Kitting
Decide which parts to deliver as a kit on an assembly line, design the kit and its container, then run the preparation without creating a shortage or shifting waste to the warehouse.
This course is aimed at team leaders, shop floor managers, methods technicians and shop floor logisticians who supply assembly stations with a growing number of part numbers or options. By the end, you will know how to separate the components to leave at lineside from those to deliver as a kit, size a kit and its container, write the preparation standard, and measure after two weeks whether kitting has actually reduced travel, component errors and clutter at the station. The course deals first with the assembly line; selling products as kits follows the same rules.
What you will be able to do
- Recognise on your line the symptoms that justify kitting: an operator who moves around to look for parts, stations cluttered with components from other models, variant errors.
- Classify a product's components into two families using a Pareto: standard parts left at the station, specific parts delivered as a kit.
- Design a kit: contents, compartmented container, protection of fragile parts, order of presentation, means of delivery (flow rail or trolley).
- Write the preparation and replenishment standard, including the information flow and the delivery rhythm at takt time.
- Spot the three classic failures: an incomplete or incorrect kit that stops the line, waste shifted to the warehouse, kitting applied to parts that did not need it.
- Measure the result at two weeks with simple indicators: movements per cycle, rate of conforming kits, cycle time at the station, floor space freed up.
The path
- Recognising a line that needs kitting 4 min
- Sorting components: lineside or kit 4 min
- Designing the kit and its container 4 min
- Writing the preparation and delivery standard 5 min
- Avoiding the three pitfalls that make people give up on kitting 3 min
- Measuring the result at two weeks 3 min
Prerequisites
Know your assembly line and its stations. Have a bill of materials (list of components) per model, even an approximate one. A first grounding in 5S and takt time helps, but the terms are recapped in one sentence in the course.
The closing quiz
The topic ends with a 7-question quiz, and a certificate is issued on success.