Why Skilled Technicians Shouldn’t Spend Their Day Cutting Stock

The short answer: If a skilled technician regularly picks full lengths from a rack, measures and marks them, cuts them, deburrs them and clears the offcuts, those hours are unavailable for machining, fabrication or assembling the product. Ordering correctly specified, pre-cut material can move that preparation work out of your workshop.

Think about the first hour of a repeat production job. Is your technician making the product—or preparing raw material so they can start making it?

The work before the work

A typical material-preparation sequence can include:

1. Finding the correct grade and size on the rack

2. Moving a full length to the saw

3. Checking the drawing and measuring each piece

4. Marking and cutting the stock

5. Deburring or cleaning the cut ends

6. Identifying the blanks for the job

7. Returning the remainder to storage or sorting the scrap

Each step takes time. On its own, one cut may seem minor. Across several products and repeat batches, the preparation becomes a regular part of your production schedule.

Look at where the bottleneck sits

If your technician has spare capacity and cutting in-house is efficient, that may be the right arrangement. But if production is waiting for that same person to machine, weld or assemble components, the useful question is:

What could the technician produce during the time currently spent preparing stock?

The value of freeing that time depends on your actual workload. It should be measured against your process, rather than assumed from an hourly wage alone.

What pre-cut supply changes

For a repeat job, you can specify the material, grade, profile, dimensions, blank length and quantity in a cut list. You can also request deburring, identification or other preparation and have those requirements confirmed in the quote.

When correctly specified pieces arrive, your team can move closer to the first productive operation. They still need to check incoming material against the order and drawing, but they may no longer need to perform every stock-preparation step in-house.

Start with one repeat product

Pick a product you make often. Time the material preparation for one batch, including picking, measuring, cutting, deburring and handling the leftovers. Then compare an in-house batch with a quote for prepared blanks.

Cut Length Metals supplies stainless steel, brass and aluminium cut to length for Australian businesses, with no minimum order quantity. If your team would benefit from pre-cut and deburred material, send us the cut list and tell us what condition the pieces need to arrive in.

We prepare the metal. Your team gets to work.