Tracking offcuts in sheet-material warehouses
An offcut without size is trash. An offcut with QR is material.
Offcut stock fails not because "workers dislike order." It fails when tracking requires heroics: measure with tape, write in a notebook, remember a week later. Software must make the honest path shorter than the dishonest one.
Unit of account
Every usable offcut is a stock unit: material, thickness, width, length, bin, QR. Without dimensions the piece cannot be offered in cutting and the system correctly ignores it. "Pile by the wall" does not exist in reports.
Minimum fields are fewer than you think. Do not spawn ten-attribute catalogs if the shop cuts by two: type and size.
Usable piece threshold
Set minimum side and area so the system does not suggest dust. Threshold differs for glass, MDF, and metal. Review quarterly: if masters never take pieces under 250 mm, raise the threshold.
Reserve for orders
An offcut that "would fit" but is promised to another order is a conflict, not a bug. Reserve on map approval is mandatory. Otherwise two managers sell one piece.
Canceling an order must release the reserve. Otherwise stock fills with ghosts.
Inventory without theater
Periodically match QR to physical count. Discrepancies are separate write-offs, not "oh well." List Master stores offcuts as stock units and suggests them in the next order's cutting. Start with what is already in the shop: label the ten most expensive pieces — impact beats a twenty-page procedure.
