Kitting is the process of compiling individual items that are usually used together into a single kit. Products that are commonly used together are often kitted together for consumers at a price lower than the products would be to buy individually. In manufacturing, kitting works much the same way, but it is more about efficiency of the production line than increasing revenue.
There are a few ways that kitting can improve manufacturing:
Kitting speeds up the manufacturing process
One advantage of kitting is that it speeds up the manufacturing process by reducing material handling time and improving pick and reporting speed. This is because all the parts that are required are already together, saving time searching for components on the shop floor level. This way, all the workers need to do is assemble the product, with the added bonus that they can quality check each part before starting the assembly.
Kitting reduces your costs
Kitting can also provide you with a range of savings across your manufacturing processes. If all of your components are kitted together, they will take up less space in the warehouse as you will store only as much as you need. This may reduce how much you pay for your storage.
You will also only pay shipping costs for each kit as an individual item rather than each component in the kit. Finally, it’s much easier to calculate the production cost of an item because you know precisely which components are in each kit and in what quantities.
Kitting provides better inventory organisation
As mentioned above, kitting makes it easier to find parts, which is especially useful in productions where a variety of small components needs to be used. Each kit is given a SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) number, which makes it much easier to find, rather than searching for each individual part.
The other benefit to this is you know that each kit equals one completed assembly, rather than finding you have enough of most of the components for an assembly only to find that you have a shortage of another or that a part is defective. These potential issues are monitored and resolved when the kit is first put together.
Would your business benefit from kitting?
Kitting comes with benefits that are universal for manufacturing businesses, but those that would benefit the most from kitting are those that find the process of locating materials and components on the shop floor is wasting too much time. This is often the case with manufacturers who deal with a large range of small components, and those who create products that have specification variations such as colour and size.
How can kitting be implemented?
Kitting can be implemented at any manufacturing business through proper organisation. Some workers can be assigned to sorting, organising, quality controlling and pre-assembling parts for use on the production line. However, if you don’t have the resources to spare to do this, you can speak to your supplier to see if they can kit your items for you, if you purchase all the parts required from them.
Kitting is one of the services we offer at Delta Impact, so if you’d like to reduce your overheads, make your manufacturing process more efficient and have just one point of contact for your products, then please get in touch.
