The Future of Kitting: Driving Efficiency and Growth with Sure Sort
Traditional kitting operations struggle with inefficiencies due to manual sorting, labor constraints, and high error rates, leading to operational slowdowns and increased costs. Learn more about automating your kitting operation.
Beyond Picking and Packing: The Growing Importance of Kitting
Kitting is an essential process in warehouse operations, particularly for industries requiring the assembly of customized kits for e-commerce, retail, education, and healthcare. This process involves grouping individual items into ready-to-ship kits, such as school supply packs, subscription boxes, or bundled promotional products. Traditionally, kitting has been a labor-intensive and error-prone process, with warehouses relying on manual sorting, picking, and packaging. As demand for customized orders increases and operational costs rise, warehouse leaders must seek automation solutions that enhance accuracy, speed, and scalability without disrupting existing workflows.
“It greatly improved our workflow and increased the business’s output dramatically.”
Tom Sinclair
Executive Director at Kookaburra
Why Manual Kitting No Longer Works in High-Volume Warehouses
The challenges associated with manual kitting processes are significant. Labor shortages and rising wages make it difficult to maintain workforce levels, especially during peak seasons when order volumes surge. Throughput limitations prevent warehouses from scaling operations efficiently, leading to backlogs, shipping delays, and missed SLAs. Additionally, manual processes introduce a higher risk of sorting errors, resulting in incorrect shipments, costly returns, and dissatisfied customers. Without automation, operations remain constrained by slow fulfillment cycles and inconsistent productivity, making it harder to meet modern customer expectations.
Key Results After Implementing Sure Sort
60%
Increase in daily output
65%
Less labor needed
85%
Decrease in cost per order
Solving Bottlenecks with Smart Sorting and Batch Picking
Traditional kitting operations struggle with inefficiencies due to manual sorting, labor constraints, and high error rates, leading to operational slowdowns and increased costs. The Sure Sort® automated sorting system eliminates these bottlenecks by using iBOTs and advanced software to streamline the kitting process. Instead of relying on workers to manually pick and place each item into a kit, Sure Sort automates batch sorting, allowing multiple kits to be assembled simultaneously. This significantly increases throughput, enabling up to 2,400 items to be sorted per hour while maintaining near-perfect accuracy.
A key advantage of Sure Sort is its Pack-to-Light (PTL) system, which guides operators to the correct items using LED indicators, minimizing sorting errors and reducing the need for rework or returns. Additionally, the system optimizes floor space by consolidating sortation into a compact footprint, unlike traditional put walls that require large amounts of warehouse real estate. Unlike other automation systems that demand high capital investment and extensive infrastructure changes, Sure Sort can be integrated with existing warehouse workflows with minimal disruption, ensuring a fast ROI and a seamless transition from manual processes.
Key Takeaways
Labor Efficiency Reduce onboarding from two weeks to 15 minutes.
Enhanced Throughput Fulfill orders with five times the order pick rate per employee.
Scalability for Future Growth Grow without increasing operational complexity or costs.
Another critical factor is labor optimization. With intelligent sorting and automated item distribution, Sure Sort allows warehouses to reduce dependence on temporary labor, a crucial advantage during peak demand seasons when hiring and training seasonal workers can be time-consuming and costly. This stabilizes labor costs, improves operational consistency, and ensures warehouses can meet customer demand without compromising service levels. Furthermore, Sure Sort integrates seamlessly with Warehouse Management Systems (WMS), providing real-time inventory tracking, order verification, and performance monitoring to enhance supply chain visibility and decision-making further.
Kookaburra, one of Australia’s largest wholesale education suppliers implemented Sure Sort into their kitting operation and achieved these amazing results.
| Before Automation | After Sure Sort Implementation | |
|---|---|---|
| Labor Savings | 60 employees per shift | 21 employees per shift (65% redution) |
| Ordering Processing | 285-300 kits/day | 700+kits/day |
| Sorting Throughput | Manual sorting only | 2,400 items per hour |
| Accuracy | Higher human error | Significant improvement with automation |
| Order Cost Reduction | Higher labor & processing cost | 85% decrease in cost per order* |
*calculated percentage, actual results may vary
Scaling Smart: How Sure Sort Unlocks New Revenue Opportunities
Beyond solving immediate operational challenges, Sure Sort unlocks new business opportunities by providing warehouses with the flexibility and scalability needed to meet growing customer demands and expand service offerings. The ability to rapidly process high volumes of kits with greater accuracy enables companies to offer customized kitting solutions, such as personalized subscription boxes, educational supply packs, and retail product bundles, without increasing labor costs. This opens the door for new revenue streams and service differentiation, allowing warehouses to capitalize on high-margin, value-added services that were previously too labor-intensive to be profitable.
Automation also plays a vital role in scalability and long-term business growth. Many warehouses struggle to scale their operations due to space limitations, labor shortages, or outdated fulfillment processes. Sure Sort’s modular design allows companies to expand their sorting capacity by adding more iBOTs or sort destinations as demand increases, ensuring warehouses can handle peak season surges and long-term growth without significant capital expenditures. This future-proofs operation, allowing businesses to remain competitive and agile in a rapidly evolving supply chain landscape.
Additionally, higher sorting accuracy and faster order fulfillment times directly contribute to improved customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Faster and more precise kitting means fewer incorrect shipments, reduced return rates, and shorter lead times, helping businesses meet or exceed service-level agreements (SLAs) with clients and retailers. This can be a competitive differentiator for third-party logistics providers (3PLs), e-commerce brands, and direct-to-consumer businesses, who rely on fast, accurate order processing to maintain high customer retention rates.
Ultimately, Sure Sort doesn’t just improve efficiency—it transforms kitting into a strategic advantage. Companies that adopt intelligent sortation technology position themselves for greater profitability, scalability, and long-term success in an increasingly automated supply chain ecosystem.
Did you know?
You can sort packing slips and shipping labels right into your shipping container with Sure Sort.
To save time, place larger items like puffer jackets or large sweaters at the base of each column to later consolidate with completed order above.
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