Standing in front of the rack
A new commission needs 50mm oak for a set of table legs and 27mm for the rails. You are fairly sure there is some 50mm left from the last delivery, but it might have gone into the bench someone built for a client in the spring. You walk to the rack, pull out boards, measure some, and find the 50mm has a shake running through the end that you had forgotten about. The walnut you thought you had set aside for another client has been cut into by someone who did not know it was reserved.
So you order more oak, and a month later find two good boards of 50mm behind the ash.
Why the rack becomes a mystery
Timber is bought in volume and used in parts. Boards vary, so the stock is not a count of identical items, and that makes it hard to track with anything simple.
- Deliveries are recorded on the timber yard's invoice, not in a stock record.
- Boards chosen for a commission are not marked as reserved.
- Offcuts are kept, in theory, but nobody knows what sizes exist.
- Defects, figure and colour notes live in the head of whoever looked at the board.
- Several people take timber from the rack without recording it.
What an unknown rack costs
Hardwood is often the largest material cost in a commission, and timber you already own but cannot find is money sitting in the corner. Ordering again ties up more cash and fills the space. Running short mid-job costs a trip to the yard and sometimes a colour or figure mismatch. Using a board reserved for one client on another client's piece can mean starting a hunt for a matching board you may not find.
Timber tracking that suits a workshop
- Each delivery is booked in from the yard's invoice or delivery note, by species, thickness, grade and supplier, with volume or board count.
- Better boards, such as ones with figure you would pick for a tabletop, get their own tag and a phone photo, so they can be found and reserved individually.
- Boards or quantities are reserved against a commission when the cutting list is made, and shown as reserved to anyone checking the rack.
- When timber is used, the job it went to is recorded with a quick entry on a phone or tablet in the workshop.
- Useful offcuts are recorded by species and rough size, so they can be used for small parts rather than forgotten.
- Before ordering, you see what you hold, what is reserved and what a planned job still needs.
| Question | Answered today by | With tracking |
|---|---|---|
| Do we have 50mm oak? | Pulling boards out | Stock by species and thickness |
| Is this board spoken for? | Asking around | Reserved against a job |
| What offcuts do we have? | Rummaging | Recorded by size |
| What do we need to order? | Guess | Needs minus stock |
We keep it light. A workshop will not use a system that needs more time than the timber it saves, so we design around a phone in an apron pocket.
A rack you can read
Ordering is based on what you hold and what upcoming jobs need, so you buy less, and buy what you actually need. Special boards stay with the commissions they were chosen for. Offcuts get used. And timber usage is recorded against each job, which helps you check your quotes against reality.
Is your timber rack a guessing game?
- You have ordered timber you already had.
- A board set aside for one client was used on another job.
- Nobody knows what offcuts are in the workshop.
- Checking stock means pulling boards out of the rack.
- Timber costs per commission are estimated, not recorded.