Outperform competitors with small business manufacturing software
Small manufacturing businesses strive to stay ahead of the competition by enhancing efficiency and productivity. Through the power of automation, effortlessly achieve these goals using Katana’s small business manufacturing software.
Small business manufacturing software
These days small businesses, including small manufacturers, can overcome entry barriers more easily than ever before. With the advent of cloud software, affordable access to powerful tools on par with high-cost enterprise solutions is now within reach. Discover the advantages cloud-based manufacturing software can offer a small business.
What is small business manufacturing software?
Katana’s powerful manufacturing software for small businesses streamlines operations and maximizes efficiency. With its comprehensive set of features, it automates tasks, optimizes workflows, and provides valuable insights.
By centralizing data, fostering collaboration, and enabling data-driven decision-making, simple manufacturing software for small businesses empowers businesses to thrive in the competitive manufacturing landscape while achieving remarkable results.
Katana equips you with:
- Real-time inventory management
- Intuitive production planning
- Real-time order tracking
- Manufacturing and sales analytics
Benefits of small business manufacturing software
This software enhances productivity for small manufacturers by streamlining operations. It helps to automate tasks and provides real-time visibility into inventory, orders, and production schedules, enabling informed decision-making and efficient order fulfillment.
With valuable analytics and reporting capabilities, manufacturing software for small businesses empowers data-driven decision-making and drives growth and competitiveness in the manufacturing landscape.
Katana makes it easy to:
- Automate inventory transactions and set reorder points to prevent stockouts
- Track on-hand, committed, and expected stock amounts in real-time
- Manage product variants and materials in one place
- Monitor your inventory across multiple warehouses
Why you need manufacturing software
Manufacturing software is indispensable for small businesses in the manufacturing industry. It optimizes operations, inventory management, production planning, order tracking and fulfillment, while providing actionable insights and fostering collaboration.
With automated processes, real-time visibility, and data-driven decision-making, manufacturing ERP software for small businesses empowers small manufacturers to achieve operational excellence, maximize productivity, and gain a competitive edge in the dynamic landscape.
Katana’s ERP for small manufacturing businesses allows you to:
- Make accurate manufacturing and purchasing decisions with live data
- Prioritize production based on raw material availability
- Get task-level control for effective shop floor management
- Automate manufacturing cost calculations based on your bill of materials and operations
Integrate your small business manufacturing software with the services you know and love
Connect Katana to third-party software or create your own workflows via API
Choose from various e-commerce, accounting, CRM, reporting, and automation integrations to streamline your key business operations. Katana’s small business manufacturing software is built to fit the platforms you need. Take a look at Katana’s growing list of integrations to learn more.
Having the shop floor know what they can or can’t make on a given day is amazing, and replaces our previous “system” of spreadsheets.”
Sara Varela
Founder and Designer at Sara Gabriel
We chose Katana because it seemed to be the most user-friendly software we tried – it is very easy to use and the customer service is great!”
Candice Murno
Founder and Designer at Buttercream Clothing
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 solution.”
Irah Vet
Founder and Production Manager at Hornby Organic
Small businesses manufacturing software FAQs
Small business manufacturing software isn’t just one thing anymore — it’s a stack of different products that all work together. The top layers are additive or “nice to have”. These usually include web-based applications that help manage your overall business. Just like QuickBooks Desktop, these tools let you run reports, look at your numbers, and get a big-picture view of your business.
But below that layer (frequently called Manufacturing IT) consists of highly specialized software designed to help you improve key operational functions — planning, production control, quality control, and inventory management. Some of these applications are built from legacy systems that have been in place in manufacturing firms for decades. Others are designed to help you manage information in a more automated way that wasn’t possible with the old “pencil and paper” approach.
For example, production planning software can show you not just what’s happening with your current orders, but exactly how much inventory you need to build to satisfy future demand. It can also help you plan for raw material shortages and other potential problems that might affect the continuity of your production schedule. An MRP or ERP solution built for small and midsize businesses can give you all these functionalities in one system while integrating with top layer services that handle your e-commerce sales, accounting, reporting, and more.
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a business management software suite containing integrated applications for functions like SCM, human resources (HR), manufacturing, financials, and distribution. While a manufacturing resource planning (MRP) system is part of an ERP with specific functionality used to manage procurement and purchasing, plan production, automate inventory control and track labor.
ERP systems are usually designed for larger companies with sophisticated needs in terms of scalability and integration with other advanced business software, including CRM. MRP for small businesses are extensions of ERP that focus on the manufacturing aspects of the business. They offer basic functionality, including tracking inventories, production operations, and materials procurement.
MRP for small business systems is smaller in scope than ERPs, while an ERP is better suited to larger companies with advanced needs for large-scale integration. It’s important to note that many manufacturers who identify as small businesses may still require an MRP system to meet their requirements.
Most manufacturing ERP software is industry-agnostic, meaning that they are built to support a wide range of manufacturing business operations and processes. However, if you work in industries like food and beverage manufacturing or cosmetics, it is important to find software that supports batch tracking. Katana is used by thousands of manufacturers across a wide range of industries with different workflows. For a full list of supported industry workflows, take a look at our industries page.
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