Labeling Cut Off Material

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MarilynJ6354

We have a lot of plastic sheet cut off in our facilities. It is used for samples, sold as is, or cut down to use for orders. How do we label this when there is so much and it changes daily. We have about 40 types of cut off not to mention the gauge, width, length, color, etc.
 

CarolX

Trusted Information Resource
Hi Marilynn,

What are you doing right now? Do you identify it in any way? Can it be labled as what it is?

Just some thoughts to get us going.

CarolX
 
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MarilynJ6354

We currently do not identify it except for a sign that says "Cut off stored here". It isn't good. I asked how they know what it is and they said they know from training and that it is inspected before selling.
 
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mshell

Marilyn,

There are several ways to manage this scrap issue. I think that we could offer more effective suggestions if we had a little more insight into your production set-up.

1. Are the lines dedicated to the production of one type of product?

2. What type of process are you running (thermoforming/injection molding/extrusion)?

3. Is the scrap stored in sme type of container or on a roll cart maybe?

mshell
 

CarolX

Trusted Information Resource
MarilynJ6354 said:
We currently do not identify it except for a sign that says "Cut off stored here". It isn't good. I asked how they know what it is and they said they know from training and that it is inspected before selling.
OK - so the material is identified as to what it is.

Next - material is inspected before it is sold.

What issues are you having? Is material not inspected properly? Are customers not getting what they ordered?

What about using seperate bins for different types/color/gage of material?

I work for a sheet metal fabricator and we produce a lot of scrap material, not in the form of bad parts, just cut-off material. We re-sell this to a scrap dealer. But we have to segregate material. Steel goes into the large hoppers. Aluminum and stainless go into large boxes.

Does this help at all?

Carol
 

SteelMaiden

Super Moderator
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MarilynJ6354 said:
We have about 40 types of cut off not to mention the gauge, width, length, color, etc.
One would assume that you are selling the cut off for the same applications as the larger amounts were intended, just a smaller scale? If it is identical to its "parent" can it not be labeled with type, gauge, width, length, etc., just the same as the original that it was cut from? Or, does any of this matter? If you just have a large bin or something and you sell it as plastic sheeting, maybe it does not matter? If traceability to lots is important, then whenever you cut off the excess from an order, somebody should be labeling it as the cutting process is performed, right?

It seems that if you are re-inspecting this stuff to find out its width, length and gauge, you are using a lot of valuable time to find information that was probably available when the material was originally cut to length, but that is just my opinion, and not worth much as I don't know the plastics industry!
 
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MarilynJ6354

We are a distributor, not a manufacturer and we mostly sell cut to size sheets, so some of the pieces may be 8" x 10"; others may be 12" x 20"...it just depends...many sizes. We don't have to worry about lot traceability because if a customer requires it, we use full sheets to cut. My concern is not having any identification at all. Should we start labeling each one? Or can we label different sections by different types, i.e. Acrylic Cut off, Polycarbonate Cut off, Nylon, Acetyl, etc.?
 

CarolX

Trusted Information Resource
MarilynJ6354 said:
Should we start labeling each one? Or can we label different sections by different types, i.e. Acrylic Cut off, Polycarbonate Cut off, Nylon, Acetyl, etc.?
What is important here is you do what works best for you. Unless you have some other regulatory requirements, find a method that works. Your idea of sectioning by type sounds great!

CarolX
 

Wes Bucey

Prophet of Profit
MarilynJ6354 said:
We currently do not identify it except for a sign that says "Cut off stored here". It isn't good. I asked how they know what it is and they said they know from training and that it is inspected before selling.
It seems to me the system is not much different from a yard goods store - they have bolts of cloth that they take from inventory, cut off some from the bolt and return the [shortened] bolt to inventory. Obviously, the original bolts have labels and a precise bin where they are returned after cutting, still with the original label or a copy for identification. Similarly, for metal bars, plates, and sheets, the original stock is labeled for identification. I presume [fair to do?] plastic sheets are similarly labeled in original stock.

I visited a steel warehouse/service center which had storage areas near the original stock for "shorts" resulting when a customer asked and paid for a cutting service [one example was ten 5-foot pieces cut from 8-foot stock, leaving ten pieces around 3-foot minus the saw kerf.] The service center tagged the shorts with the original stock number of the 8-foot bars. I have no idea what they did to document the availability of ten 3-foot shorts in their inventory.

Would this be a workable concept for your organization (storage bin near original inventory for labeled "shorts")?
 
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