Hornby Organic bars in a box on a conveyor belt
Case study

Hornby Organic improves production efficiency by 100% with Katana

Hornby Organic drastically improved inventory control and spent half as much time on admin after switching to Katana. They needed manufacturing software that would help them achieve end-to-end traceability and get the visibility they needed to scale production and stay profitable.

We were looking for end-to-end traceability on our raw ingredients through to finished products. We also wanted an accurate inventory system for batch planning, warehousing, and sales. Katana fulfills all our needs in a simple, easy solution. As an organic food processor, traceability is a critical requirement, and our records must be meticulously kept.
Hornby Organic founders in the factory
Irah Vet, Founder and CEO at Hornby Organic
  • By switching to Katana from spreadsheets, Hornby Organic improved raw material and product inventory control by 100%
  • Features like batch and expiry date tracking and Katana’s master planning tools helped Hornby Organic decrease admin-time by 50%
  • Katana’s production planning features helped Hornby Organic double the production planning efficiency

About Hornby Organic

Hornby Organic started producing organic energy bars in an old garage. Today, they are the first company in Canada to produce a Canadian Certified Organic energy bar, proving that putting people’s and the health of our planet before profit is an achievable goal for a company.

While much has changed, their mission remains the same — to bring affordable organic food without our planet and customers paying the price. Now you can purchase Hornby Organic bars on their online store and in plenty of retail shops across Canada.

The challenge they faced

As a food company, effective production management is not only about efficient operations. Regulatory compliance in the food production industry is rigorous, and companies need to effectively trace products and batches to ensure these health and safety requirements are met.

Despite their humble beginnings, Hornby Organic expanded rapidly and needed a more reliable tool than spreadsheets to ensure traceability for their ingredients and products. So their team quickly set out to find a software solution that would help them:

  1. Get end-to-end traceability from raw ingredients through to finished products
  2. Implement an accurate inventory system for batch planning and warehousing
  3. Manage the growing number of sales orders from their online shop and retailers

The solution they found

With Katana, Hornby Organic was able to ditch time-consuming spreadsheets and instead focus on increasing productivity and profitability — which is essential in an industry known for its low margins. Katana also made it possible to implement end-to-end traceability for their products, a critical feature to ensure the product quality and meet the safety standards of food manufacturing ingredients.

According to Irah Vet, Founder and CEO at Hornby Organic, Katana was the manufacturing software they were looking for to help them scale production.

Katana is one integrated solution that replaces our many spreadsheets. Also, the integration with our Shopify store and accounting software was a key consideration.

Hornby organic team in the factory standing around produce boxes

How Katana helped Hornby Organic double their inventory control

Hornby Organic manages their sales orders from various channels, and Katana brings all their orders to a single platform. Using Katana, they can automatically start production and see the number of finished goods in stock. And by creating product recipes, they can accurately track costs based on material usage and production operations to make better pricing decisions.

With the help of Katana, their team was able to:

  1. Improve on-time order fulfillment by nearly 60%
  2. Optimize raw material and finished goods inventory by 30%
  3. Increase the efficiency of their day-to-day operations by up to 40%

Katana helps food manufacturers worldwide maximize efficiency and stay in control of their business. With features that support batch and expiry date tracking, Katana gives you the overview you need to ensure industry compliance and gain total visibility when tracking your perishable stock from materials to sold goods.

Learn more about Katana’s features and how they help manufacturers get a live look at their business.

COMPANY

Hornby Organic

WEBSITE
LOCATION

Canada

Employees

10+

INDUSTRY

Food manufacturing

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