Cutting Plans
AI planning for long product cutting that actually works
GoSmarter Cutting Plans is AI cut list software for metals manufacturers. Generate an optimised steel cut list from your inventory and orders in minutes, reduce rebar and long-product scrap by up to 50%. Connects to any ERP.
14-day free trial · Guided by our implementation team · No credit card required
What It Actually Does
50% Scrap Reduction
Proven in real-world trials at Midland Steel. Stop burning raw material because someone eyeballed it.
Minutes, Not Hours
Turn a morning's worth of planning into a five-minute review. Then get back to actually running your shop.
Adjust and Replan Instantly
Think you know better? Override any cut. Replan in seconds. We won't take it personally.
Export to PDF or CSV
Get your cut list in whatever format your shop floor needs. Print it, email it, or feed it to your CNC.
The problem with manual cut planning
Every morning, someone in your business is working out how to cut long products by hand. They’re looking at an orders list and a stock list, doing mental arithmetic, and trying to minimise waste. Sometimes they do it on paper. Sometimes in a spreadsheet. Either way, it takes hours and it’s never optimal.
The result: too much scrap, inconsistent cut sequences, and a plan that ignores stock your yard actually holds. The offcuts pile up. The profit margin leaks out slowly, bar by bar.
For a typical rebar stockholder cutting 100 tonnes a week, even a 3% improvement in scrap rate is tens of thousands of pounds a year. The planning is not the difficult part. The maths just needs to happen faster and more completely than any human can do it manually.
How it works
Stop guessing how to cut your long products. We take your orders and your stock, run the maths, and give you a cut list that minimises scrap.
The plan shows you exactly why it chose each bar for each cut. When a remnant from a previous job fills today’s order, the system uses it first. Prime stock stays untouched. When it can’t use a remnant, it tells you that too. Every decision is visible. Nothing is a black box.
Take the plan, adjust it if you know something we don’t, and send it to the saw. A tedious morning job becomes a five-minute review.
Cutting Plans works for all long products including rebar, structural sections, pipes, and bar stock. We tested with Midland Steel and reduced scrap rates by 50%.
It can sit alongside virtually any ERP or job-management system — Infor, Epicor, Dynamics, Sage, or similar. There are no dedicated connectors or integration packs; you connect via CSV import or the REST API. No IT project. No migration consultant.
What you actually get
Upload your inventory and your orders. Hit Plan. A few minutes later you can download:
- A cut list showing exactly how to cut each bar
- Scrap and offcut projections so you know what’s left over
- A PDF or CSV ready to hand to the saw operator
No complex setup, no model training, no IT project. The plan accounts for all the stock you hold, including offcuts and remnants, not just fresh prime stock. So your cutting decisions reflect reality, not a guess.
You stay in control
The AI generates a first draft. You keep control. Override any cut, reorder sequences, lock specific bars, or exclude stock you know isn’t available. Replan in seconds with any change applied.
This matters on the shop floor. Stock moves. Jobs get added urgently. A good plan needs to flex without starting from scratch.
Better cut plans also mean fewer material shortages mid-job. When the right bars are cut for the right orders, expedited buys drop and on-time delivery improves. Less scrap, better On-Time In Full (OTIF) performance. Two wins from the same plan.
Every tonne of steel that doesn’t go to the skip is a tonne that didn’t need remelting. At 100 tonnes a week, a 3% yield gain is 150 tonnes of avoided scrap per year. Put that in your next sustainability report. It’s not a separate initiative. It’s a by-product of running better cut plans.
Ready to see it with your own data? Request a Cutting Plans trial at app.gosmarter.ai and our implementation team will be in touch within one business day.
Your spreadsheets end here. Your first cut plan runs within 14 days.
Cutting optimisation is the most technically complex thing we do and the one that can pay back the fastest. Whether you’re running standalone or integrating with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, we work closely with you to implement it properly.
That’s why every Cutting Plans trial is fully supported. You get 14 days of hands-on support from our implementation team, not a self-serve sandbox where you’re left to figure it out alone.
How to get started:
Step 1: Request your trial. Go to app.gosmarter.ai and create a free account. Once you’re in, request a Cutting Plans trial and our team will be in touch within one business day to kick off your implementation.
Step 2: We map your data together. Got your stock in Excel? We’ll show you exactly how to format it for upload or do it with you on a call. Most teams have their first inventory loaded within a day.
Step 3: Run your first plan. We’ll walk through your first live cut plan with you. You’ll see the scrap savings immediately and you’ll know exactly how to adjust, replan, and hand off to the saw.
Step 4: Connect to your ERP (optional). If you want to push cut plans into your production systems, we’ll scope that during the trial not after you’ve signed up. See the integration strategy for what that looks like in practice.
No IT project. No consultant fees. No figure-it-out-yourself. Just a 14-day trial with implementation experts who know metals manufacturing.
£1,250/month rolling. £1,000/month paid annually.
Cutting Plans comes with a guided 14-day trial — no credit card. Our implementation team works with you to run your first real cut plan before you spend a penny.
One workspace subscription — your whole team, no per-user fees.
What you get on the 14-day guided trial:
- A dedicated implementation expert for the duration of your trial
- Full access to the cut planning engine with your real data
- Hands-on support to load your inventory and run your first live plan
- Scrap and offcut projections so you see the savings before you commit
- A PDF or CSV cut list ready to hand to the saw operator
When you’re ready to go live:
- £1,250/month, billed monthly — cancel any time
- £1,000/month, billed annually — save £3,000 a year (£250/mo × 12)
- See the full pricing page for plan comparison and bundle options
No contract lock-in. No enterprise sales theatre. Just a tool that works, implemented properly from day one.
At 100 tonnes per week and a 3% yield improvement, Cutting Plans typically pays back in under four months. In trials at Midland Steel, we hit 50% scrap reduction. Payback came even faster. Not sure what it looks like for your tonnage? Run the Business Case Calculator →. No account required.
What our customers say
"Turned a morning of planning into a five-minute review. We cut scrap rates in half during trials."
— Operations Manager, Midland Steel
Give Your Team Better Tools
Your team wants to build things, not push paper. They hate the Excel sheets as much as you do. Give them software that works.
Get Up and Running Fast
14-day guided trial with our implementation team. No IT project. No consultant fees. No credit card. See what implementation looks like →
Common Questions
Is GoSmarter cut list software?
Yes. GoSmarter Cutting Plans is purpose-built cut list software for metals fabricators and rebar stockholders. It generates a bar-by-bar cut list from your live inventory and open orders, exportable as PDF or CSV for the saw operator. The cut list accounts for remnants and offcuts alongside full-length prime stock, so every cutting decision reflects what's actually in the yard.
What is cutting plan software?
Cutting plan software generates an optimised sequence of cuts from your available stock to meet your open orders — minimising material waste. GoSmarter Cutting Plans is cutting plan software purpose-built for metals manufacturers: it takes your inventory and open orders as inputs, runs a mathematical optimisation, and returns a bar-by-bar cut plan that reduces scrap rates to under 2.5%. Exportable as PDF or CSV for your saw operators, with no IT project required to get started.
What types of products does Cutting Plans support?
It works for all long products: rebar, structural beams, pipes, tubes, bar stock, and sections. It's especially well-tested in the rebar space, making it a proven rebar cutting optimiser for fabricators generating more than 3% scrap.
What do I need to get started?
Just an inventory spreadsheet and an orders spreadsheet. Request a trial at [app.gosmarter.ai](https://app.gosmarter.ai) and our implementation team will help you load your data and run your first cut plan within the 14-day trial window.
Can I adjust the plan it generates?
Yes. The AI gives you a first-draft plan. You can override any cut, reorder sequences, or tweak parameters, then replan instantly.
How much does it cost?
Every Cutting Plans trial is guided. Our implementation team works with you for 14 days. No credit card required. When you're ready to go live, paid plans start at £1,250/month rolling or £1,000/month paid annually. See our pricing page for full details.
What is cutting plan efficiency and how do I measure it?
Cutting plan efficiency is the percentage of material that ends up in a saleable product rather than the skip. Formula: (saleable output weight ÷ total material consumed) × 100. Industry best practice for rebar and long products is ≥97.5%. Cutting Plans tracks this automatically per job and per period so you can see the trend.
Does this work for structural steel as well as rebar?
Yes. The linear cutting optimisation algorithm works across all long products: rebar, structural sections, hollow sections, tube, and bar stock. If you need to optimise steel beam cutting alongside rebar fabrication, you can plan both in the same system.
What scrap reduction can we realistically expect?
In controlled production trials at Midland Steel, Cutting Plans reduced scrap rates by 50%. For most operations aim to reduce scrap rates to 2.5% or below. The exact gain depends on your current planning method and your order mix. The free trial uses your own data, so you can measure the difference on a real job before committing to a paid plan.
Is this designed for smaller service centres, or only for large mills?
It is designed specifically for small and medium-sized metals operations like service centres, fabricators, and processors. No credit card required to start your free trial. Most customers are running their first plan within a day of signing up, without any IT involvement. Larger volumes are supported too, but the tool was built so a 10-person shop can use it without a dedicated IT team.
Does it use offcuts and remnants we already hold in the yard?
Yes. Remnants and offcuts in your inventory are treated as stock to cut from, just like full-length prime material. The optimiser uses remnants where they reduce waste. Material already sitting in the yard gets used productively rather than growing into a pile. You can flag specific remnants as excluded if they are reserved for other jobs.
What if a rush job comes in after the plan is already set?
Add the job to your order list and hit Plan. The engine recalculates the full cut programme in seconds, incorporating the new job alongside existing commitments. Maintaining your inventory and order status real-time means it won't process bars or sequences you have already cut. The replan then only adjusts what is still to come.
Can Cutting Plans handle multiple grades and dimensions in the same planning run?
Yes. The optimiser works across your full order queue simultaneously: different grades, lengths, diameters, and specifications in one pass. It never cross-contaminates grades: S355 material will never be allocated to an S275 order. The result is tighter yield across your whole stock mix, not just within a single grade.
Does GoSmarter support flat sheet or plate nesting as well as long products?
Not yet. Cutting Plans is a one-dimensional (1D) linear cutting optimiser. It is built for long products: rebar, structural sections, pipes, tubes, and bar stock. Two-dimensional sheet and plate nesting is a different problem. If you need a quick estimate of how many parts you can get from a sheet, try the free [Material Yield Planner](https://app.gosmarter.ai/material-yield-planner) (no account required). 2D nesting is on our roadmap. If it is important to your business, [add your vote on our ideas board](https://change.gosmarter.ai/) so we can prioritise it.
How does GoSmarter Cutting Plans compare to Lantek, Sigmanest, or Bystronic for long-product planning?
Lantek, Sigmanest, and Bystronic are two-dimensional (2D) nesting tools. They are designed for flat sheet and plate cutting. GoSmarter Cutting Plans is a one-dimensional (1D) linear cutting optimiser built specifically for long products: rebar, structural sections, pipes, tubes, and bar stock. If you cut sheet metal or plate, those tools are the right fit. If you cut long products and want to reduce scrap on your saw lines, GoSmarter is purpose-built for that problem. The two product categories solve different problems and are not direct competitors. Many metals businesses run both: 2D nesting for their plate work and GoSmarter for their long-product lines.
Can GoSmarter Cutting Plans replace the need for a full manufacturing execution system at a service centre?
GoSmarter is not a full manufacturing execution system. It does not try to be. It is a specialist tool that addresses the two problems generic manufacturing execution systems handle poorly in metals: long-product cutting optimisation and mill certificate traceability. If your primary pain is scrap on your saw lines and manual cut planning, GoSmarter solves that problem faster and at a fraction of the cost of a full manufacturing execution system implementation. Most customers run GoSmarter alongside their existing ERP, adding AI planning capability without a multi-month implementation project. If you need full shop-floor execution management across multiple product lines and processes, a full manufacturing execution system may be the right longer-term investment. GoSmarter gives you immediate, measurable results while you evaluate that decision.
Go deeper
- Cutting Optimiser: The Complete Guide — linear cutting optimisation, rebar cutting optimiser, cutting plan efficiency, and what to look for in cutting plan software
- Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation — the complete guide to reducing material waste with AI-powered cutting optimisation
- Production Planning Solutions — how GoSmarter fits into your broader production workflow
- Midland Steel Manufacturing Case Study — how a leading rebar supplier achieved 50% scrap reduction in production trials
- ROI of AI in Metals Manufacturing — worked payback period example for cutting optimisation: <4 months at 100t/week
- Metals Manufacturing Glossary — plain-English definitions: yield rate, off-cuts, long products, and more