Best Product kitting and bundling Guide 2022

Kitting and bundling is the process of grouping the items in a set together for easy and quick packaging. Our kitting and bundling guide gives you detailed information about this important step.

Kitting can be a valuable addition to your raw material inventory and finished product inventory management practices. There are two types of kitting and numerous cases where both come in handy.

What is kitting?

Kitting, or bundling, means bringing together individual items that would normally be processed or consumed together into a single SKU—thus creating “kits” or bundles.

It is used by manufacturers and distributors alike, but often in different ways and for different purposes.

Whatever type of kitting you choose, it has the potential to significantly improve your business, either by increasing sales or streamlining your processes.

Product kitting

At some point, you have probably bought a shaving kit that included blades, shaving cream, balm or aftershave, and other products.

Or maybe you have a child who always has too much energy – which is why you bought them a drum set with assorted drums and cymbals, a stool, and some drumsticks so they can use their energy creatively.

Electronic devices are also usually available in sets or bundles.

For example, when you buy a new phone, you also get a charger and possibly an SD card and headphones as well.

All of these are examples of product kitting – creating a new product that is composed of other individual products.

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Shaving accessories are often available bundled as a kit.

Kitting can increase sales and prove extremely profitable if done right.

Let’s take a look at a fast food restaurant as an example.

Let’s say a burger costs $4, medium fries $2, and a soda $1. All of these are individual prices.

Overall, we come to a price of 7 $.

However, a full dish with the same items is only €6

Even if all you originally wanted was a burger, there’s a good chance you’ll end up going for the full dish.

After all, you get more for (apparently) less.

Even though you end up spending more than you would on a single burger, you still think you’ve gotten a bargain.

From the restaurant’s perspective, that means only one thing – additional revenue.

And that’s exactly what you achieve with product kits. It encourages the customer to make additional purchases by offering a discount on a set of items.

Bedding, kitchen products, sports equipment, furniture, beer six-packs – these are all kits that we often see in stores.

Why and how can we use product kitting?

Maybe you produce a few items that are often bought together.

Then it would be sensible to offer them in kits so that customers can easily find the bundle instead of having to collect the items one by one.

Product kitting is a great way to reduce the number of SKUs and better organize your inventory.

It makes searching for items easier and could therefore increase the efficiency of your workers and reduce labor costs.

Aside from being a solid selling strategy that can increase sales and inventory turns, product kitting can also make many processes in your warehouse more efficient.

Material Kitting

In manufacturing, however, kitting can prove advantageous not only for end products.

Of course, manufacturers can also sell their products as kits.

But as a manufacturer, you can also use kitting to bundle parts and materials together before the production process to make production more efficient by eliminating the need to hunt for different parts at the factory level.

The components of a BOM, or at least parts of it, would then arrive on the shop floor as ready-to-build kits, leaving workers with only processing or assembly to deal with.

In addition to reducing material handling times by simplifying inventory and improving picking and reporting speeds, kitting can also help with quality control as each item can be inspected before it is bundled.

When should material kitting be used?

You should consider kitting if you find that too much time is spent searching for parts and materials at the manufacturing level.

This could happen in many cases, however, some conditions are more susceptible than others.

This includes situations when you need to deal with:

• a large number of small components
• customer-specific products with components that differ in color, shape or other specifications
• Lack of space in the manufacturing facility that prevents you from storing necessary inventory there

In all these cases, kitting could come to the rescue, saving significant time and increasing production efficiency.

How should material kitting be applied?

Kitting requires sorting, organizing, and in some cases pre-assembly of parts that will be used in the manufacturing facility.

You can involve new hires in the kitting process so your skilled workers can focus on work that’s more appropriate to their skills.

Another option would be to talk to your suppliers about the possibility of doing the kitting for you, assuming you get a majority of your components from a single supplier.

However, if you choose to do the kitting yourself, proper planning is required to make it a success.

You can also use your Analision Kitting and Bundling software to make your product kitting more organized.

Conclusion

Kitting or bundling could help streamline processes both in the warehouse and at the production level.

Product kitting means bundling finished goods to encourage additional purchases, free up storage space and minimize search time before shipping.

Material kitting is a similar concept, but applied to raw materials and components: different items and materials used in the construction of a product are assembled into a kit that can be easily consumed by the respective manufacturing cell.

Material kitting can minimize search and reporting times, making your production faster and more efficient.

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