Don't just manage — Start scaling your business with inventory optimization software
What is inventory optimization, and why is it important for manufacturers?
Balancing your inventory and associated costs
Inventory optimization solutions help businesses balance their stock levels and associated costs by analyzing demand, lead times, and carrying costs to determine the most optimal inventory levels.
Katana inventory optimization software helps you with:
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Real-time master planning, which automatically allocates items to open orders so you have a better understanding of stock levels
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Setting reorder points for low stock thresholds for automatic notifications when more items are needed
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Avoiding stockouts while minimizing inventory carrying costs
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End-to-end stock management for managing product variations and materials in a single platform
Optimizing workflows throughout your business
Inventory optimization tools help streamline workflows throughout a manufacturing business by improving inventory management, reducing waste, and increasing efficiency.
Katana inventory optimization software gives you the tools for:
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Improving demand planning with manufacturing, sales, and inventory insights for analyzing data
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Ensuring raw materials and supplies are ordered in a timely manner and at the best prices
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Reducing waste by ensuring raw materials are used efficiently and excess inventory is minimized
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Making data-driven decisions by providing valuable insights into inventory levels, usage, and demand patterns
Integrate your favorite business tools for centralized management
If you’re already set up with tools to manage your business that you don’t want to part ways with, then no worries. Katana easily integrates with the best tools on the market to give you the smoothest manufacturing process.
Katana inventory optimization software integrations help users:
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Integrate online sales platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce
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Integrate accounting tools such as QuickBooks Online and Xero
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Use third-party tools to integrate a ton of other software
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Create a customized workflow with Katana’s open API
Integrating Katana with the tools you need and love
Connect Katana with native integrations or create your own workflows via API
Choose from a range of e-commerce, accounting, CRM, reporting, and automation integrations to streamline inventory management and optimize your entire business. Take a gander at Katana’s growing list of integrations to learn more.
Katana provides us with all the features for manufacturing order management and can track inventory usage and incorporate our sales order tracking into Katana.”
Mikhail Moore
Chief Executive Office (CEO) at Vitacore Industries
It’s great to be able to see where inventory faults happen and being able to fulfill orders and where the turnaround happens.”
Alaina Oehrlein
Production Lead at Essence One
Katana accurately keeps stock of assemblies and ingredients so that I can plan production and get instant feedback on whether we enough resources in stock.”
Kelly Costello
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Puppy Cake
We also wanted an accurate inventory system for batch planning, warehousing, and sales. Katana fulfills all our needs in a simple, easy way, unlike other inventory solutions.”
Irah Vet
Founder and Production Manager at Hornby Organic
Optimizing an inventory system involves several steps.
Firstly, it is important to understand the needs of the business and any specific requirements that need to be met regarding stocking levels and delivery times. Once this has been established, the next step is to analyze current inventory levels and determine what inventory management system would best suit those needs.
The most common approach is to use a combination of manual processes, like physical stocktaking, and computerized software solutions. Manual processes can help improve accuracy, reduce costs, and increase speed. However, they are time-consuming if multiple locations are involved, or many stock items must be tracked. Computerized systems offer more flexibility by allowing for automatic ordering based on minimum stocks, monitoring stock levels, and easy transfer of data to other departments.
Once an inventory system is in place, it should be regularly monitored to ensure that the business’ needs are still being met. This will involve periodically replenishing stock, calculating reorder points, tracking delivery times and returns, and adjusting for seasonal fluctuations or sudden changes in demand. Finally, ongoing inventory data analysis can help identify improvement opportunities and further streamline processes. By following these steps, businesses can optimize inventory systems and ensure efficient stocking levels across all locations.
The three main tools used to improve inventory management are:
1. Automation — Automation is a powerful way to streamline processes and reduce time spent managing inventory. By automating manual tasks, you can save time and money while improving accuracy and efficiency. Automation also helps ensure that stock levels are updated, and orders are fulfilled quickly and accurately.
2. Data Analysis — Using data analytics tools to track inventory data can help you gain insight into purchasing habits, identify trends, spot potential issues before they become problems, and plan for future needs.
3. Technology Integration — Integrating existing systems with your inventory management system can help you track your stocks better in real time and ensure all orders are fulfilled efficiently. Using technology to integrate data, you can automate tasks, increase accuracy, and reduce errors.
Inventory optimization is a valuable tool for businesses across many industries. It can help businesses reduce costs, improve service levels, and increase efficiency.
From reducing inventory carrying costs to better utilizing working capital, inventory optimization provides a number of benefits. One of the primary advantages of inventory optimization is that it allows businesses to streamline their supply chain operations and tie them closer together with production processes. This helps ensure that products are available when needed without keeping too much unnecessary stock on hand which ties up resources.
Additionally, inventory optimization increases accuracy in forecasting future demand, meaning businesses can more accurately predict what they need and when they need it. By understanding customer demand and supply availability at any given moment, businesses can optimize their ordering processes, create more accurate safety stock levels, and ensure that the correct products are ordered.
Finally, inventory optimization can help businesses maximize their profits by reducing waste and increasing customer satisfaction. With better insights into demand patterns and stocking trends, businesses can improve service levels without having too much stock on hand, which would result in wastage or higher carrying costs due to unnecessary overstocking. By adopting an inventory optimization strategy, businesses can increase efficiency while decreasing costs.
This makes it a useful tool for businesses of all sizes trying to organize their operations and increase long-term profitability.