The Advantages of Kitting Fasteners

“Kitting” is the physical act of bundling multiple fasteners and other component SKUs into a single package and creating a new SKU for that package before shipping.

Kitting fasteners allow manufacturers to streamline processes, lower shipping costs, and fulfill orders more quickly, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. In-house assembly is often very cost-prohibitive for businesses, so using kitting services keeps costs low and can free up the retailer to focus on selling products.

For example, one form of kitting that has become popular in recent years is kitting parts for online sales of furniture, grills, or other goods created by consumer manufacturers. Rather than having different manufacturers or distinct parts being sold individually, multiple components and fasteners are kitted with the assigned quantities into one package for assembly and sale. The manufacturer, retailer, or consumer can then use the kit when putting together the finished product. This increases the value provided to the manufacturer of the finished item and the consumer. 

The Benefits of Fastener Kitting

As a Vendor Managed Inventory provider, we have seen firsthand the benefits our customers have gained from fastener kitting services.

More Efficient Use of Your Employees’ Time

One of the main benefits of fastener kitting is the increase in efficiency among your employees. Manufacturers who do not use some forms of kitting can become bottlenecked in material flow, wasting valuable production time. Kitting starts with the production team defining the kit of combined parts. 

Kitting in the manufacturing environment represents a type of intake process. Fastbolt’s fastener kitting process organizes parts used in the manufacturing of a product so they can be delivered to the point of use, saving time on the production line or cell. It is often the best example of “lean manufacturing” in practice, eliminating wasted time in production. 

Better Use of Your Available Space

Freeing up space is one of the key benefits of fastener kitting services for lean manufacturing environments. By moving component inventory, kitting services allow manufacturers to devote more floor space to production. Costly manufacturing space to store parts, packaging, and trash is antithetical to lean manufacturing principles. Growing manufacturers need to expand production, often moving the component materials off-site, allowing for the additional space needed while avoiding capital-intensive expansion projects.

Pre-sorted kits save time and labor by ensuring necessary components are available at the point of use. Kits can also be created by work cell or routing. If parts are not kitted, it is time-consuming for assemblers to search inventory, pull parts, and log usage. Because of this strategic material flow, manufacturers reduce inventory and improve cash flow with kitting. Combined with managed inventory, materials arrive in the plant and on the line, as needed. Suppliers ensure appropriate stock levels are available to support daily production and retain ownership of inventory until consumed. 

Streamlines Your Supply Chain Management Process

Hardware kitting services provide a streamlined approach to supply chain management, which reduces the time and hassle of ordering and managing parts inventory. Custom bagging fasteners also alleviate the frustrations of production delays due to an outage of a single fastener. 

Increases Your Volume and Profitability

Labor resources—especially with historically low unemployment—are in short supply in 2022. Optimizing your labor force starts with picking, the most important process in inventory processing science. For most inventory-centric companies, the outbound side of the inventory is where most companies generate profit. It is also the most labor-intensive. 

Fastbolt can process volume packaging system jobs without a manufacturer dealing directly with all the outside suppliers. Fastbolt’s kitting process can completely take over packaging of a wide range of small parts where multiple suppliers of fasteners and various components all ship to the manufacturer for sorting, consolidation, kitting, packaging, and fulfillment. Benefits include:

1. Automatically mixed packaging of a variety of small parts saves labor costs.
2. Bag forming, filling, sealing, and cutting are done at one time.

In addition, by having Fastbolt customize to your specifications, your kitting and assembly program helps manufacturers profit in many ways, including:

1. Improved cost control.
2. Reduced downtime and inventory.
3. Decreased handling and less waste.
4. Increased accuracy and improved efficiency.
5. Vendor reduction.
6. Part standardization plus fewer line items on an invoice.

Get Help Improving Your Fastener Kitting Management

Fastbolt is experienced in reliable bagging, kitting, and assembly for fasteners and offers full kitting capabilities for the entire production timeline. With our in-house kitting and assembly capabilities, we pick and pack components according to your specific instruction and deliver the kits to strategically located storage bins on your production line. This eliminates your need to assemble and tie up additional time and resources.

At Fastbolt, a global fastener supply chain provider, we offer custom fasteners and components, assorted fastener kits, as well as assembly and package fulfillment services from design to distribution, including a variety of industries, inclusive of automotive, aerospace, and military.

If you are looking to improve your manufacturing supply process, reach out to us on our contact page. Our team of supply chain management experts is ready and willing to assist you.