Software Alternatives & Reviews

Katana MRP VS PartsBox

Compare Katana MRP VS PartsBox and see what are their differences

Katana MRP logo Katana MRP

Katana Cloud Inventory gives you a live look at all the moving parts of your business — sales, inventory, and beyond. Combining a visual interface and smart real-time master planner, Katana makes managing inventory and manufacturing intuitive.

PartsBox logo PartsBox

The complete solution for building electronics.
  • Katana MRP Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-14

What Problems Will Katana Solve?

Problem 1: Low Raw Material Levels

Solution: Katana’s real-time raw material inventory management provides users with a more accurate view of their supply. Users can program Katana to notify them whenever their company’s raw materials are running low or insufficient in relation to their shipping quota.

Problem 2: Miscommunication between Sales Orders and Production

Solution: One of the constant issues manufacturing companies face is when their production and sales orders are not in sync. This can result in unprocessed orders and loss of customers. Katana address this concern by aligning the production and sales areas of manufacturing companies with sales order fulfillment function. This informs sales and production about customer orders and if their supply can fulfill it accordingly.

Problem 3: Forecasting Demand

Solution: Forecasting demand is another issue manufacturers often encounter in their daily operations. Relying on spreadsheets might result in erroneous inventory data that can cause disastrous accounting for the company’s available supply. Katana’s auto-booking system allocates available material to the most recent manufacturing orders, so users can effortless see if they have enough resources to complete their operations.

  • PartsBox Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-05-24

PartsBox lets you take control of your electronic parts inventory, BOM pricing, and small-scale production. Keep track of your parts, get up-to-date pricing for your projects/BOMs, manage production, keep documents (datasheets, PDFs, 3D models) together with part data — all in a fast and easy to use application. Available at https://partsbox.com/, PartsBox is an online ERP/MRP system specifically targeted towards electronics production.

Katana MRP

$ Details
paid $179.0 / Monthly (per month billed annually.)
Platforms
Cloud iOS Android
Release Date
2017 September

PartsBox

$ Details
freemium $59.0 / Monthly
Platforms
Browser
Release Date
2017 January

Katana MRP features and specs

  • Live inventory management: Yes
  • Real-time master planning: Yes
  • Total shop floor control: Yes
  • Omnichannel order management: Yes
  • End-to-end tracability: Yes
  • Production planning: Yes
  • Purchase order management: Yes
  • Accurate costing: Yes
  • Custom workflows via API: Yes
  • Contract Manufacturing: Yes

PartsBox features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Katana MRP videos

How Katana Works?

PartsBox videos

PartsBox.io - electronics inventory online tool review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Katana MRP and PartsBox)
ERP
70 70%
30% 30
Inventory Management
67 67%
33% 33
Manufacturing ERP
100 100%
0% 0
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

User comments

Share your experience with using Katana MRP and PartsBox. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PartsBox should be more popular than Katana MRP. It has been mentiond 12 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Katana MRP mentions (5)

  • When to consider ERP? Very small business
    If you're small and using Shopify, it makes sense to look at ERP/MRP systems that bolt right onto Shopify. Katana is a great easy to use one, and it integrates with all the tools you mention above. https://katanamrp.com/. Source: about 1 year ago
  • ERP for small-mid size manufacturer
    For small / medium size businesses, Katana is a good web based option, but would need more details before recommending something more specific. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Small Business and ERP suggestions?
    Full disclosure, I work for this company, but check out https://katanamrp.com/. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Start-up looking to get advice on cash flow management
    Maybe you can look into a manufacturing & inventory management tool like Katana? If you use Quickbooks or Xero for bookkeeping then they integrate directly with those. Source: over 1 year ago
  • ERP Software Solution for Manufacturing Client
    Sounds like you're looking for an MRP (materials requirements planning) more than an ERP. There are a bunch of options in that space, but take a look at MRPeasy and Katana MRP. Source: almost 2 years ago

PartsBox mentions (12)

  • Part-DB: open-source inventory management system for your electronic components
    PartsBox founder here. I get asked about this sometimes, so I'll answer here: I'm quite happy with open-source solutions appearing in the same problem space. I bought ECDB, but left the open-source software available on GitHub for anyone who wishes to take it further. My software will not be open-source for a number of reasons, most importantly I cannot afford to take on the chores of a project leader/maintainer.... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • (Next Rich)
    PartsBox https://partsbox.com/ — an app that lets you take control of electronic parts inventory and electronics production. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • How to assign internal part numbers?
    Disclaimer/clarification: I am the founder of PartsBox (https://partsbox.com/). Source: over 1 year ago
  • For prototype/design firms, what parts inventory software do you use?
    PartsBox is a cloud-based subscription system. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Shout out to my fellow nerds! I'm starting a free public parts library for electronics to save a finite resource. Chips are amazing and useful for repairs or making new things but lots of surplus goes to landfill or is crushed into dust to reclaim any valuable stuff. HMU if that's up your alley!
    Pretty nice to see a screenshot of PartsBox (https://partsbox.com/) as the main concept illustration :-) (I'm the founder, so this is my software that is shown in the picture). Source: almost 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Katana MRP and PartsBox, you can also consider the following products

MRPEasy - Cloud-based ERP Software for Small Manufacturers (10 - 200 employees)

BOMIST - Parts Inventory and BOM Management for Electronics

ESP - C language web framework.

PartKeepr - PartKeepr is an open source inventory management system that you can alter according to the particular requirements of your business or of the area from where you are operating.

Fulcrum Pro - We make software. For manufacturers. Really awesome software. That works well, and is pretty. Why? Faster rockets. Better cars. Cheaper production. What would happen if everything could be made 30% faster, better, stronger? Let's create that future

PartBolt - PartBolt makes it easy for you to track and organize electronic components. You’ll know exactly what you have and where it is.