Converting an inventory item to a kit item

We have several inventory items that should be more accurately listed as kit items. Each time a "kit" is ordered I have to manually decrease each component via an inventory adjustment and increase the kit number by 1 so we don't go into negative inventory. Can I convert the item to a kit, keeping its item number the same so that it records inventory correctly? Or do I have to create a whole new kit item with its own item number (messing up our catalog)?

Thanks for the help. I'm a new Netsuite user and not exactly sure why certain things were set up the way they were.