How Much Space Is Full-Length Metal Stock Costing Your Business?
The short answer: Full lengths and offcuts use more than rack space. They tie up cash, require handling and need to be identified and managed. For predictable repeat jobs, buying planned cut lengths may reduce the amount of material your business needs to keep on site.
Look at the metal rack in your workshop. How much of it is allocated to current jobs, and how much is material kept because it might be useful one day?
The cost of storing a full length
Buying a full length can make sense when you use it regularly or need immediate access. But it also has to be received, safely stored, found when required and kept separate from similar grades and sizes.
In a crowded workshop, those handling steps compete with space needed for active jobs, equipment and finished products.
The offcut problem
When your team cuts the pieces needed for a job, the remainder usually takes one of three paths:
- It is assigned to a known future job.
- It goes onto the rack with no specific plan.
- It is sold as scrap.
The first may be sensible stockholding. The second can gradually fill shelves and racks while tying up money. The third often returns less than the business paid for the original usable material.
Separate useful stock from hopeful stock
Review offcuts by material, grade, size and length. Record which ones were actually reused over the past few months. If a piece has no realistic application in your usual work, treating its purchase price as fully recoverable can make in-house cutting look cheaper than it is.
Don’t clear a rack based on a rule of thumb, though. Keep material that genuinely protects urgent work or will be consumed in a planned batch.
Match regular supply to regular production
If you make the same product every week or month, list the metal pieces each batch consumes. Then consider whether planned deliveries of cut pieces could replace some of the full lengths currently held on site.
Cut Length Metals works with businesses that use stainless steel, brass and aluminium repeatedly. Our Trade Account discussions can cover your regular material, cut lists, stockholding needs and delivery schedule, with the arrangement confirmed for your requirements.
Want to free up rack space? Contact Cut Length Metals with one repeat product’s cut list and the material you currently buy in full lengths. We can discuss whether supplying prepared pieces is a practical fit.
