Efficiency is Critical: Benefits of Kitting
Kitting is one of the many inventory management services offered by global aerospace hardware distributor, Aircraft Hardware West (AHW). The benefits of kitting are well known, including enhanced efficiency and reduced costs by cutting down on purchasing, receiving, and pulling product for production. Kitting is value-added service provided by AHW at no additional cost to its customers.
What is Kitting?
Kitting is a lean material management strategy where a group of parts based on a bill of materials (BOM) are pre-labeled and pre-packaged to form a single part number to represent a “kit” that is delivered directly to the assembly line. Custom kitting is a value-added service that helps to streamline the manufacturing process, saving original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MROs) facilities both time and money.
Why Kitting?
Kitting allows OEMs and MROs to focus on their core competencies by eliminating any non-value-added activities. Using kits to build repeat assembles can speed up the production process, as it provides workers on the assembly line the items they need, in the exact quantities they need, without having to leave the point of use (POU) station.
Benefits of Kitting
- Improved Traceability
- Reduced Purchasing Time
- Reduced Receiving Time
- Decreased Waste
- Increased Floor Space
- Reduced Inventory
- Increased Productivity
- Improved Cash Flow
AHW’s Customized Kitting Solution
AHW’s simplified kitting services include a comprehensive review of the inventory related bottlenecks in the production process and delivers a customized solution to resolve the major pain points. AHW will propose to recreate an existing kit, or work engineering to determine new kit options based on BOMs and usage history. Kits can even be set-up to include sub-kits (kits within a kit) and can be added to an existing VMI program as pool items or On-Demand for immediate use.
Each kit is customized to meet the exact needs of the customer, including personalized packaging, labeling, and reporting. The kit packaging is clearly labeled for easy identification and accompanied with a kit material list detailing the contents of the kit. Additionally, a dedicated AHW account representative will track and evaluate kit usage and make recommendations for ongoing continual improvement.
AHW has been providing lean kitting services to major aerospace OEMs for over 18 years. We have the knowledge, experience, and logistics technology to ensure 100% accuracy in inventory, order pulling, and packaging to guarantee the consistency and quality of our kits. Part number traceability is critical in the Aerospace Industry, and AHW kits are fully traceable down to each kit component through AHW’s leading ERP system, Quantum Control. Part number, lot information, and manufacture certifications are all linked to each top assembly kit, with full traceability documentation available 24/7 on the AHW Web Portal. For more information, please contact [email protected]