Quick Tip: Nesting – How to Maximize Materials Used

Nesting

Problem

Do you ever make multiple parts from a single sheet of raw material? Imagine you had to cut hundreds of assembly parts, like gussets, from a single sheet of metal for multiple work orders from several customers. The finished parts all come from the same sheet of metal, with remnants left over.

How would you distribute cost if one work order is for twenty parts and the other is for fifty parts?

Instead of physically issuing each small piece of metal needed for every work order, you can save time by using nesting software and ERP.

What is nesting?

In manufacturing, “nesting” groups common processes together to maximize efficiency in the shop, saving time and money.

Solution

Nesting software creates a “sheet layout” to maximize the materials used. It automatically and strategically arranges the required quantities of individual parts on sheets, or plates, of material.  Nesting can also be applied to paint lines and powder coating to reduce set-up time and time used for clocking in and out of jobs. For example, when two different jobs need to be powder-coated the same color black, employees can wait to have both jobs run through the paint line at the same time, instead of having to set up the paint line twice. 

MIE Trak Pro’s nesting module can, then, automatically divide the time spent on the jobs to accurately cost each work order. This helps allocate both your material cost and labor cost for each work order; it identifies how much material was used, tracks how much time was spent, and  calculates how much should be charged to each work order.