I have often visited manufacturing sites that did kitting. Of the ones who did, I always asked them, “What KPI’s do you have for kitting?” The most common answer seems to be kits per hour, picks per minute, etc. Why is that, and is that the best indicator of kitting success?

First of all, many metrics and KPI’s revolve around what is easy to measure rather than what is a good predictor of success. Kits per hour and picks per minute are very easy to measure. They can be used to identify potential training opportunities for employees, and see if there is improvement over time. But are those actually useful?

I would say that metrics like kits per hour/picks per minute are lagging indicators rather than leading. What do I mean by that? What I mean is that you don’t know if you hit the mark until after it is too late to do something. If I have poor kits per hour, it is often too late to do anything other than throw more resources at the issue. Leading indicators tend to be ones that if measured properly might avoid having an adverse situation, like an outage.

So what are some leading indicators that could be used for kitting? Well, I would suggest ones like on-time delivery. On-time delivery is one that if met means you are meeting customer demand. You could have excellent kits per hour, but if you are either ahead or behind your customer demand that is not a desired situation. If you are behind, you’re starving the line. If you’re ahead, you potentially are creating congestion because kits have to be stored somewhere – either in the warehouse or at the line.

So if you’re using kits per hour/picks per minute, don’t necessarily despair – I’m not saying those are wrong. However, consider that there are potentially better metrics that may get your closer to your end goal. We at DELMIA Operations Consulting can help you identify pain points and suggest ways for you to improve.

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