Essence One uses Katana to track operations and inventory in real time, keeping their team agile and productive through demand fluctuations. With the help of Katana, their team centralized key manufacturing operations and got a live look at their business from sales to production.
We needed a system that could help us assign and schedule tasks, as well as see how long the life of a product is in terms of how long it takes to make, label, and shrink wrap. We needed this information by the item itself and a way to multiply it long-term so when taking on larger projects, we know if we need more help and can directly see the cost of materials and operations. We also wanted a better overview of our inventory, and Katana had all of that.
Essence One is a Minnesota-based wellness brand dedicated to raising awareness on mental health and wellness. Their small team produces functional self-care products that inspire self-care rituals, and are infused with aromatherapy elements that soothe, calm, and uplift.
Using a combination of direct-to-consumer and business-to-business channels, Essence One sells products all over the United States. Orders made on their Shopify web store are automatically generated in Katana when a purchase is made, and wholesale orders are placed directly into Katana by their operations manager.
We manufacture functional products that help soothe, calm, and uplift, as well as to raise awareness for mental health and self-care practices.
Essence One deals with seasonality and fluctuations in demand, which peaks when working on one-off projects and wholesale orders. Understanding the relative costs of manufacturing items in terms of time and labor is critical for managing production effectively.
Before Katana, Essence One’s production lead relied on a whiteboard to assign and track manufacturing orders for studio employees. The inventory tool they were using lacked floor-level management features, and they needed a quick solution. While this worked, they still didn’t have the real-time overview they needed, and their inventory records were often inaccurate.
When working with the whiteboard and CraftyBase, we noticed that our inventory was completely off. We saw that Katana had in-studio management that would allow us to assign tasks and monitor progress, which is something we really needed.
To manage their operations and inventory in one place, they decided to look for an end-to-end manufacturing ERP that could give them the visibility they needed to scale. And with seasonal employees joining during peak demand periods, Essence One needed a flexible ERP that would easily add and remove users based on their needs.
Essence One’s team came across a video of Katana online showcasing in-studio management features through Katana’s Shop Floor App. This and Katana’s built-in integration with Shopify led their team to switch to Katana as their go-to manufacturing platform.
We saw that Katana had in-studio management and being able to assign tasks, and our makers were in the dark about where different projects were and weren’t aligned. Now it’s great to be able to see where inventory faults happen and being able to fulfill orders and where the turnaround happens.
Since switching to Katana, Essence One ditched the whiteboard and started tracking all key business activities in one place. Katana’s Advanced Plan comes with batch tracking, and end-to-end traceability is key for manufacturers in the cosmetics industry.
Every month our sales go up, we’ve landed a few different large accounts and huge orders, and it’s cool to be part of a small team that has achieved so much […] With more visibility, our makers also feel like they have more of a piece in it, which creates a cohesiveness that wasn’t there before.
Health and beauty manufacturers like Essence One use Katana to track and manage floor-level operations and production. Features like batch and expiry date tracking make it easy to trace products and materials, and integrations with leading e-commerce platforms centralize all sales and production in one visual platform.
Learn more about Katana’s features and how they help manufacturers get a live look at their business.
ESSENCE ONE
USA
5+
Cosmetics and aromatherapy
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