Warehouse & logistics
Kitting
By the Supply Chain Manager team · Updated October 16, 2026
Kitting is grouping separate SKUs into one kit that is sold and shipped as a single item, such as a valve with its fittings and seals.
Kits can be pre-assembled and stocked, or assembled to order. Either way, selling a kit consumes the component SKUs, so component demand has to include kit sales.
There are two ways to stock kits. Pre-built kits are picked faster but lock components into kits that might not sell. Assemble-to-order kits keep components flexible but add work at picking time. Many distributors pre-build only their fastest-selling kits and assemble the rest when ordered.
Kitting example
Illustrative: a kit of 1 pump, 2 hoses and 4 clamps sells 50 a month. Each clamp's demand includes 200 a month from the kit, on top of clamps sold on their own.
Why kitting matters for distributors
Kits raise order value and simplify buying for customers. If component demand ignores kit sales, the kit will go out of stock because one cheap component ran out.
Common kitting mistakes
- Forecasting components without exploding kit sales into component demand.
- Pre-building more kits than demand supports, locking up components.
Examples on this page use made-up round numbers to show the calculation. They are not benchmarks or results from real businesses.