Three deliveries of the same bar in one week
Monday's job needs 40mm 316 bar. The office orders a length. Wednesday's job needs the same bar, and so does Friday's, so two more orders go in, each with its own delivery charge and cutting charge. Meanwhile the rack has a stack of 316 offcuts nobody measured.
At the saw, the operator works out lengths from the drawing, adds a facing allowance from habit and cuts. The last piece of each bar is too short for the next part and goes back on the rack, where it will sit for a year.
Why material planning is left to chance
Material is ordered when a job is released, which is sensible for one job and wasteful for many. Nobody has a view across the next few weeks by grade and size, and the rack of offcuts is not in any system.
- Material is ordered per job, not grouped by grade and size.
- Offcuts are not measured or recorded, so they are not used.
- Cut lengths and facing or parting allowances vary by operator.
- Stock lengths are ordered without thinking about how parts fit into them.
- Stockholder prices and delivery charges are not compared across orders.
What the waste costs
Extra delivery and cutting charges on small orders. Short ends and offcuts that are eventually sold as scrap, when they could have made parts. Jobs held up because a bar was cut short or the wrong length was ordered. And a material line in your accounts that is hard to explain, because nobody can say how much went into parts and how much into the scrap bin.
The material planning and cut lists we build
- Upcoming jobs are read from your MRP or job list, with material grade, form, size, blank length per part and quantity.
- Blank lengths include your standard allowances for facing, parting and chucking, set per machine type so they are consistent.
- Requirements are grouped by grade and size across the next few weeks, so you order once rather than three times.
- Offcuts on the rack are recorded with length and material batch. The planner checks them before ordering, and uses the ones that fit.
- The tool works out how to fit parts into standard stock lengths with the least waste, and suggests what to order.
- The saw operator gets a cut list for each bar: which job, how many pieces, what length, and what happens to the remainder.
- Remainders above a length you set are labelled as offcuts with their material batch, ready for the next job.
| Before | With material planning |
|---|---|
| One order per job | Orders grouped by grade and size |
| Offcuts forgotten | Offcuts measured and used first |
| Cut lengths worked out at the saw | Cut list per bar with job numbers |
| Allowances vary by operator | Standard allowances per machine type |
| Short ends to scrap | Useful remainders labelled and kept |
What the stores and the saw notice
Fewer small deliveries arrive, and the ones that do cover several jobs. The saw operator follows a list instead of working it out. Offcuts become stock with a known length and certificate, so they get used. Traceability improves along the way, because every cut piece carries its job and batch.
Buyers can also compare stockholder prices across a bigger order, rather than taking whatever a small order is quoted.
Does your material buying look like this?
- The same bar is ordered several times a week.
- The offcut rack is full and never used.
- Saw operators work out cut lengths from drawings.
- Jobs have been held up by a bar cut short.
- Nobody can say how much material ends up as scrap.