.
Dedicated Delivery Notes (with partial shipments) would be a great feature.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Dynamics 365 und Sage 100

Warum Katana Cloud Manufacturing gewählt wurde

Due to a downsizing in manufacturing we decided to look for a faster, more flexible, less complicated MRP-system which is cloud-based and would have good and propven interfaces to a standard accounting SW and to an on-line shop (spare parts).

Zuvor genutzte Software

Dynamics 365 und Sage 100

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Katana Cloud Manufacturing

Simplicity with at the same time well covered basic features, ease of use, intuitive, cloud-based.

Vorteile

It works on a basic level for stock management and also bills of materials.

Nachteile

It fails to have any sort of calender or gantt chart. It also fails terribly with time planning/recording of how long a task can take. For example you can't even put into the system that you start your working day at half past the hour only full hours are allowed. Further to the time planning side you can not block out time for holidays or meetings. Making this software useless to plan your time and give acreate lead times to customers.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

MRPeasy

Warum Katana Cloud Manufacturing gewählt wurde

In the middle of the switch but it seams to offer far more options and cross capability.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Odoo

Vorteile

Katana Manufacturing ERP software include its intuitive and user-friendly interface, real-time inventory management, efficient production scheduling and planning, multi-channel sales integration, and affordable pricing plans. Additionally, the software's ability to integrate with other business systems and automation tools, as well as its responsive customer support team, are some of the key advantages of using Katana Manufacturing ERP

Nachteile

Lack of customization options: I have found that the software's customization options are limited and they would like more flexibility to tailor the system to their specific business needs.Limited reporting features: I have suggested that the software's reporting features could be more comprehensive and customizable, allowing for more in-depth analysis of business operations.Occasional glitches: I have reported occasional glitches or bugs in the software that can affect its overall performance

Vorteile

This software legitimately changed the way my business runs. It keeps me accountable for the hundreds of supplies I use on a daily basis and keeps me organized in a way that no lists, or other apps, ever have.

Nachteile

I can honestly say nothing, this app works so seamlessly and wonderfully. Maybe the load speeds can be a little laggy, but that's mostly because I have a lot of materials I've input. Definitely not an app downfall or issue at all.

Vorteile

Katana has multiple features which have very useful in improving our manufacturing processes. The ability to create recipes for each product has been a huge help for us as we have quite a lot of raw materials in each finished product.

The Shop Floor app has been brilliant for us to track production/assembly time more accurately. This has been a great help in pinpointing an accurate cost per unit.

Nachteile

The only aspect that hasn't met our expectations so far has been the batch tracking feature. This is an excellent feature and one that would be so helpful for us. However, we need it to work automatically with our Shopify orders and at the moment sales orders can only be attributed to particular batches if you fulfil them on the Katana dashboard. We need this to happen automatically when our Shopify orders are fulfilled.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Orderhive

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Katana Cloud Manufacturing

Katana was much more suited to our needs in terms of the receipt creation features for each product. The interface was also much simpler than the alternative products we considered.

Vorteile

Ease of use, support, inventory management features, able to create builds/recipes for products (BOM), ability to upload data using Excel, integration with Quickbooks Online

Nachteile

Cost, certain features do not make sense in the implementation.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Zoho CRM, QuickBooks Online Advanced und QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Katana Cloud Manufacturing

Ease of use and the features. And it looks good.

Vorteile

Ease of Use
Easy Implementation
Customer Service
Reorder Options

Nachteile

I wouldn't say this is a con- but we are really excited for the bar code scanning option they plan to roll out in 2021!

Vorteile

I love the simplicity of Katana and the ease of inventory management. This software has saved us so much time and offers way more than other products we looked into. For a small business with lots of moving parts and inventory to manage, Katana makes everything a breeze.

Nachteile

N/a, Katana meets and exceeds all our needs!

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

Odoo und Zoho Inventory

Warum Katana Cloud Manufacturing gewählt wurde

Zoho was consistently inaccurate and needed to to work with other Zoho products for full functionality.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Zoho Inventory

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Katana Cloud Manufacturing

Gave us everything that we needed.

Vorteile

Clear process: Order fulfillment, Purchasing, Manufacturing and Inventory Control.

Nachteile

Don't have kitting BOM (Combo product).
Format of Currency is bad, it's difficult to read.

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

ERPNext

Warum Katana Cloud Manufacturing gewählt wurde

Easy, simple and focus on MRP.

Zuvor genutzte Software

Odoo

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Katana Cloud Manufacturing

Simple and Very focus, easy to connect with Shopify and Quickbook.

Vorteile

- User interface
- Ease of use
- Set up was straight forward

Nachteile

- Lacking a few features but they are expanding and often adding new features

In Betracht gezogene Alternativen

MRPeasy

Gründe für den Wechsel zu Katana Cloud Manufacturing

In the end it was the software that stood out, having done a demo with Fred we were satisfied with everything.

Vorteile

That may not sound very exciting, but in my experience, it's not always a given that getting the features to work is straightforward. But Katana really is both powerful and yet pretty straightforward, although just BECAUSE it has a lot of facility, I would recommend the investment of a little time in watching some of the training videos, which are excellent. Once I'd done that, it was full steam ahead and everything fell beautifully into place. The integration with Xero was completely straightforward and works like a charm. I know that as we go forward and get more and more information into the system it will provide even more, very valuable information for us.

Nachteile

I have only a couple of really minor niggles; I would prefer to be able to enter dates, rather than having to always pick them off a calendar (for someone who types fast, this slows me down). I'd also like it if when you are "making" a product, if all the components of that product's sub-assembly are available, the software would just go on down the line and automatically make right down to the lowest assembly level. But as I said, these are really minor and would not stop me from wholeheartedly recommending Katana.

Vorteile

Super easy to use, pricing is more clear and streamlined than when we started. Support is great; not always the quickest but 1-2 days usually gets us a thorough and well covered answer to our questions. You can send them suggestions and they will tally in to their dev schedule. Saves a lot of time and nice to be able to access it from any computer.

Nachteile

There currently (2020) is no option to add fixed costs to POs. This makes tracking cost of inventory a little tougher. I also cannot edit PO templates. Having these features would make cost tracking and insurance claims easier. There is also no support for contractor per unit manufacturing but a simple way to get around this would be to set contractor tasks and payment by the hour and make each unit take 1 hour to finish. This does though make it difficult to track time if you need to track how long production will take. Fortunately we have a good idea of how long something will take without the help of Katana.

Vorteile

Just completed the free 14 day trial of Katana and have now begun a paid subscription. It took a few days and a bit of frustration to manually add all our products, ingredients, recipes, and current pending wholesale orders from outside of shopify, but having the shopify integration helped a lot. We use three different wholesale platforms (Faire, tundra & Abound), none of which offer automated third party integrations, so we knew we’d have to manually input orders and Katana serves that purpose as our centralized dashboard to see what needs to go out, when, from which platform, if we have it in stock, when we can make it, etc. In two weeks, we’ve already seen an increase in production efficiency and decrease in wholesale turnaround times now that EVERYTHING is being tracked in one place. Highly recommend Katana if you’re a maker, it’s never too early to implement automated systems in your biz!

Nachteile

Glitches with accurate purchase prices showing up in overall product list. Described it to customer service and they denied it being a problem. That’s the only problem I’ve encountered so far. Tbh on customer support quality.

Vorteile

Clean interface, well organized and thought out and modern in its features. Integrates well with lots of other software I use, including Quickbooks and Shopify. Customer service is absolutely top notch, and the tutorials are very helpful.

Nachteile

If you have zero experience with MRPs like I did, it may take you a little while to figure everything out. But the customer service team really goes above and beyond to answer any questions and walk you through anything you're having issues with. If there was one feature I wish was available that is not currently, it's barcode scanner integration. That would make updating my inventory and adding new knives to inventory much easier.

Vorteile

PROS:

- really easy to use, great interface

- support is responsive, although we didn't have much need for support thanks to a very thorough and detailed knowledge base

- reasonably priced compared to other inventory management systems

- good integrations with Shopify, Quickbooks, etc

- it made inventory tracking a lot easier for us as a manufacturer. The manhours saved on doing Excel updates to inventory would definitely cost more if you run complex operations

Nachteile

CONS:

- Integration with Quickbooks is a little iffy if you don't login to Quickbooks beforehand

- It doesn't have a multicurrency feature for purchase orders (when you buy inventory in a currency different from your main currency)

- It's not easy to account for freight costs in the costs of buying raw materials

- You can't work in 2 browser tabs without paying for 2 users, this can be a little frustrating

Vorteile

Helps keep track of work stock if used correctly.

Updated regulary. We had an issue where there was not enough decimal places for us to input our formulas, we raised this issue and within a month it was fixed.

Allows me to quickly find out a customers purchasing history and the percentage profit made per product

Nachteile

My only issue is that it is slightly expensive for a small company.

Vorteile

We like having the ability to make manufacture orders so everyone involved can see what's been planned and when it's due. The ability to prioritize orders is very helpful for assigning inventory.

Nachteile

Identifying products that are ready to ship on each order is cumbersome. Our customer service team has to click individually into each order to see if any items are ready to ship. There's no way to easily flip to the next order. You have to close that window & click on the next order. It would be nice if you could at least toggle between orders within an order window. We'd also love to see some kind of drop down or hover-over feature that would quickly show you if partial shipments are available.

Vorteile

Its easy to use as both a user and an admin. Low learning curve with a high return of success.

Nachteile

Its really unintuitive for me at least to communicate with my users with the shop floor app. Im better off getting up and takinf the time to talk to them directly rather than leaving them notes and vice versa. Also the reports NEVER work, ive never been able to pull a report or print a packing slip for whatever reason (the link always dies) thankfully I also keep up to date on our accounting software so I can pull the report from there otherwise Id probably rate this lower.

Vorteile

Integrates flawlessly with my Shopify store and makes managing materials and stock levels incredibly easy once everything is setup. The ability to prioritize jobs based on different criteria and rearrange them on the fly if necessary is critical for my business and Katana handles this with ease.

Nachteile

Setup was a chore BUT that is really more of a good thing, because there is a LOT of data that people might not take into account when initially considering software like this. If you want to use it properly, each and every little detail needs to be accounted for and when you have hundreds of SKUs like me, it can seem like a mountain. Climb it, you'll be glad you did.

Vorteile

It takes some time to set up and deploy, but once it's running, its super helpful! Its very easy to generate POs, update stock levels, and track sales and make orders. All the function without the bloated junk that expensive and advanced MRP systems have.

Nachteile

I wish there was a way to have a negative stock variant (a single product that represents a product subtraction rather than having to make a full copy of a product recipe minus that one single item).
I wish there was a way to group materials without having to create a separate product for them. Each product will generate a separate make order, but sometimes Its not actually something that can be made individually, it just represents all the parts that make up an assembly. There is currently no way to make a group of materials that does not become its own product that the system thinks needs to be made as its own inventory item.

Vorteile

The price makes Katana most attractive. It is also intuitive to set up and use. Katana also provided helpful onboarding assistance.

Nachteile

The software is a bit limited with respect to features for or customization of PO's.

Vorteile

It's really easy to setup and use. It gives you just the right information about your products and the automatization of any changes you make in processes is very useful and convenient.

Nachteile

I've encounter a lot of bugs that are quickly fixed, but interfere with projects and daily work. The margins and costs info is a little untrustworthy and hard to read when looking for errors.
The software doesn't consider quantity of people actually making the production, only hours, so if we work with extra hands is really hard to setup time lines for our weekly throughout.

Vorteile

I really like that I'm able to save my product's SOPs and can easily find them when I need to make more! It is very handy to have that feature. I also enjoy that after I have made the product, I can add the inventory through a stock adjustment. It's a very simple process that is not convoluted. Big fan!

Nachteile

The only thing that I don't love is when I am doing a stock adjustment I have to do the math on each item to get it to the correct total. For example: If I start the week with 35 of a specific item and throughout the week, say, 17 get purchased, when I do inventory and account for that, I have to use the calculator to figure out 35 -17 = correct total. And I have to do that math for each individual item.

Vorteile

Ease of use
Set up
Customer service
Ability to integrate

Nachteile

No in house integrations option. Customer service was so good, I would have liked an integration option directly from Katana