The Secret to Great Order Fulfillment: Kitting

When it comes to order fulfillment, one of our favourite ways to eliminate our clients’ headaches is by cutting costs and increasing speed via kitting. Here’s how we do it.

At Mixto, we’re happiest when we’re helping our clients save money and fulfil their orders faster. Nobody likes it when business productivity is affected, and nothing slows down the process worse than when time is spent gathering individual components of an order, only to have to then package and ship it afterwards. That’s why when it comes to order fulfillment, one of our favourite ways to reduce our clients’ headaches is by cutting costs and increasing speed via kitting. 

Okay, what’s “Kitting” exactly?

Kitting’s basically another word for the term “assembly”; in the fulfillment world, it describes the process of putting together individual items into ready-to-ship packages, or “kits”. We generally rely on kitting to get the job done at Mixto when we’re fulfilling orders with multiple identical items. We then ship these pre-assembled orders to our clients’ customer base, often in large quantities within a short timeframe, or regularly over time for single or smaller batch inquiries. Kitting isn’t a catch-all solution to everything, but it can be an efficient answer for orders like the following:

  1. • New Client Welcome Packages
  2. • Marketing Collateral / Promotional material
  3. • Instructional Packets
  4. • Media Kits
  5. • New Product Launches
  6. • Product Samples

Here’s a look at our kitting process, and why our clients love it when we do the work for them:

They Save Big On Time

Since kitting is done in advance, the general distractions that take away from high-level tasks are eliminated. When key employees have to interrupt what they’re doing to assemble a kit or two (or ten) for shipping, valuable time is lost during these transitions when their regular duties are put on the back burner. With Mixto in the picture, these employees can remain focused on important projects without dropping the ball, and their employers – our clients – are able to enjoy a smooth work process minus hassle, oversights and hiccups.

Better yet, because the kitting and fulfillment services are handled by a trusted partner like Mixto, our clients don’t have to worry about the time and work it takes to collect all the pieces of a kit. They simply send us the components of each kit in bulk ahead of time, which we then store securely, ready to handle orders we’ll then fulfil. (We always notify them for a re-up when we’re running low on supplies.) One of our best assets is that we’re also an experienced print provider, which means we’re able to print individual pieces of any kit in-house, on demand. We’ll even personalize and ship the kits, which of course, is the heart of the fulfillment process, and makes for an even bigger impact on the customer. The bottom line though, is that we manage the entire process for our clients, which saves them valuable time.

It’s Cost Effective and More Efficient

For clients whose businesses demand a high level of efficiency, kitting and fulfillment are by far the best options to take. Mixto’s team assembles kits simultaneously, which means the economies of scale work in our clients’ favour. Because they’re ordering in large volumes, our clients get better pricing on any items they might need printed, or even purchased for the kits. Our On Demand Print Services are also an eco-friendly option which means fresh stock on an “as-needs” basis, instead of piles of inventory that could eventually wind up being stored on shelves for so long that they become outdated and have to be thrown out. Kitting also helps our clients save money on postage, as Mixto’s kits are packaged in a more efficient and cost-effective way. Another big plus; when items are shipped in kit form, the chances of errors in order fulfillment are greatly reduced.

They Can Go Green

For those clients looking to leave an even lighter environmental footprint while reducing their production overhead even further, we offer a digital format of our kitting service. Our specialized software transforms the contents of physical kits into secure electronic versions and helps our clients see significant savings by cutting out printing and shipping costs. This way, they don’t need to spend thousands on producing hard copy versions of their kits, and they can enjoy total confidence that their kits will never get lost in the mail, and will always be delivered to the right people.

+ Looking to decrease costs and leave a greener footprint? Go Paperless with Mixto’s E-Kitting Service.

They Save On Space

Because we’re an experienced kitting and fulfillment partner, our clients don’t have to worry about finding storage, or even losing prime real estate within their office spaces. Instead of having to deal with the responsibility of maintaining large quantities of various kit elements, our clients can just leave that part of the operation to us. Whenever Mixto  assembles kits, the packages remain at our facility and are shipped directly to wherever they’re needed. It’s the sheer beauty of fulfillment.  

The Truth In A Nutshell

When it’s done with the right fulfillment partner, the benefits and the cost savings of the kitting process can really lift a substantial weight off your business, and help you get things done better, faster. Plus, it’s always better when someone else does the work for you. 

+Find out how Mixto can help make your process lighter with our custom kitting and fulfillment solutions.