Use this page to understand how kitting works in Descartes Peoplevox and to set up kits by assigning child items to a parent item.

Kitting in Peoplevox

The kitting function within Peoplevox manages the delivery of a group of individual product items that can be ordered by customers as a kit. This kit has an item code (or SKU) that is used by both the order processing system and PVX. The kit is called a 'parent' item.

The individual items that make up a kit are called 'child' items. They are often, but not always, available for sale separately as well as in the kit, and so each has their own item code within PVX and they need to be picked separately to fulfill an order for the parent item.

Peoplevox only manages the inventory levels of the child items, and sends these to the order processing system supporting the website of your e-commerce business. Here, the number of parent items (kits) that can be sold is calculated based on the composition of the kit and the inventory levels of the child items.

Parent item codes exist in Peoplevox, but they are dormant and their inventory is always zero. PVX does not manage the inventory of parent items, because order processing systems are designed to manage kits. The retailer decides on the website whether to sell child items separately, so PVX might not know this.

When a sales order which contains the parent item code is imported into PVX, the system identifies the items that make up the kit. These can then be picked as usual, at which point the kit is also displayed as being picked. The kit can then be despatched in the same way as any other multiple-item order.

Kit Weight and Dimensions at Despatch

By default, when an order containing a kit is despatched, PVX calculates the package weight and dimensions from the child items: the weights of all packed items are added together, and the largest height, width and depth across the packed items are used. The weight and dimensions recorded against the parent item are not used.

If your kits are pre-packaged so that the finished kit is smaller or lighter than its child items combined, PVX can be configured to use the parent item's weight and dimensions instead. When this option is enabled, PVX checks whether the items packed in a package make up one or more complete kits on the order and uses the parent item values for those kits. Any remaining items are calculated individually. The items displayed at despatch and sent to the carrier are still the child items.

Before you enable this option, record the weight and dimensions against each parent item. To enable it, contact Descartes Customer Support.

Creating Parent Items

Create the parent items in your sales order processing system first. Contact your provider if you need help with this.

Once you create a parent item in your sales order processing system, your integration automatically imports it into PVX as a new item.

Once the parent item exists within PVX, the child items which make up the kit can be assigned to it.

Assigning Child Items to a Kit

Before you start, make sure that:

• The order processing system has created all the parent items, and the child items if they do not already exist in your warehouse.

• Your integration has imported them all into PVX.

• You have a list of the child items and the quantity of each that a kit needs.

To open the Manage kitting dialog:

1. Go to Catalogue > Item types.

2. Select the parent item for the kit.

3. Click View.

4. In the Edit item dialog, click Edit.

5. Click Kitting. The Manage kitting dialog opens.

   
   

   

   
   

To add the child items to the kit:

1. Search for a child item.

2. Select the item.

3. Click Add >. The item appears on the right under Selected Items.

4. Enter the quantity of single items required in the kit (EA = each).

5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each child item in the kit.

6. Click OK.

7. Click Save.

If you make a mistake, click < Remove to take a selected item out of the kit.

Barcoding of Kits

Kitting in Peoplevox requires all the child items to have an individual item code or SKU. If you sell kits containing child items that are only sold as part of that kit and cannot be ordered individually, then it can be tempting to use the same barcode for all the items in the kit. The problem with this is that it prevents pickers from knowing how many items they have to pick to compile the kit, and also that PVX is unable to track the inventory of each item.

These issues can be partly addressed by providing special instructions for pickers and by storing all the items needed for a kit in the same location, but both of these approaches are less efficient and more prone to errors. Keep each item code unique to a particular product and assign child items to a parent kit SKU as described above.

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