Manage The Assembly of Kits During Picking

Kitting is commonly used by a lot of different companies, whether kits are being purchased and then stored as components or simply assembled on site from items that are sold in their own right.

Kits themselves can be anything from sofas and king-size beds to tool kits and gift sets, with each business choosing to ship these in different ways. For kits that are being assembled before they are despatched, usually when an order is received for one of these products a member of the warehouse staff will be told to go and pick the components, the kit will then be assembled, packed and shipped.

Although including the assembly of kits as part of the picking process makes sense from an efficiency standpoint as it is a more streamlined way of working, if not handled in a structured manner then issues can quickly arise. For example staff may start to assemble a kit only to find they haven’t yet picked all the components, resulting in them having to disassemble what they have already put together and go pick again. Alternatively if components are sold as items in their own right and staff are not notified that these goods need to be assembled into a kit, this fact may be overlooked causing despatch delays or increased returns. Therefore businesses who are assembling kits during despatch should ensure they have an organised method of managing this process that keeps staff informed of the progress of each kit.

Fast, Accurate And Structured Kit Assembly

With OrderWise Kitting, businesses already have comprehensive functionality both in-system and on our Mobile WMS Devices to handle the stocking, selling and despatching of both purchase and non-purchase kits. However now in version 12.1 of OrderWise, an enhancement has been added to our Mobile WMS Devices to enable users to now effectively manage the assembling of kits during the despatch process with the assistance of barcode scanning.

Now when staff are using Mobile WMS Devices to pick a kitted item that is set to assemble in HHT picking, it is possible to assemble the kit on the mobile device by scanning a finish tote in the Kits tab. After sending the pick containing the assembled kit back to the main system, the finish tote can be scanned into pack scan it can then be packed and shipped.

Streamline Your Warehouse Processes

What’s more to help keep staff aware that they have kits to collect, the pick tab will display an alert against the line that reads pick contains items that require assembly. If the user tries to send this pick back to the main OrderWise system before the kit has been marked as assembled, a confirmation dialog will appear asking if the user wants to process the assemblies first. From this dialog box they can then decide whether or not they wish to view the Kits tab or send the pick back unassembled.

If they choose to view the new Kits tab on the OrderWise Mobile WMS Device, from here staff will be able to scan the finish tote to complete the assembly and pick, view the assemblies needed for each pick line and also see records for which kits have been assembled. There will also be a colour coded gauge where staff can easily view the progress of their component pick for each kit.

If this colour gauge box is blank, the kit currently has no components picked for it. If red, this means that the kHHT 200×300 200x300it has been part picked but is disproportionate so users cannot assemble the item. If partially filled in green, the kit has some proportionately picked components so the part pick can be assembled. If fully green, the kit has been fully picked and can be assembled in the full quantity.

Clear And Correct Component Pick For Each Kit

With this highly useful new functionality, staff using OrderWise Kitting and Mobile WMS Devices to manage the picking and assembly of their kits within the same assignment can do so in a fast, accurate and structured manner. By giving staff the tools to easily track the progress of each kit as it is picked and assemble together components as they go, businesses can ensure that their kits are always despatched correctly and quickly.

For more information on OrderWise including Kitting or our Mobile WMS Devices, download our brochures or watch our videos.

Existing users can contact the Client Services Team.

To discuss your requirements in more detail contact us on 01522 704083.