Kitting Methods

With the SIMMS Kitting module there are two methods of kitting available;

Standard Kitting;

The SIMMS Standard Kitting (Bill of Materials) method is ideal for manufacturers whose inventory items are sold in bundled packages at predetermined prices. You can package a group of inventory items as kits, then track the kits as they are sold to customers either as individual items or components of a kit. Therefore you always have the immediate information to hand to make informed production decisions. With standard kitting, Bill of Materials (Kit) items are inventory items created by packaging units of other inventory items together for sale to, and assembly by, the customer. For example;

Instead of assembling a complete car for sale or selling each part as a separate item, the manufacturer could package a kit consisting of the frame, wheels, engine and seats, which the purchaser could then easily assemble.

Kit Schema Maintenance is a further feature where a non-stock item can be designated as a component of a kit item. This saves time and disk space since there is no need to create item records for non-stock items.

Phantom Kitting;

SIMMS Phantom Kitting is where certain kits in the system can be flagged to tell SIMMS that the selected kit cannot be built, 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. For example;

A manufacturer sells car stereos and knows that when a specific car stereo is sold, a stereo harness and 20 feet of wire have to be sold separately. Those items have to be easily adjustable at the transaction stage and those kits are not rebuilt beforehand, so he only has to sell those items separately and needs to be reminded to do so.

Wiith Phantom Kitting this is now made possible with ease, because when you insert the phantom kit (using the car stereo as per the example) into the sales transaction the 20 feet of wire and harness are also inserted as separate line items. Now the sales person can adjust the extra components inserted if need be (change the price, or perhaps swap with another item more applicable to the person he is selling too, or even just remove if the customer doesn’t want the extra items for example). The purpose of phantom kitting is to ensure that when a user is selling an item, an important associated item is not forgotten as well. Of course, Phantom Kitting can be also used on the purchasing end of the system.

Use SIMMS Bill of Material Software and Improve Part Integrity

Complex bills of material can cause several problems since they require coordination among many team members including design, manufacturing, quality, and procurement. There also may be multiple sites, systems and teams that wish to access different versions of the data at different times.

Alternative methods of Bill of Materials gather the necessary data, yet once this is done, most methods of bill of materials software management cannot handle the complexities of the BOM that are needed by each group.

If you assemble products before shipping them, or want to automatically insert dependent items along with the master item into the transaction (ie, phantom kitting), then SIMMS Advanced BOM (kitting) functionality is the perfect solution. This will help you manage production and BOM assembly without material issues.

Using SIMMS Software bills of material module, you can add the power of kitting to your Inventory Control module. The Kitting (BOM) module is for manufacturers whose inventory items are often sold in bundled packages at predetermined prices. This module enables you to package a group of inventory items as kits, then track the kits as they are sold to customers either as individual items or components of a kit. SIMMS Kitting (BOM) module easily integrates with SIMMS Inventory Control and accounting modules. This allows distributors, assemble-to-order industries, and other light manufacturers to focus on other critical business issues without getting tied up in the complexity of the manufacturing process.

Easy to use Kitting software

For an easy-to-use production entry screen where finished goods are reported after the fact then use the Advanced Kitting (BOM Management). This single point of entry eliminates several labor and production transactions by automatically issuing material quantities, outside process transactions and the labour time needed to finished kits.

Distributors can identify labour as part of the kitting process. This will considerably improve product costing, subsequent pricing and the kitting procedure.

Creating BOM (Kit) Items

BOM (Kit) items are inventory items created by packaging units of other inventory items together for sale to and 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, engine and seat, which the purchaser could easily assemble.

Kit Schema Maintenance is an extra feature where a non-stock item can be designated as a component of a kit item. This saves time and disk space as there is no need to create item records for non-stock items.

Disassembling BOM (Kit) Items

Should a BOM item unit be disassembled because it is overstocked, or its parts are needed for a separate sale, the disassembly and disposition of its parts are recorded within the Kit manager menu.

BOM (Kit) Items

BOM items can be built in advance according to a BOM schema. This is defined through a BOM Schema setup menu function and stocked in inventory, or they can be built as needed according to the same schema.

Choose whether or not to assign kit numbers to kit item units. Kit numbers can be used for additional production run information or item identification.

Customizable BOM Schema

SIMMS provides the flexibility to allow customization of a kit item, whether to meet the special needs of a customer or a specific kit build.

The Kitting Manager offers a simple and straightforward way of assigning components for kit items. It also provides full flexibility by allowing non-stock items to be added to a kit formula.

BOM Reporting

A set of kit reports lets you easily review kit assembly information and correctly track kit items in inventory.

Integration of BOM with Lot Control

Lot control numbers can be assigned to groups of kit item units, as well as assigning a specific kit number to each unit. For example, all the kits for the assembly of a computer workstation packaged on a particular day, by a particular person, or using particular parts, can be assigned a specific lot number.

Integration of Kitting with Serial Numbers

Kit item units can also be given individual serial numbers. This can be by assigning serial numbers to units of a kit item, in addition to assigning a kit number to each kit itself.

Kit Item Transaction Report

By using a special Inventory Control report you can review kit item transactions and all its details. This report can show information about all or a range of kit items, such as only built kit items, 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 a range of dates.