Manufacturing Blog

Information and updates from fulcrum

Capacity Ep.8 - Sarah and Chris Doyle of Advanced Precision Machining & Independent Machine Company

Capacity Ep.8 - Sarah and Chris Doyle of Advanced Precision Machining & Independent Machine Company

In this Capacity episode, Chris shares his journey from robotics to owning two manufacturers, Sarah gives insight into building a great culture, and more.

Capacity Ep.6 - Abraham Ingersoll of Badger Metal & Machine Fabrication

Capacity Ep.6 - Abraham Ingersoll of Badger Metal & Machine Fabrication

Owner of Badger Metal & Machine Fabrication, Abraham (Abe) Ingersoll, shares his experiences from working in the industry to establishing his own business, emphasizing innovation, team spirit, and the importance of embracing new technologies.

Faster than ever: understanding the accelerating pace of change

Faster than ever: understanding the accelerating pace of change

Those who embrace the opportunities of technology and innovation have and will continue to thrive, while those who resist will be left behind. Our ability to understand and adapt to these transformative changes will define our future. 

Crafting the Future with Carbon Fiber: An Inside Look at Common Fibers

Crafting the Future with Carbon Fiber: An Inside Look at Common Fibers

In the latest episode of the Capacity podcast, Fulcrum CEO Sunny Han sat down with Ann Mountjoy, the founder and CEO of Common Fibers, a vertically integrated carbon fiber manufacturing shop in Seattle.

Fulcrum raises $18M to fuel the future of manufacturing

Fulcrum raises $18M to fuel the future of manufacturing

Fulcrum, cloud software for manufacturers, closed an $18 million Series A2 funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing total funding raised to date to $39.9 million.

Fulcrum introduces a Customer Portal

Fulcrum introduces a Customer Portal

Learn how Fulcrum's Customer Portal helps manufacturers give customers easy access to updates on orders or invoices through a secure customer dashboard.

Capacity Ep.4 - Scott Hartrick of Dynamic Metal Innovations

Capacity Ep.4 - Scott Hartrick of Dynamic Metal Innovations

How Scott Hartrick turned a weeknight craft into two successful metal fabrication businesses: Aluma Flowers and Dynamic Metal Innovations. Capacity podcast episode 4. Hosted by Fulcrum CEO, Sunny Han.

How to Evaluate ERPs — for Small Manufacturers

How to Evaluate ERPs — for Small Manufacturers

Looking for an ERP? Here’s how to conduct an ERP evaluation to choose the best one for your small- to medium-sized manufacturing business. Know what criteria to look for so you can create the ultimate ERP evaluation checklist.

The Top 5 Fulcrum Data and Security Questions: Answered

The Top 5 Fulcrum Data and Security Questions: Answered

Discover answers to the top 5 data and security questions from Fulcrum's experts, covering cloud security, data ownership, retention policies, ITAR compliance, and CMMC certification.

Doubling Revenue: How ASM Boomed After New Focus on Software

Doubling Revenue: How ASM Boomed After New Focus on Software

It’s a new era for metal fabricators and manufacturers taking advantage of modern software growing fast. Fulcrum customer, ASM, did and saw a 100% increase in revenue in just a year.

How Thoughtful Design and Metal Fabrication Software Help Boost Your Bottom Line

How Thoughtful Design and Metal Fabrication Software Help Boost Your Bottom Line

Sheet Metal Fabricators who utilize modern metal fabrication software and focus on thoughtful part design make better products and higher profits. See how monitoring quality checkpoints and enabling communication in a metal fabrication ERP software can help.

Capacity Podcast Ep. 3: Kirk McCauley of AEM

Capacity Podcast Ep. 3: Kirk McCauley of AEM

American Engineering & Metalworking (AEM) is a prominent custom metal fabrication shop and Fulcrum user. Sunny Han talks with Kirk McCauley about how he built AEM and his learnings along the way.

How a Metals ERP Can Boost Your Metal Fabrication Business

How a Metals ERP Can Boost Your Metal Fabrication Business

Metals ERP systems help metal fabrication businesses run production smoothly and grow faster, with live data at their fingertips. In this article, we help you understand what criteria to look at when choosing a metals ERP.

Job Tracking in Fulcrum: The Interface for the Shop Floor

Job Tracking in Fulcrum: The Interface for the Shop Floor

Job Tracking is designed to help operators communicate and execute tasks efficiently while communicating live data to the rest of Fulcrum. In this video, we showcase the key features of the Job Tracking interface that make it the perfect solution for your manufacturing floor.

Manufacturing ERP Implementation Failure: Pitfalls to Avoid

Manufacturing ERP Implementation Failure: Pitfalls to Avoid

ERP Implementation Failure: Challenges to overcome and ERP implementation strategies for a smarter start for your shop through data migration, training, change management, and more.

Capacity Podcast Ep. 2: Rodd Blessey from Aldine Metal Products

Capacity Podcast Ep. 2: Rodd Blessey from Aldine Metal Products

Rodd Blessey is the 3rd generations owner and president of Aldine Metal Products, a metal fabrication manufacturer in Connecticut. Rodd shares his journey to running his family's business.

Integrating Fulcrum With Your Manufacturing Tech Stack

Integrating Fulcrum With Your Manufacturing Tech Stack

Fulcrum is specifically designed to be the source of truth for your manufacturing data, so we integrate with other business-critical software for accounting, e-commerce, machine monitoring, and more.

Maximize On-Time Delivery with Fulcrum's Autoschedule: A Video Overview

Maximize On-Time Delivery with Fulcrum's Autoschedule: A Video Overview

Fulcrum Product Manager Emily Lupico introduces the company's powerful Autoschedule in this video, showcasing its ability to help manufacturing shops achieve maximum on-time delivery while minimizing work-in-progress.

Optimizing Production: Real-Time Job Costing with Fulcrum

Optimizing Production: Real-Time Job Costing with Fulcrum

In this video, Fulcrum Launch Manager, Brady Kovarik, demonstrates how Fulcrum allows users to monitor job costs in real time by comparing estimated costs with actual costs.

Automate Your Purchasing Process with Fulcrum’s Purchasing Planning

Automate Your Purchasing Process with Fulcrum’s Purchasing Planning

In this video, Fulcrum Launch Manager, Sarah Herbeck, explains how Purchasing Planning helps manufacturers purchase what they need exactly when they need it.

Real-time Job Tracking in Fulcrum for Efficient Business Management

Real-time Job Tracking in Fulcrum for Efficient Business Management

In this video, Fulcrum Marketing Vice President Nick Wassenberg shows how businesses can benefit from Job Tracking. Fulcrum's Job Tracking feature provides real-time data to business owners and production managers to make informed decisions on a daily basis. 

What is an API and Why Should Manufacturers Care?

What is an API and Why Should Manufacturers Care?

What is an API? They connect complex systems together and form the backbone of the internet. Here's how manufacturers can benefit from using API technology.

Streamline Production with Work Orders in Fulcrum

Streamline Production with Work Orders in Fulcrum

Fulcrum Launch Manager, Katherine Gorey, demonstrates how work orders in Fulcrum can revolutionize the production process by nesting jobs together for easy scheduling, tracking, and maximizing material usage.

Best Hardware Choices for Fulcrum on the Shop Floor

Best Hardware Choices for Fulcrum on the Shop Floor

Fulcrum launch manager, Betzi Nimeth, shares her insights on the best hardware choices to support the shop floor and what she's found works best with customers.

Capacity Podcast Ep. 1: Jeff Murphy of Reformed MFG

Capacity Podcast Ep. 1: Jeff Murphy of Reformed MFG

Sunny Han and Jeff Murphy talk about Jeff's CNC shop, Reformed Manufacturing, digging into the origin story of Reformed MFG and the learnings along the way.

Enhancing Quality Control with Fulcrum: A Video Overview

Enhancing Quality Control with Fulcrum: A Video Overview

Fulcrum helps streamline quality control processes for manufacturers. In this video, Fulcrum Launch Manager, Joe Lewis, talks about how quality control and traceability in Fulcrum.

How Finance Teams are Using Fulcrum

How Finance Teams are Using Fulcrum

In this video, we explore how Fulcrum can help manufacturing companies track data related to purchasing, invoicing, and sales orders. Fulcrum allows you to easily organize and tweak production and finance data and integrate seamlessly with your accounting software.

Streamlining Real-Time Inventory Capture with Fulcrum

Streamlining Real-Time Inventory Capture with Fulcrum

Fulcrum Product Director Alex Troesch demonstrates how Fulcrum makes live inventory capture possible and painless, driving the rest of Fulcrum — including auto-scheduling purchasing recommendations and capable-to-promise calculations.

Manufacturing Dashboards for Actionable Data

Manufacturing Dashboards for Actionable Data

In this video, Fulcrum's launch manager, Kelsey Stimson, highlights three interconnected data-rich sections of the Fulcrum platform: the sales order grid, job page, and purchasing planning.

Leveraging Fulcrum for Better Customer Communication and Engagement

Leveraging Fulcrum for Better Customer Communication and Engagement

In this video, Product Manager, Emily Ujifusa, shows us how to use Fulcrum to build better customer relationships.

Industrial Talk Podcast: Live from FABTECH 2022

Industrial Talk Podcast: Live from FABTECH 2022

Sunny Han, CEO of Fulcrum is a guest on Industrial Talk podcast to discuss small businesses, manufacturing, scheduling, operations, and what the future could look like for connected manufacturers

Manufacturing Software Costs: 3 Hidden Factors

Manufacturing Software Costs: 3 Hidden Factors

Is your shop considering these key factors when measuring manufacturing software costs for systems like ERP, MRP, MES? Evaluate these 3 factors.

How to Make Jobs for Future Demand

How to Make Jobs for Future Demand

Fulcrum's customer success manager, Dan Morrissey, demonstrates the Demand Planning tool, a powerful feature within Fulcrum's manufacturing software.

Fulcrum Wrapped 2022: 17.2M Minutes and Growing

Fulcrum Wrapped 2022: 17.2M Minutes and Growing

Customer growth, team growth, and product growth were big in 2022!

Mastering Manufacturing Sales with Fulcrum: A Video Walkthrough

Mastering Manufacturing Sales with Fulcrum: A Video Walkthrough

In this video, Fulcrum Launch Manager, Richard Bero, shows us how Fulcrum streamlines the manufacturing sales workflow — from customer management to quoting, sales orders, and production.

[Podcast] Flex and Friends: Sunny Han and Eddie Saunders Jr.

[Podcast] Flex and Friends: Sunny Han and Eddie Saunders Jr.

Sunny Han talks to Flex Tools' Eddie Saunders Jr. about the automation and the future of manufacturing

The tech.mn Podcast: Strengthening the Supply Chain With Sunny Han of Fulcrum

The tech.mn Podcast: Strengthening the Supply Chain With Sunny Han of Fulcrum

Sunny chats with Shacarria Scott and Casey Shultz from tech.mn about manufacturing in America, supply chain issues, and Minnesota's startup ecosystem.

How Fulcrum Helps Customers Deal With Rapidly Changing Raw Materials Prices

How Fulcrum Helps Customers Deal With Rapidly Changing Raw Materials Prices

Changes in raw materials prices can make quoting tough, but Fulcrum can help your sales team know what pricing to use to get the right price on a job.

Five Major Trends Affecting Manufacturing in 2022

Five Major Trends Affecting Manufacturing in 2022

What trends will lead manufacturing in 2022? Supply chain issues, COVID-19, automation, and more. Here's what your shop needs to know:

Fulcrum Wrapped: 2021 in Review

Fulcrum Wrapped: 2021 in Review

2021 was an undeniably huge year for Fulcrum, so why did we celebrate with 16,585 tacos?

IIOT World and the Death of Monolithic Software

IIOT World and the Death of Monolithic Software

MES systems are outdated and leave gaps in manufacturing data. Fulcrum, MachineMetrics, and UpKeep have a new way to build a manufacturing software stack.

How to Win More Job Shop Business in 2022

How to Win More Job Shop Business in 2022

Winning job shop business can be tough, but with a good marketing plan, you can grow your business quickly and efficiently. These are our five best tips.

Join Us On December 8 For a Live Panel Discussion on the Future of Manufacturing

Join Us On December 8 For a Live Panel Discussion on the Future of Manufacturing

Manufacturers' needs have changed, but the software they use hasn't kept up. Fulcrum joins IIOT World for a discussion on how producers can be best served

Fulcrum and Paperless Parts Partner to Help Manufacturers Win More Business

Fulcrum and Paperless Parts Partner to Help Manufacturers Win More Business

Fulcrum and Paperless Parts partner to help manufacturers win more business with a seamless integration and modern tech stack

What's In the Infrastructure Bill For American Manufacturers?

What's In the Infrastructure Bill For American Manufacturers?

$550 billion in a new infrastructure bill was just approved by Congress, so what should American manufacturers expect to get from the deal?

Fulcrum is Heading to WESTEC!

Fulcrum is Heading to WESTEC!

Visit Fulcrum in booth #1116 at the WESTEC manufacturing trade show and see the future of ERP manufacturing software

Christmas Supply Chain Crisis Shows The Need For Onshoring

Christmas Supply Chain Crisis Shows The Need For Onshoring

The supply chain delays that have plagued manufacturers for the last 18 months is about to wreak havoc on the holiday shopping season. Start planning now!

Meet Fulcrum at EASTEC, the Largest Manufacturing Trade Show in the Northeast!

Meet Fulcrum at EASTEC, the Largest Manufacturing Trade Show in the Northeast!

Fulcrum's industry-best manufacturing software will be on display at Eastec, come see it for yourself at booth 1544!

Department of Energy Invests $42 million in the Future of Manufacturing

Department of Energy Invests $42 million in the Future of Manufacturing

The Department of Energy opened up applications for grants for manufacturers to help combat climate change and advance the future of manufacturing.

Fulcrum Is Bringing the Future of Manufacturing Production Software to FABTECH!

Fulcrum Is Bringing the Future of Manufacturing Production Software to FABTECH!

Come meet Fulcrum at Fabtech! We're exhibiting the future of manufacturing software McCormick Place, South Building, Booth A4986. See you there!

[Podcast] The Women of American Manufacturing — No More Incremental Improvements: Driving Change in Manufacturing Technology with Annika Cederblad and Alex Troesch

[Podcast] The Women of American Manufacturing — No More Incremental Improvements: Driving Change in Manufacturing Technology with Annika Cederblad and Alex Troesch

Manufacturing podcast about the future of manufacturing, Industry 4.0, and being women in manufacturing and tech.

[Podcast] Within Tolerance Podcast Episode 46 - Sunny Han and the Future of ERP for Manufacturing

[Podcast] Within Tolerance Podcast Episode 46 - Sunny Han and the Future of ERP for Manufacturing

Sunny Han is a guest on Within Tolerance, a podcast where the hosts talk everything from machine shop work, CAD/CAM, and other manufacturing processes.

[Podcast] Industrial Evolution — A New Era of Manufacturing ERP: Real-Time and User-Friendly with Fulcrum

[Podcast] Industrial Evolution — A New Era of Manufacturing ERP: Real-Time and User-Friendly with Fulcrum

Manufacturing podcast about a new era of manufacturing, SaaS, and cloud-based ERP with Industrial Evolution hosted by Chad Perry.

Next Generation BOM: The Future of the Bill of Materials

Next Generation BOM: The Future of the Bill of Materials

Next Generation Bill of Materials: The Future of the BOM. See how manufacturer's most important tools are future-focused in better software.

SaaS or On-Premise: What’s the Better Fit for Manufacturing?

SaaS or On-Premise: What’s the Better Fit for Manufacturing?

The manufacturing industry has been slow to fully embrace software as a service (SaaS). See how the evolution of software helps small businesses leaving on-premises ERP software.

New Year, New You: How Setting the Right New Year’s Resolutions Can Jump Start Your Manufacturing Business

New Year, New You: How Setting the Right New Year’s Resolutions Can Jump Start Your Manufacturing Business

Next year is going to be a year of manufacturing growth, so what steps can you take right to get your business ready?

How To Win Business In 2021’s Volatile Global Economy

How To Win Business In 2021’s Volatile Global Economy

Right now, demand is booming but supplies are low. Is your business positioned to benefit from current trends or get left behind?

American Rescue Plan (ARP), the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and Beyond

American Rescue Plan (ARP), the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and Beyond

We’ve reached out to 50+ banks and relied on the Treasury Department, the SBA and industry contacts to help us assemble this guide for manufacturers.