Key Advantages of Kitting in Your Warehouse Production Process

Key Advantages of Kitting in Your Warehouse Production Process

Warehouse operations often entail a great deal of kitting (boxing various items into containers). Generally, kitting is done to mix and match products for customers, such as in a sample or mix-and-match pack to offer a wealth of options. For example, businesses might kit toys, food products, or electronics.

Kitting involves putting items into a container such as a box. 

This common warehouse activity has generally been done by hand, but now smart robots like those made by Vicarious can do it automatically. Their skill rivals human workers, allowing businesses to automate the laborious process. Vicarious process automation employs avant-garde artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that mimic the human cerebral cortex. These artificial neural networks enable kitting devices to pack containers like never before.

Using robots for kitting offers numerous advantages, from price and speed to labor management. While this activity may seem rote and humdrum to some, it is a vital part of operations, and revolutionizing the process will impact not only manufacturers but also the millions of customers who buy products.

Smart Robotics for Kitting

With wages on the rise and employees often difficult to find consistently, the industry has been searching for methods to balance out their workforce. New AI offers a powerful solution for operations like kitting, as these new machines powered by artificial brains can expertly dispatch tasks that only humans could handle hitherto. Without training, machines can take unsorted parts from a bin, then put them precisely where they need to go, even while the containers move.

Smart robotic kitting now has various innovative uses, like packing genetic test kits. These at-home DNA tests have exploded in popularity, requiring more work to pack contents into mail-out kits. The market for test kits of all kinds is expected to exceed $20 billion in the upcoming years!

Smart robots can pack medical test kits. 

Up until now, test firms have generally packed their kits by hand. This time-intensive process costs a hefty sum in wages. It’s also safer to use robots when handling potentially risky materials such as medical equipment. However, medical test kits require the assembly of small, loose parts that hitherto were difficult for robots to grasp. Furthermore, specific contents may change over time, which more rudimentary robots may find difficult.

Thus, the transition to automatic kitting for these kits could not occur until the advent of smart robots. But by applying the same principles at work in the human brain to allow robots to see and grasp naturally, we now have the ability to pack these kits automatically.

Vicarious robots can identify delicate small objects like vials on their own, and slot them in their appropriate narrow spaces. Robots can kit any item combinations you choose, and you can rearrange the combinations at will. This does not require human intervention, sorting, or other assistance. Because of neural network technology, these robots adapt to any change in color, transparency, shape, or size on the fly. As a result, the procedure can unfold smoothly with robotic hands. Regardless of what you are kitting, smart robots can take care of it for you.

Advantages of Robotic Kitting

Kitting with smart robots offers numerous compelling advantages. From a numbers perspective, automating this process can save businesses 25% to 35% on kitting costs.

Vicarious robots make kits individually, which empowers you to customize deliveries for each unique customer. Select the exact products you want for each kit—even the part location and label orientation.

Smart robots can now pack the same kits that humans can. 

With visual processing systems comparable to a human’s, these machines can discern hard from soft materials, different coatings, or any other material properties. This makes it easy for machines to recognize, study, and understand new materials when first presented, without any preparation needed.

Labor hours are also greatly reduced with smart robots. Vicarious devices enable continual service with refills during kitting operations—as the robots work through their materials, you can re-up them without any downtime. The machines keep on working as if there were no refill at all.

In summary, robotic kitting optimizes your procedures for greater profitability. Use these technological solutions to keep your business processes running smoothly with instantaneous adjustments, instead of losing time to maintenance. Smart robots can kit as well as (if not better than) humans can, with lower costs and higher reliability.

Use the Unique Kitting Capacity of Vicarious

The use of robots for kitting and other warehouse functions will revolutionize the way packaging and transport works. Robotics businesses like Vicarious are paving the way for a new model of business, with optimized costs and efficiency. It’s time to make the transition to a smart robot future!

Many companies already use Vicarious kitting solutions to handle hundreds of complex arrangements each month. In e-commerce fulfillment, third-party logistics (3PL), and other areas, providers are dealing with rising labor costs by automating their kitting.

Considering the high costs of purchasing automated solutions, Vicarious also is pioneering a cost-effective Robots as a Service (RaaS) business model. RaaS removes capital expenditures from your concerns by allowing you to rent exactly as many robots as you need. This makes scaling robotics operations a breeze, as one is not locked in by prohibitive costs.

The future of warehouse operations has arrived. Streamline your kitting with Vicarious smart robots.