I tried the cutlist method but always had several pieces of wood left that were just barely too small to use but too big to toss. I have 2 saws so I set one up to rip and one to crosscut segments then sort my rings data by board width. Being lazy, I try to keep all my ring heights the same and if I can't, I cut the skinny one to full height and face it down to the right height after gluing. I cut my slab to a convenient length, generally 24 to 36", then rip my widest board width stick and crosscut it into segments. If I need more segments that size, I rip another stick off and finish the run of segments. Since the segments and the stick never come out even, I rip what's left down to the next narrower board width and make those segments. I keep ripping and crosscutting until I have all the segments made. Looking at the scrap, I only have the very short handles from each stick some narrow strips left that are the difference in width between two adjacent board widths and some as useful as paint stirrers.
Doing it this way, I take the board width times the board length of each ring and add them up to get total net area. Divide that by the width of the stock I will use gives the minimum stock I need so I add 10" for saw kerf and a few slivers of waste then add 6" for handles in the wedgie sled because I keep my fingers away from the blade.
This technique hasn't shorted me or left me with a big pile of pieces that are barely too small to use.