Kitting Methods
With SIMMS' Kitting Module you have two methods of kitting available:
Standard Kitting
SIMMS' Standard Kitting (BOM) method is designed for use by manufacturers whose inventory items are often sold in bundled packages at pre-determined prices. This module enables you to package a group of inventory items as assemblies (kits) and to track the kits as they are sold to customers either as individual items or components of a kit, thus equipping you with up-to-the-minute production information. With standard kitting, Kit (BOM) items are
inventory items created by packaging units of other inventory items together for sale to (or possibly assembly by) the customer.
For example:
Instead of assembling a complete car for sale, or selling each part as a separate item, the manufacturer might package a kit consisting of the frame,
wheels, motor, seat, engine and transmission, which the purchaser could assemble.
Kit Schemas are the "formulas" for the kits, e.g. one Part A, two part B, etc.
Kit Schema Maintenance is enhanced further so a non-stock item can be
designated as a component of a kit item, thus saving time and storage space since there is no need to create item records for non-stock items. Examples of non-stock items may be batteries that you acquired in a special deal that cost a minimal amount but which is used in many BOMs and provides additional value to the customer.
Phantom Kitting
SIMMS' Phantom Kitting enables the user to designate certain kits in the system with a flag telling SIMMS that the selected kit cannot be built and,
instead of building the kit, if you select a phantom kit to insert within a transaction, all of its kit components are inserted as separate line items in the
transaction as well.
An example:
Let’s say you sell car stereos and you know that when you sell a specific car stereo you also have to sell separately a stereo harness and twenty
feet of wire. Obviously, those items have to be easily adjustable at the transaction stage and you do not rebuild those kits beforehand — you only have to sell those items separately and need to be reminded to do so.
This process is made easy with Phantom Kitting because when you insert the phantom kit (car stereo as per the example) into the sales transaction the
twenty feet of wire and harness are also inserted as separate line items. Sales personnel can then adjust the extra components inserted (if necessary). This
could include changing the price, or perhaps swapping with another item more applicable to the person to whom it is being sold, or perhaps removing if the
customer does not want the extra items. The whole principle of Phantom Kitting is to assure that when you sell an item you do not forget any important
associated items. In addition, phantom kitting can be used on the purchasing side of the system.
Deploy SIMMS Bill of Material Software and Improve Part Integrity
Complex Bills of Materials can pose numerous problems because they can require coordination amongst many different teams (including design, manufacturing, quality, and procurement). Often there are multiple sites, systems and teams that access different versions of the data at different times.
Alternative methods of kit management require users to consult multiple systems to gather the necessary data. Yet once the data is gathered, most methods of bill of material software management fail to handle the complexities of the differing perspectives of the kit that are needed by each group.
Do you assemble products before shipping them? Perhaps you just wish to automatically insert dependent items along with the master item into the
transaction at one time by just having to select and insert the master item (as in Phantom Kitting). If so, then SIMMS'Advanced Kitting functionality
is the perfect solution to help you manage production and BOM assembly without issues related to material.
With the streamlined SIMMS Kitting Module, you can add the power of kitting to your Inventory Control module, seamlessly integrating with SIMMS Inventory
Control and Accounting modules, thus allowing distributors, assemble-to-order industries, and other light manufacturers to concentrate on other critical
business issues without getting tied up in complex manufacturing processes.
Easy-to-Use Kitting Software
Advanced Kitting provides an easy-to-use production entry screen where finished goods are reported after the fact. This single point of entry eliminates
numerous labor and production transactions by automatically issuing material quantities, outside process transactions and labor time to finished kits.
Distributors can identify labor as part of the kitting process. This dramatically improves product costing, subsequent pricing and the kitting
procedure.
Disassembling Kit (BOM) Items
If a kit item unit is disassembled because it is overstocked or its parts are needed for a separate sale, the disassembly and disposition of its parts is
recorded through the Kit Manager menu.
Kit (BOM) Items
Kit items can be pre-built according to a BOM schema defined through a BOM Schema setup menu function and stocked in inventory, or they can be built as needed according to the same schema.
You can choose whether or not to assign kit numbers to kit item units. Kit numbers can be used for item identification in addition to for additional
production run information.
Customizable Kit Schema
Though many kit items may use standard components, SIMMS provides the flexibility to allow customization of a kit item in order to meet the special needs
of a customer or a specific kit build during the kit building creation.
The Kitting Manager provides a very simple and straightforward way of assigning components for kit items.
Kit Reporting
A set of kit reports provides ease in reviewing various kit assembly information and in proper tracking of the kit items in inventory.
Integration of Kits with Manufacturer's Lot Control
Lot control numbers can be assigned to groups of kit item units, while also allowing the assignment of specific kit numbers to each unit.
For example: all of the kits for the assembly of a computer workstation packaged on a particular day, by a particular person, using particular parts, can
be assigned specific lot numbers (known on the manufacturing side as Production Lot Numbers, which can be automatically generated by SIMMS upon saving each kit build).
Integration of Kitting with Serial Numbers
Kit item units can also be individually serialized. With SIMMS, you can also assign up to two distinct serial numbers per component in addition to
assigning serial numbers to each finished kit, from sub-sub-assembly to sub-assembly to master build, at each step.
Kit Item Transaction Report
Review kit item transactions by using a special Inventory Control report that includes a variety of details about kit item transactions. This report can
show information about all or a range of kit items, and can list only built kit items, or only disassembled kit items, or both built and disassembled kit
items. It can also include kit items in a particular location or a range of locations, and kit items built on a particular date or over a range of dates.
SIMMS' Kitting (BOM) Module is a simple but robust tool to help you manage and process your bills of materials needs, from the simplest order to a
project with hundreds of details. Accuracy and versatility are its hallmarks and when it is used with the other modules within the SIMMS Inventory Management
suite, you will have complete satisfaction and complete control of your manufacturing process.