Announcing a New Partnership: Fulcrum x Datanomix

Tony Gunn: [00:00:00] Adam, my friend, you blew my mind today with your expertise in the digital world. And your knowledge of data dynamics and fulcrum. I, I mean, thank you. Thank you for sharing that and such wisdom at 20 years old is mind blowing. Uh, but our buddy Grady said that you were getting ready to have a meeting with Fulcrum and data dynamics.

Yeah. So I've kind of invited myself. Is that okay? No problem. Yeah. You don't mind? I don't mind at all. And this is, this is actually gonna be real time. Yeah. Like I literally invited myself to a meeting where you're learning something today. This is unscripted raw, authentic, actually what's going on in your facility?

I can't wait. Let's give these guys a call. Yeah.

Adam Zaouague: How's it going guys? 

Alex - Fulcrum: Hello? Hey, 

Greg McHale: Tony. Good to see you. 

Tony Gunn: Yes. Oh, Alex. Good seeing you for the first time. Greg. I love you, buddy. You're amazing. Um, I apologize for being here. I don't think I'm supposed to be here, but I wanted to see some of the, [00:01:00] what was going on, the inner workings. So as you can see now that Adam and I are best friends, uh, I'm, I'm sitting in on this 'cause I might have some questions as well.

Super curious after the testimonial today. So I'm gonna let you guys have at it, but there might be a couple of clips here and there where curiosity takes over and I just have to know more. 

I mean, if you're gonna show up like this, Tony, we're gonna put you on the implementation team, so. 

Adam Zaouague: I wouldn't be mad about that.

So I'll, uh, I'll share my screen here. So, and this is what we have. So we have two machines hooked up, uh, so far to the integration. Um, me and Dan were playing around, but we have, um, I think the I two hundred's, kind of the most exciting one that we have, but it's actually pulling the job number, um, and then the required parts, um, for this job.

And then the parts that have been counted from data dynamics. Um, and then I can actually click on the cog here and I can see the customer. Um, I can see the target cycle time and the target target settle, set up time. And then I [00:02:00] can actually see the, uh, the cutting time on the, uh, on the omics side and I can see, okay, we on fulcrum are predicting 18 minutes, but we're actually getting about like 19 minutes, 42 seconds on the data dynamics side.

Um, so pretty close, but um, this is what like the engineering team is doing and what they're looking at. Um, to actually like, you know, fix the, the numbers and data dynamics and, uh, in fulcrum and actually get like proper times in there for the, for the schedule's purposes. So, 

Greg McHale: oh, so Adam, that, that 18 minutes that comes from Fulcrum, that's the planned cutting time, or that's the total like button to button per part?

That's 

Adam Zaouague: the plane cutting time. Okay. Um, I, I, I think it's pulling the machine time. Um. Or, or, or like sometimes we have labor, sometimes we have machine in there. Um, so I think Dan said it too, if we only have labor, he's pulling that. But if we have machine yeah. Um, I think he's pulling that. Um, but then we have the work order and everything like that in [00:03:00] there.

And then we can also see, um, the jobs that are, uh, scheduled for this machine, which is super cool. 

Alex - Fulcrum: And then that, I'm assuming, is just pulling from the, the scheduler, like queue from fulcrum. 

Adam Zaouague: Yep. 

Alex - Fulcrum: Awesome. 

Adam Zaouague: Yeah. And you're able to see the, uh, this is actually really, I was showing our team this yesterday. Um, 'cause you can actually see like, so the plans start and then like the projected start.

Um, and then here you can see like the plan and the projected end. This was actually showing late yesterday by like a couple hours. And then like our guy, like our project manager went out there and he was like, can you work like two extra hours today? Like o like overtime. And then we're back on, we're back on schedule, which I thought was kind of cool.

That's awesome. So that's kind of how, how we're pulling that and we're able to see, I mean, this was an already started job that's like in wip. Um, so the, the UI here is actually really nice and they have a, uh, yeah, compact here as well, and we're able to see everything that's [00:04:00] scheduled. And then, um, the, the really interesting thing about this that, um.

I, I don't know if you guys were planning for, but I was talking to Dan about yesterday. Um, is this job history page and, you know, we have like, we have on-time delivery for, like the company as a whole. It's a metric that we follow extremely closely, but we don't give a lot of our guys on the machines ownership of OT.

It's really like, like you, you know, the, the guys aren't gonna have like the want to make machine faster or, or, or optimize their cell because it's like, you know, it's, this is on the company. It's like, oh, this is the company's O ot d it's not my OTD. What I really like about this is I can filter by like a machine.

It's, I can like type in integrex I 200 and then I can say. Okay, you've been like a hundred percent on time in relation to the fulcrum schedule. So it's like the fulcrum schedule is saying, you need to be done with this on June 30th, and you did finish on June 30th, or you [00:05:00] didn't, and then that's a late, or that's an on time.

So then I can go to the guys on the floor and be like, Hey, you know, uh, you know, in comparison to fulcrum schedule, you're not, you know, you're not hitting the dates that we're, that we need. To be on time for our customers. And that's like, that's a really, really, really powerful tool for us, and we're definitely gonna start using it.

Um, that's what I'm really excited about. So 

Alex - Fulcrum: That's great. I mean, uh, Adam, I know you like just, you know, are just implementing this and kind of getting it started and getting it going. Um, but yeah, I mean, are there, have there been things that you, other things you've seen so far of like, I don't know, just quick wins from having this data more like available and visible to the rest of the team?

Adam Zaouague: Yeah, I mean it's definitely, it's definitely this. And then it was definitely the first thing I talked about, about like the predict projected end, so we know, um, 'cause we're, we're, we like, uh, we approve over time. Uh, overtime has to be spent on spec, like actual productive work. So it's really nice to know, okay, if this is gonna be [00:06:00] behind, that's like a really, like, yes, of course you get overtime on this, no problem.

Um, or if someone's like, oh, I don't have to work extra today, or, you know, that sort of thing. It just gives a lot more quality of life to our guys on the floor because, you know, there's no more of that. Like, you know, you have to rush to get this done, or I have to stay until seven today, or I have to stay until 10 or.

Oh, you know, I have to come in on the weekend. It's like, no, you're fine. You know, and, and we know this is accurate because it's pulling from the actual cycle times on the machines, you know? Um, so that's a really great like partnership I think between Fulcrum and, and omics. 'cause it's like Fulcrum has all the info down the pipeline, but datas has the really accurate info, like in the, in the specific machining operations.

So, I mean, the quality of life there and the, the like relief of stress, um, I think is, is is definitely a quick win. 

Alex - Fulcrum: Yeah. That's awesome. I mean, I think like, I think you put it well in terms of you're able to make better. Like quality of [00:07:00] life decisions. It's not just, oh, we have to work more overtime. It's like, no, we're actually good.

We're on time. We're, we're all right. Um, or, you know, and actually being proactive about those situations where, where you maybe aren't. 

Tony Gunn: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I used to have to assign people overtime and it was always a, a favoritism game actually, where, where, who I liked best got to work overtime and make more money.

And we never knew how much was gonna get done or. Or, uh, how long they needed to stay and sometimes they would kind of play their own games. Something Adam, you brought up to me earlier today that I found fascinating, and it kind of plays into the questions you're asking Alex and mentioning about, uh, developing all this and, and Greg, you mentioned data dynamics is like in the moment happening is your constant gamification.

Yeah. You, your generation loves to, to gamify this though 1% and you see this screen and go, I can do this and I can do this. And, and it changes even [00:08:00] the the algorithm within the company Yeah. Of being able to, to play this. And something else you brought up to me that I would love for you guys to discuss, uh, together is um, when, when something is potentially late, which nobody wants to be late, and your ability to utilize Fulcrum Datas and then your educated version of ai.

To say we're gonna be late. How can we divide these jobs up amongst the machines that you know we have in order to create a customer success story and get those jobs out on time? 

Adam Zaouague: Yeah. 

Tony Gunn: This, these combinations of gamification and truly understand in a shop is where you guys can thrive. Where I don't see it in other places, and I love the technology coming together like that.

Adam Zaouague: Yeah. I mean. Uh, I'll, I'll give you guys some background on, on, on what we talked about because I think this is really, really exciting. You know, we have fulcrum that has the predictive late, um, you know, taken into account over, you know, outside processing material, um, all these [00:09:00] different things. And then we have data nos for, okay, how's it running now?

Um, what's the, what's the, what's the project projected end? You know, what are we doing? And then we have this AI that we created in-house that has all of our SOPs and all of our kind of tribal knowledge, and it's giving our guys, you know, um, we switched really recently to a kind of project manager, um, you know, operational kind of model where we have project managers who.

Look at, you know, customers and all their jobs and are kind of responsible for all of those, the buck stops with them. And that can be a really, really, really, really stressful job because, you know, if something's gonna be late, you know, you're kind of on on the cusp for that. Or if something ends up being late and it's for really important customer, that's a really, really stressful situation to be in.

And that solution kind of presented itself. We had all this data in all these different systems, so we wanted to give the guys an ability to ask. Kind of an advisor of, Hey, this is gonna be [00:10:00] late, what should I do? And it it gives them, with all of our s the tool belt that they need to say, okay, we're gonna make, uh, the decision to split this operation Fulcrum.

We're gonna run it on two machines and make this, you know, and, and what's so great about that is now we can see on our, all of our dashboards, now that we split that in fulcrum. It's now gonna be on time. And then we look at data nos and now we're like, okay, now it's running. Right? We have our foremans go and, and follow up.

So the project manager is like, Hey Sean, can you go and check in with the I 200 every day? Look at data nos, make sure that this is actually gonna finish when it's supposed to. If it's not, then we use our next tool, belt ot. And you know, we, we, we use all these and we're turning all of these different dials to make sure we're actually gonna be, um, on time.

And, and that's how we've, you know, really helped our customer relationships. I mean, we have customers come to tour and they see how we're kind of plugging in all these different systems. I know when I was talking to you, Tony, how we have these building [00:11:00] blocks and we kind of come up with a, a, an operational model.

We don't. You know, Riyadh is not just, uh, you know, a machine shop that has processes. We build the process around the software. The software is first. A lot of, a lot of the time, you know, you have your, your process, but you also have your system and, and, and that's what you guys are. 

Alex - Fulcrum: Yeah, I mean, I think that's super smart, like connecting them also through an AI tool.

They allow the team to just ask questions in natural language. Um, yeah, the, that's I think where obviously most of of systems are headed, uh, anyway, so, mm-hmm. Uh, you guys are, yeah. Already, already on that trend. 

Tony Gunn: Yeah. I'm, I'm glad you brought up the, the on time delivery thing to Adam, because in a lot of companies you see.

The on-time delivery numbers on the wall. And then you ask an individual, how do you impact that number? And they say, I pieces that go into it, right? A material shipment can affect on-time [00:12:00] delivery, a machining operation, an outside processing service, a shipping delay, like there are so many things. That can impact on time delivery.

And so we were trying to, you know, through this collaboration, figure out how can you localize on time delivery so that people do feel like that number on the wall is actually something that they can, you know, change for the positive. And ultimately, you know, we're all in the business of customer success in our own respective ways.

So how do you make. You know, the machinist on the floor feel tethered to your definition of customer success, which is getting that piece of the process done, you know, at high quality on time with precision. You know, Greg, you bring, I appreciate you jumping on that so quickly, Adam, because that's, that's what I dreamed when we put that together and you nailed it.

Yeah. Thank you 

Greg. You bring that up and, uh, and you know, I know Dan and I quite well, and I was learning about Adam today and what Rito was doing, and, uh, Adam took [00:13:00] me on the shop floor and he shows me this, this giant screen, and I'm like, oh, so you, uh, you can see, you know, what jobs are coming in, if they're gonna be late on time, what they're gonna be early, he goes.

That's correct, but let me show you what we can really see. And he dives into the whole Fulcrum and Datas partnership and he shows me the material that might not be on time. It just the details of. And I mean at, at the age I'm at right now, if I'm being transparent to everyone, which I, which I always am because I like to make fun of myself.

These were, this was all a guessing game when I ran the machine shops that I ran. They, it really was, they were educated guesses, but they were guesses. They were, they came from years of experience and seeing how things are done, but none of it was documented in this way. And if I was to ever start my own machine shop or ever go back into a machine shop again.

I would demand that this, this technology was there. I just, I don't know how you can run without it these days. 

Speaker 4: Oh yeah. If you wanna make money, that's for sure. [00:14:00] You're, if you're, if you're not trying to make money, yeah. You can do it different ways. 

Alex - Fulcrum: Yeah. I mean I think we're, yeah, we're just in this phase of like live data and it's actually something to be used and take advantage of.

Uh, and I think Adam, you guys' shop is one where you definitely see you guys taking that full advantage and using data to make real decisions and not being also scared of it. Uh, and yeah, fully like embracing all of it. Yeah, 

Tony Gunn: I'm gonna add onto that a little bit if that's okay, Alex. And it's gonna be a, I'm gonna be, your head's gonna be huge by the time I leave here, Adam, just based on all the compliments I'm gonna give you.

But you, you guys know that I travel a lot. I go, I've probably been into, I mean, a thousand feels like a lot, but it's gotta be close around the world. And I do see shops that are implementing this digital technology. But I wanna say that Grady, uh, being the, the brilliant man and the legend in the industry that he is.[00:15:00] 

Has kind of turned this all over to couple generations below him because he sees how easily they adapt and grasp it. When I hear Adam talk about what can be done, what's currently being done, uh, it's, it seems to be, to me, it seems to be something that was already known and now it's being implemented and he's grateful that it exists more so than, how does this work?

And there's a lot of times we have to convince people that it works and to adopt it. Whereas this is more like, thank you for creating it. I needed it my whole life to make my shop work. And that's where kind of where Adam sits, he, he is like, this is exactly what we need. I'm happy it's here. 

Alex - Fulcrum: Yeah, I definitely second that in, in working with you guys.

It is definitely a varied um. You have the expectation that these things are possible. It's less of, uh, convincing you that it, that it can be possible. You already know that it is, uh, and you're yeah, fully there, [00:16:00] like making it work. 

Adam Zaouague: And, you know, I really appre appreciate you guys at Fulcrum for, for diving into this with, um.

With data dynamics and vice versa. Um, I actually heard something, I think at one of your guys' events where you told me that you guys had kind of a internal like, uh, want to, if the data lives somewhere else, you know, don't, don't create it again. And I mean, that's a lot of the stuff you guys are building.

That's what I see a lot with data. Nos is the park counts live on the machines, the time lives on the machine. That should live in Fulcrum as well. There's no need for for someone to be inputting that if it's already being captured somewhere. Um, and I think this is a really great example of that idea. 

Alex - Fulcrum: A hundred percent like our, one of our main, yeah.

Missions is, yeah. Like you just said, if the data exists anywhere, regardless of where it is, if it's in a machine, if it's in an email, if it's in a PDF, like we should be able to just ingest that into fulcrum and that's sort of our North star. You shouldn't have to, especially with [00:17:00] everything that's advanced in terms of AI and everything else today, like you shouldn't have to.

Data, enter all of this stuff everywhere. We should be able to make those connections. 

Tony Gunn: Yeah. And here I thought you were the North star of Fulcrum there, Alex. Well, I've interrupted this, this interview enough. I'm gonna let you all three get back to business. Uh, Adam, you're amazing. Yeah, thank you. Uh, but I'm a little bit mad that you've lied to me.

There's no freaking way. You're 20 years old and know all this already. Uh, but I'm gonna get back to work. Thank you for being here, Greg. Alex, you're both amazing. Uh, Adam, thank you for allowing me to interrupt this conversation. You guys get back at it and, uh, I'll see you all again later. Thank you. 

Cool.

Thanks Tony.