Kitting in Manufacturing: How to Do It and Measure It Right

What Is the Kitting Process in Manufacturing?

Kitting is the process of packaging all of the parts, tools, and materials needed for a specific product or component into a kit. Operators don't have to stop the line to hunt for materials; all the right parts are prepackaged and delivered to the right station. As a result, startups and changeovers are quicker, errors plummet, costs decline, and quality increases. These in turn increase productivity, efficiency, and profitability.

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Kitting in the Manufacturing Workflow

Kitting is often confused with subassembly and bundling; here is how they and related concepts work together to improve efficiency.

Types of Kitting in Manufacturing

Here are some ways manufacturers use kitting processes.

• Material kitting (or parts kitting): Material kitting is assembling all the materials needed to complete a process or step (e.g., ingredients for a packaged food item; fabric and notions for a shirt). It's the most common type of kitting in manufacturing.
• Product kitting: Product kitting is combining all the materials needed to use a product. Examples include meal-prep kits, subscription boxes, or ready-to-assemble furniture.
• Full kitting: Full kitting gathers and verifies 100% of the parts and tools for a work order before the kit moves to the frontline. Because full kitting prevents interruptions and improves accuracy and quality, it is a best practice for high-performing plants.
• Maintenance kitting: Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) kitting assembles supplies and tools for common maintenance tasks. Examples include everything needed to clean a machine or replace a broken belt.
• Just-in-time kitting: Just-in-time (JIT) kitting assembles and delivers kits to the shop floor as they are needed. JIT kitting saves warehouse space and holding costs.

How the Kitting Process Works: Step by Step

The kitting process increases efficiency and productivity by giving operators everything they need for production exactly when they need it. Here's how it works.

1. Define the Kit Composition

Create a bill of materials (BOM), a digital blueprint that lists every material in the kit, including component specifications, quantities, and assembly sequences. These digital work instructions direct the kitting process. BOM version control tracks engineering changes to maintain kit accuracy. Each kit is assigned a unique SKU (stock-keeping unit) identifier in your enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool or manufacturing execution system (MES) to enable inventory tracking.

2. Gather, Assemble, and Verify the Kit

The people who assemble kits are called "kitters," and the place they're assembled is called a kitting station, kitting area, or fulfillment warehouse. Some manufacturers assemble kits in house, while others outsource kitting to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider.

Regardless of who does kitting, the process is similar:

1. Collect all the components according to the BOM. 
2. Assemble the kit accurately based on the digital work instructions. 
3. Verify the kit's accuracy (essential for consistent quality and compliance) using the digital BOM as a single source of truth.
4. Store the kit in its assigned place in the warehouse until it's needed.

3. Deliver Kits to Stations Based on Sales Orders

Schedule kit delivery to each station based on the production sequence. Use real-time communications to alert kitting teams when the line is approaching changeover. Delivering kits to the shop floor just in time to meet the frontline's production schedule reduces inventory on the shop floor, minimizes motion waste (i.e., time and energy spent gathering materials), and ensures the frontline can work uninterrupted. 

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When to Use Kitting — and When Not To

Kitting requires upfront investments in materials, labor, and warehousing, with the intention to save money in the end. Maximize kitting's payoff by applying it to repetitive, standardized processes.

Kitting is a strong fit for: 

• Complex assemblies with many small, hard to pick parts.
• Frontlines with limited floor space to store raw materials.
• Shifts with inconsistent execution, errors, and defects.
• Labor markets where assembling kits is affordable.

Kitting is a poor fit for: 

• BOMs that change frequently.
• Highly variable products that are difficult to standardize.
• Low-volume production or customized, on-demand products.
• Any process where the labor cost of kitting exceeds that of traditional picking.

How Manufacturers Benefit From Kitting

Kitting creates measurable value by strengthening how manufacturing facilities organize resources and optimize production flows.

• Eliminating bottlenecks: By ensuring team members always have the right materials, even when parts change, kitting minimizes stoppages, reduces errors, improves overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), and optimizes labor utilization.
• Continuous improvement: Machine learning and real-time data analysis identify opportunities to reduce waste from motion, errors, and rework
• Quality control and compliance: Kitting helps maintain product integrity, optimize resource utilization, improve compliance, and prevent quality errors at the source.
• Smarter purchasing: Bulk material kitting with smart inventory management enables volume purchasing discounts. 

How AI and Automation Are Changing Kitting

AI and automation are transforming traditional kitting operations into intelligent, self-optimizing systems with advanced capabilities like these.

• Dynamic inventory management: AI systems can combine historical production data and real-time operational data to anticipate and prevent inventory disruptions.
• Error detection: Computer vision technology scans each component, turning traditional manual verification into a dynamic, self-correcting process.
• Workflow optimization: Machine learning algorithms continuously track the movement of components throughout production, learning from each cycle to recommend efficiencies.
• Supply chain traceability: A digital thread tracks each component's journey through the manufacturing ecosystem to anticipate potential supply chain threats.

Kitting Best Practices

Optimize kitting processes with these best practices:

• Full kitting: Never release a partial kit to the floor, so operators always have everything they need without stopping the line.
• Visual verification: Catch kit errors using tools such as poka-yoke, digital checklists, and computer vision systems.
• First-in/first-out (FIFO): Sequence kits for date-sensitive sectors (e.g., food and beverage, life sciences), so perishable items don't expire before they're used.
• Standardization: Document procedures to help eliminate ambiguity and improve consistency.
• Digital work instructions: Display digital work instructions on easy-to-see interactive terminals. 
• Inventory management: Use real-time inventory tracking to forecast material requirements, prevent stockouts, and reduce storage.

How To Measure Kitting Performance

These KPIs and leading indicators will tell you whether your kitting process is working as expected.

• Kit fill rate: Percentage of kits that are complete when delivered.
• Kit accuracy rate: Percentage of kits with no wrong, missing, or defective parts.
• Kitting cycle time: How long it takes from generating a kit pick list to staging a full kit.
• Downtime caused by kit errors: Unplanned production downtime or slowdowns caused by missing or damaged parts or disorganized kits.

A MES, which manages, monitors, and controls production, can automatically surface and visualize these metrics in real time.

How To Solve Common Kitting Challenges

Signs that kitting performance isn't up to par can come from metrics or on-the-ground reports, such as noting that the day shift and night shift are assembling kits differently, and they can't agree on the right standard. If you're seeing problems, try these solutions.

• Challenge 1 — Kit errors: Use SOP compliance tools and visual verification to prevent mistakes, and real-time communication between the frontline and kitting teams to expedite replacement.
• Challenge 2 — Kitting inconsistency: Clarify digital work instructions and enforce SOP compliance tools to ensure kits conform with standards from shift to shift.
• Challenge 3 — Kitting bottlenecks: Use real-time visibility and set up alerts to notify line leaders when kits are not ready and delivered to the shop floor when needed.
• Challenge 4 — Training issues: Implement digital learning platforms at the kitting station to get new kitters up to speed faster and with fewer mistakes.

The Bottom Line

Modernizing traditional kitting processes with real-time data, AI, and digital quality control deliver more productivity, efficiency, quality, and profitability. By building your kitting foundation on a connected workforce solution, traditional production lines become dynamic, data-driven powerhouses that scale along with your business. Book a demo today to see it in action.