I’ve often talked to customers that either say they want to do more kitting, or that they’re trying to rationalize the parts that they do kit. I’ve even heard some people say that they’d like to kit everything. Maybe we should start with that – why not kit everything?

To start with, let’s talk about what kits are. They are a container or package of items specified for delivery to some sort of downstream assembly. That assembly may in itself be the final assembly, and it may not. So why kit at all?

Kits can free up space at the assembly line. How is that? Because those parts don’t have to be stored in bulk or whatever containers they are purchased in at the line. It can potentially save time at the line if what you are building has a high amount of variation. However, that time is passed on to the kitting process, so the overall time may not be lessened. Looking at it from a costing point it may be a wash, but if your labor rate is higher on your assembly line than your warehouse you may see an overall cost reduction. So why not kit everything?

While kitting can be a time and space saver at final assembly, the effort isn’t free. Someone needs to prepare and deliver the kit, and ensure that all the necessary parts are in it as well. Kitting may take up additional space in your warehouse that has to be accounted for. There may be some items that are too bulky or heavy to fit into whatever the kit delivery mechanism is (cart, tub, etc.). And if an item is placed onto just about every assembly that goes by on the line, those may be more appropriately placed at the line for efficiencies’ sake.

Delivery time and frequency need to be factored in as well. If you only have the capacity to deliver x kits per hour, and more than x are needed, you may need to provide additional staffing, cut down on the kit content or other strategies to increase throughput. And it typically helps to have a system that will assist in the creation and delivery of those kits. It’s not enough to make sure they get created – they need to be delivered on time with a great degree of accuracy.

So what’s the bottom line? First of all, some investigation may need to be done on what content is getting put on at the line, and if it makes sense to kit it. Also the space requirements for the actual assembly line will need to be taken into consideration. In the end, it becomes a balancing act of efficiencies, space requirements and delivery frequency. Kitting can be very powerful, but care needs to be taken to ensure that it’s done properly.

I would encourage anyone to comment on their kitting experiences – either positive or negative. Oftentimes we can learn much from what others have done.

#DELMIAOperationsConsulting