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Manufacturing insights

Analyze manufacturing cost, resource and materials usage through manufacturing insights

Michael De Giovanni avatar
Written by Michael De Giovanni
Updated over 2 weeks ago

Analyze manufacturing costs, material usage, and resource performance in Katana.

Manufacturing insights provide dashboards that help you track production efficiency, control costs, and optimize resource allocation. By monitoring trends over time, you can identify bottlenecks, improve productivity, and make better-informed business decisions.


Before you start

  • Available only with the Advanced Manufacturing add-on.

  • Data includes:

    • Completed MOs (based on Done date).

    • Open MOs (based on Delivery deadline).

  • All monetary values are in your base currency, excluding taxes.

  • Dashboards refresh every 10 minutes.


Accessing manufacturing insights

  1. Go to the Insights screen.

  2. Select the Manufacturing tab.

    Screenshot highlighting the Manufacturing tab inside the Insights screen

  3. You’ll see three types of reports:

    Screenshot highlighting the sub-tabs of the Manufacturing tab inside the Insights screen
    • Cost overview

    • Ingredients

    • Resources


The three types of manufacturing reports

1. Cost overview

Screenshot showing the Cost overview sub-tab of the insights screen

Get a high-level view of manufacturing costs over time, broken down by materials and resources.

This report helps answer:

  • How do manufacturing costs trend over time? (learn how to set a filter)

  • Which products are the most expensive to produce?

  • What is the cost split between materials and resources? (How to select on a chart)

  • Which products have the highest overall manufacturing costs?

  • What are total manufacturing costs for the year?


2. Ingredients

Screenshot showing the Ingredients sub-tab of the insights screen

Understand how materials are used in production and track cost changes.

This report helps answer:

  • How is material usage trending over time?

  • Where are there discrepancies between planned and actual usage?

  • Which materials are the most expensive?

  • Which products consume the most materials?

  • Which materials are linked to which products?

  • What are the total material costs for the year? (How to use pivot tables).


3. Resources

Screenshot showing the Resources sub-tab of the insights screen

Monitor labor and machine usage across your operations.

This report helps answer:

  • How is resource usage trending over time?

  • Where are the discrepancies between planned and actual usage?

  • Which resources or operations are the most expensive?

  • What are the total resource costs for the year?


Creating custom dashboards

  • Export data from any report by clicking the download button on a data element.

    Screenshot showing the download option inside reports
  • For advanced analysis:

    • Use Easy Insight for ready-made visual dashboards and custom reports.

    • Use SyncHub to connect Katana data to BI tools like PowerBI, Tableau, or Excel.


Practical tips

  • Use filters to narrow data by date, customer, product category, or product.

  • Interact with charts:

    • Drag across a line chart to select a date range.

    • Click on chart values to cross-filter instantly.

  • Combine filters to drill into exactly the metrics you need.


Key takeaways

  • Manufacturing insights track costs, materials, and resources across all MOs.

  • Reports are updated every 10 minutes.

  • Three report types: Cost overview, Ingredients, Resources.

  • Supports both high-level monitoring and detailed analysis.

  • Data can be exported or integrated into BI tools for custom dashboards.


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