System76 increases efficiency of production planning by 80%
System76 increases efficiency of production planning by 80%
“We knew we needed something more than just a spreadsheet but we didn't like the idea of paying a crazy amount for a huge system that we would not fully use. Katana was simplistic and answered what we needed without a ton of fluff or other elements that we did not need"
— Sarah Zinger, Director of Production Logistics at System76
“Having a system track inventory and what stage it is in has been incredibly helpful. It also has helped our team have a more clear delineation of the order of operations for each product in our catalog."
— Sarah Zinger,
Director of Production Logistics
Company Profile
Company Profile
System76 is an American computer manufacturer based in Denver, Colorado specializing in the manufacturing and sale of Linux-based laptops, desktops, and servers. The company supports free and open-source software, offering either Ubuntu or their own Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, Pop!_OS, as the preinstalled operating system.
System76 offers a unique combination of purpose-engineered hardware and software optimized for its machines that are highly regarded among developers and other professionals. System76 is widely regarded as the gold standard in Linux-based computing.
Challenges
Challenges
Before Katana, System76 used the usual route of using spreadsheets for their business management. Spreadsheets are a great tool for starters and micro-businesses, however, once the company grows, introduces new products, materials, and employees, following all the moving parts in a spreadsheet becomes quite exhausting.
Being an electronics and technology manufacturer, System76 began to experience difficulties following the stock movement throughout the production process, production job scheduling, and the inevitable pain manual of spreadsheet updating. Three main challenges they wanted to solve were:
- Streamlined stock management from materials to finished items;
- Production task prioritization, and
- Sort out operation and task order in a production task.
Why Katana?
Why Katana?
As for many Katana users, System76 identified that their spreadsheets had become too complex to manage, but a full ERP solution was too costly and difficult to implement. Many software offers only stock management and lacks manufacturing modules, therefore, finding a solution that solves all challenges set out above was quite a task.
“We knew we needed something more than just a spreadsheet but we didn't like the idea of paying a crazy amount for a huge system that we would not fully use. Katana was simplistic and answered what we needed without a ton of fluff or other elements that we did not need.”
How Katana Helped
How Katana Helped
Since the implementation of Katana, System76 has completely solved the issue related to operations order in a production task by utilizing product recipes and floor-level control app. Now they can also track the stock movements throughout the manufacturing process from components to a finished product.
A few highlights System76 pointed out:
- Inventory control has improved by more than 60% by being able to track all materials, their usage, and status;
- The ability to prioritize tasks and schedule jobs accordingly on a floor level has increased the production planning efficiency by close to 80%; and
- Overall day-to-day operations have become 50% more efficient due to having less manual work compared to spreadsheets.
“Having a system track inventory and what stage it is in has been incredibly helpful. It also has helped our team have a more clear delineation of the order of operations for each product in our catalog.”
Katana has given System76 the power to control their production operations, get a simplified but complete overview of manufacturing in real-time, easily manage their tasks and resources on the floor level and monitor the progress along the way.
