Allocating workshop stock and planning reorders
The stock worksheet helps answer two different questions: how to use available lengths for a cutting job, and how much material to reorder. Keep those tasks separate. A usable offcut is a particular length, while a reorder quantity describes stock against a chosen minimum and target.
Decide which offcuts are worth retaining
For allocation, enter usable lengths and the minimum offcut you want to keep. That threshold classifies the remaining material; it does not make the cutting heuristic globally optimal. Check material, section, and condition before treating two pieces as interchangeable.
Reorder from a complete snapshot
Forecast stock is on-hand quantity plus incoming stock minus reservations. When it falls below the minimum, the order is rounded up to the purchase multiple needed to reach the target. This is a worksheet, not a live inventory ledger: receiving, consumption, and reservations must be kept current by the user.
Separating allocation from an inventory ledger
An allocation plan describes how the entered stock could satisfy the entered cut list at one moment. It does not reserve those pieces against another job or deduct them after cutting. Save the worksheet if you need a record, then update the actual stock quantities in the system or records used by the workshop.
For reordering, suppose on-hand quantity is 12, incoming quantity is 5, and reservations are 9. Forecast stock is 8. If that falls below the selected minimum, the tool calculates an order toward the selected target and rounds to the purchase multiple. The rounded order can put stock above the target, which is expected when items are sold only in packs. Check that incoming stock will arrive when needed; the arithmetic does not schedule deliveries. Likewise, a reserved quantity must use the same unit as on-hand stock. A count of bars, a length of material, and a mass of material cannot be combined without an explicit conversion.
Formula
Forecast stock = on hand + incoming − reserved. When below minimum, order up to target rounded up to a purchase multiple.