Controlling stock sheets and remnants can be your worst nightmare, but SigmaNEST allows you to take care of this problem.
The sheet metal industry has grown rapidly over the last couple of years. For companies to stay in this market, they need to have competitive costs, quality and lead-times and therefor it is necessary to run a workshop as tightly and efficient as possible. Controlling stock sheets and remnants is a very important aspect in the sheet metal industry because it has a direct influence on your costs and lead-times. Not having control over your sheets and remnants is a huge money waste. With just a few systems in place, you can take care of this problem.
Manage your inventory of remnants
This is the first, and most important part of remnant management. Once you have a tight, standardized and accurate system, everything else can fall in place. SigmaNEST allows you to create remnants after you have nested that would automatically be added to your sheet inventory for future use. Most companies have minimum sizes that they would keep, otherwise it just takes up unnecessary space.
After the nesting and NC is done, use the Crop Sheet function to create a remnant that can be stored in your library. If necessary, it will automatically add a cut line to the current NC to cut the remnant off from the skeleton. SigmaNEST also has a nice feature that allows you to standardize your remnant sizes, using the “Length Increments” option.
Nesting NC>>Crop Sheet
For traceability, it is important to have the correct sheet data on your remnants. Each company will use their own system in terms of sheet data and storage racks. The important part is that it must be a standardized system so that operators can know where to store and find sheets and remnants. SigmaNEST gives the user many options in terms of sheet data such as Sheet Name, Location, Heat Number, Mill, Prime Code and Bin Number.
Any information from the sheet data can also be marked on the remnant as etching.
Another option is sticker printing. SigmaNEST can automatically create sticker labels for all the remnants which will be created. This is a popular option because it is cheap, accurate and more visual than marking. By just looking at the sticker, any operator would exactly know where to store the remnant for future use. It is also easier to locate.
Minimize the creation of remnants
This is the next important part of remnant management and the goal is to create has little remnants as possible. To ensure this you would have to utilize your plate usage by trying to fill sheets or remnants better so that you don’t have to create unnecessary remnants.
Step 1
The Work Order function on SigmaNEST enables you to nest parts of different jobs together to fill your sheets better. By using the due-dates, you can also delay parts until there are more parts available of that same material and thickness. You can also sort and filter your parts by material, due-date, Work-Order etc.
Work-space>>New Task>>Work Orders
Step 2
After you have selected your parts, you will need to select your sheets or remnants. When you go to your sheet list on the task setup, you can filter it to only show the material and thickness that you require. In a case where you want to try and get rid of as much remnants as possible, you can choose to see remnants only. In such a case, highlight all the remnants that you want to use.
It is always good to try and select as many sheets as possible before you do an Auto Nest because SigmaNEST will automatically filter through all the remnants which you have selected, and it would choose the best sheet/s for all the parts to fit on. The remnant/s or sheets which will be used, will automatically be updated or removed from the sheet list once the program has been updated. This is a good way to empty your racks full of remnants.
Conclusion
If your shop has more remnants than full sheets, you might have inventory tracking issues. Take control of your remnants and you will ensure maximum material yield resulting in more awareness and higher profits for your operations. Remnant Tracking is an independent feature within SigmaNEST that is solely dedicated to keeping your remnants top of mind and ready to be re-used in your inventory control system. Should you require any assistance on this topic please do not hesitate to contact the SigmaNEST Support team.]]>
