What is Kitting?
Kitting is the process of packaging several related itemsinto one unit. If you’ve ever assembled a piece of furniture or a children’stoy, you’ve seen kitting — those bags or cards of screws, fasteners, and othersmall components.
To put it another way, kitting is the process of combiningmultiple SKUs into a single unit with a new SKU.
What Are the Benefits of Kitting for Manufacturing?
As a manufacturer, reasons for using kitting include:
· Reduced labor
· Improved workflow
· Improved inventory control
· More consistent quality
These benefits all contribute to your primary goal — increasedprofitability.
Kitting Reduces Labor
Many steps in manufacturing require the use or assembly ofmultiple components. Those components have to be provisioned to the place wherethey will be needed
Components are normally “picked” from inventory as needed. Eitherthe production workers pick their own components from inventory, or a pickercollects components and delivers them to the production area.
What if all the components needed for a particular step inmanufacturing are contained in a single package (SKU)? Your staff simply grabsthe number of packages needed for the current production run — no moresearching for, counting, and handling dozens of components like bolts, nuts,washers, cotter pins, etc.
Kitting Improves Workflow
Component kitting ensures the right components, and thecorrect number of those components, are available exactly where and when theyare needed.
Your production workflow is no longer interrupted while yourworkers pick components, hunt for missing items, or deal with the wrong or defectiveparts.
Kitting isn’t restricted to small parts like fasteners.Large parts can also be bundled into a single SKU to simplify handling andimprove production efficiency.
Kitting Improves Inventory Control
Kitting simplifies picking for production runs. The picker onlypulls one SKU, rather than many, from a single bin or location. No more pushinga cart through isles of inventory, searching for items on a pick list. No moremultiplication and counting out small items.
Kitting reduces confusion and mistakes. No more misreadingthe SKU on a component or picking the wrong screw, nut, or washer. No moreproduction interruptions while the worker hunts for the correct component.
Kitting reduces or eliminates production interruptions dueto unexpected inventory outages. Inventory levels are easier to monitor whilekits are being assembled ahead of time, and components can be reordered at thattime.
Kitting helps shield you from inventory outages and supplychain issues. It gives advance warning if components become unavailable. Youcan plan production based on the number of kitted SKUs still in stock whilesearching for an alternate supplier.
Kitting Improves Quality
It’s difficult to spot defective or out-of-spec componentswhile picking inventory. The problem usually appears as a production problem ora defective product. In the worst case, an entire production run could haveproblems, leading to significant customer dissatisfaction or liability trouble.
Individual components can be examined, weighed, andsample-tested as part of the kitting process. Bad components caught at thispoint never make it into production, and never cause quality problems.
Outsourcing or Insourcing?
Some companies perform their own kitting, while many othershave found it better to outsource this task to a component packaging company.
A component packager can offer:
· Specialization — Component packagers havedeveloped specialized systems and equipment especially for component kitting.They are experts in this field.
· Inventory Control — Kit components arestored by the packager and reordered as needed, relieving your company of thatspace, labor, and responsibility.
· Kit Assembly & Quality Control — Componentsare verified, double-checked, and submitted to quality control, then packagedto your requirements. This can be quite cost effective due to specializedequipment and quantities of scale.
The experts at ComponentPackaging are ready to help you identify ways that component kitting can reduceyour labor costs, simplify your inventory control, and improve your bottomline. Let us be the answer for your packing and kitting needs: https://www.componentpackaging.com/contact-us.
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