In a typical design to manufacturing process for a sheet metal part, first step is to identify the functional requirements. Once the functional requirements are finalized, design engineers works on part modeling and assembly followed by design review and the final design is sent for manufacturing.
The in-house manufacturing teams do a database checks to see if the required raw materials are available in inventory. The first check at hand is to have sufficient sheet quantity available in inventory. Second check is to have right sheet sizes available to develop the desired part.In case when the required sheet sizes are not in stock, inventory management team has to initiate the purchase process to procure raw sheet sizes or use existing sheets sizes depending upon the development size of the designed component/part.