Katana Cloud Manufacturing Reviews

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Dynamics 365 and Sage 100

Reasons for Choosing Katana Cloud Manufacturing

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).

Switched From

Dynamics 365 and Sage 100

Reasons for Switching to Katana Cloud Manufacturing

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

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

MRPeasy

Reasons for Choosing Katana Cloud Manufacturing

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

Switched From

Odoo

Pros

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

Cons

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

Pros

It's great to be able to log in on any computer without having to install software, and it's done an amazing job of keeping our inventory tidy and up-to-date. The Purchase Order generator has also made us look very professional to our suppliers. The integration with Shopify is also a huge plus to us as it prevents us from having to manually transfer Shopify orders and automatically removes all parts from the BOM from our inventory. Highly recommended!

Cons

There aren't many, if any things we've come up against yet that Katana didn't support.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Alternatives Considered

Orderhive

Reasons for Switching to 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.

Pros

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

Cons

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

Alternatives Considered

Zoho CRM, Fishbowl, QuickBooks Online Advanced and QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise

Reasons for Switching to Katana Cloud Manufacturing

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

Pros

Ease of Use
Easy Implementation
Customer Service
Reorder Options

Cons

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!

Pros

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

Cons

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

Alternatives Considered

ERPNext

Reasons for Choosing Katana Cloud Manufacturing

Easy, simple and focus on MRP.

Switched From

Odoo

Reasons for Switching to Katana Cloud Manufacturing

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

Pros

I love graphical representation and its ease of use. It took less than a week to get my company up and running. Katana has been a fantastic MRP that has been able to grow with us. They have added some important updates that have made its daily operation even easier. All things considered Katana was a great choice for my company!

Cons

Sometimes it slows in operation which is mildly annoying. This could probably be fixed with some more servers in our geographic region.

Pros

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

Cons

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

Alternatives Considered

MRPeasy

Reasons for Switching to Katana Cloud Manufacturing

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

Pros

Very easy to use without cluttered interface. This was my biggest selling point when comparing Katana to other similar products. Everything is so well organised and easy to glance over, while still offering nearly everything that I need for myself.

I also like that any changes in the inventory are immediately reflected in open orders. This is true for everything that I've used so far; as soon as I make a change in one area, it instantly reflects in all others as well.

Cons

I'm missing one feature, but it's more due to the specific nature of my business. It would be great if I could organize my inventory not just by total combined weight, but broken down into individual units as well.

For example, if my order requires 500g of plastic in one piece, but I have two separate pieces of 250g each, Katana will show that I have enough resources, even though I can't fill my order since I need one unbroken piece.

I've already got in touch with their support about this and they've said my request was put on their wish list, so I'm fairly confident it will eventually get implemented.

Pros

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!

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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

Cons

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

Pros

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

Cons

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

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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

Cons

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

Alternatives Considered

Lead Commerce

Reasons for Switching to Katana Cloud Manufacturing

Price and ease of onboarding.

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

Pros

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!

Cons

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.

Pros

Ease of use
Set up
Customer service
Ability to integrate

Cons

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