A waste factor is essentially the amount of waste wood that you will have to pay for but cannot, for one reason or another, use in your project. A waste factor is normally expressed as a percentage (%) of the required amount.
Materials used in the Design > Container tabs inherit the waste factor set in Inventory for that material. The assumption is that you'll cut/modify the total material so the quantity is combined and the default waste will apply. In the Design > Details > Materials tab, listed is the required amount of each material needed, the waste factor as set in the Inventory module. Costs and Selling Price take into account the 'Cost + Waste' (except when used in Packing Other; see below)
Your waste factor values are averages typically determined over a period of time, such as one to six months, as per your preference. Some designs will use more waste and others less waste so the waste % is expected to be at your average over your selected time frame. If you don't already have these values, you can use the common values included for each material in Crate Pro 6 and adjust them as you become familiar with your averages.
Most commercial crating companies will use waste factor averages versus entering them for each design. It's been determined that the added cost of the labor time associated with determining the waste for each material, creates greater costs over time than using pre-set averages. If you chose to enter your own waste values per material you will need to add the additional labor time in the Design > Times tab to account for it.
There are situations that changing the default waste values is common:
Companies that do few crates annually may benefit from entering the waste per design, especially if the crates are of differing dimensions. An accurate average is difficult to determine
Some crates may be unique and applying your default waste % is not preferred. Examples are for a design the waste % is unusually high because on the materials used and the dimensions. Or a design uses strictly waste materials. However, if these type of situations are not unusual, you may want to consider adjusting your waste factor to account for them.
Waste Factor, Dunnage and Packing > Other
If the material is used in the calculated design construction, Container tabs, it inherits the waste factor set in Inventory for that material. The assumption is that you will cut/modify the total material so the quantity is combined and the default waste will apply.
However, if the material added in Packing > Other is not in the Container tabs, the material is added to the Details > Materials tab on its own line item and the waste factor is set to zero so the user can enter the waste what's correct for that situation.
For Lumber added to Packing > Other, if also in the Container tabs, users can click on the DUNNAGE box and this lumber will be separated out from the total lumber and the waste factor value will be set to zero in Details > Materials so the user can enter the waste what's correct for that situation. (Lumber marked as Dunnage will appear on ISPM15 reports in the Dunnage section.)
All other materials added to Packing > Other, will appear on their own line items in Details > Materials, and are separated out from the same material in the crate construction tabs.