Man-hour efficiency of manual kit preparation in the materials supply to mass-customised assembly

Journal article, 2019

© 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Addressing the materials feeding principle of kitting, commonly applied in the materials supply to mass-customised assembly, the current paper has the purpose of exploring how the man-hour efficiency of kit preparation is affected by the design and the context of the kit preparation. The study presented in the paper is based on a comprehensive methodology, comprising several steps and considering a large set of qualitative as well as quantitative data from 15 case studies. It also utilises the expertise of practitioners from the industry. The paper provides a valuable addition to the existing literature where empirical evidence is scarce. From a practical perspective, it offers support to the design of man-hour efficient kit preparation systems. The findings show that the design and the context of the kit preparation system can have a decisive, yet complex, impact on the man-hour efficiency and, thereby, on an assessment of the applicability of kitting. The paper identifies several important aspects of both design and context and indicates how these aspects are linked to the man-hour efficiency of kit preparation.