Product Updates

Better Error Messaging / Blocking

On the work order side, we were not blocking the work order from being scheduled even when there were critical issues with the uploaded nest. This led to confusion on the job tracking side when backend errors would prevent the UI from loading correctly. We'll now block scheduling a nested work order when there are errors in the nest that must be fixed in order to have a happy time in job tracking. Additionally, the errors list now shows a red background on the critical errors (anything in yellow is more of a warning and won't impact job tracking).

Item Tag Filtering on Nest Planning

When cutting, just because something is the same material as another does not always mean they can be cut together. One item might need a better cut quality than another, which means the CNC program will need to use different speeds. To surface this information, some customers are using item tags to show cutting specs. We now surface the item tags in the Nest Planning job/op selector so that the nester can have this information when selecting which jobs to group together.

Line items don't always ship together, but outside processing line items didn't previously have a way of having distinct expected receipt dates.  Now they do!  Note: this is releasing in stages - this week adds the ability to track this data, and next week will factor it into the schedule.

Purchase Orders, PO Part Line Items, and Outside Processing Line items will now track a ‘Promise Date’.  This way, you can track the expected receipt date for scheduling purposes, while using the Promise Date for quality purposes.  A few quick notes:

• Any existing expected receipt dates will be carried over to the promise dates
• As of the next release, this field will be used for vendor scores (as opposed to expected receipt dates)
• To save time, filling in an expected receipt date will automatically fill in the promise date (if it’s empty)

‍

The prepend and append fields from custom field settings will now appear on PDFs.

New setting to provide option to keep remnants from being included in the On Hand value in Purchasing Planning.

Raw Material On Hand quantities are displayed in weight. If a shop has numerous small remnants in stock, the weight can be misleading as to whether or not the On Hand stock is sufficient to meet current demand. Turning on this setting will alleviate instances when the weight in stock may satisfy the demand requirements, but in reality, larger pieces need to be purchased to meet demand.

To turn on navigate to System Data > Items and Inventory Settings > Check “Exclude Remnants” and Save. For changes to be reflected immediately, refresh the Purchasing Planning Grid.

Over time, the Item page has gotten a lot more properties and functionality, but without getting a refresh to the layout. This made it visually confusing and difficult to scan, quickly find, understand, or change info. This week's makeover includes:

• Updated layout on the top of the page with all item or material properties in one panel.
• More space and clearer edit-ability for item name and description.
• Updated responsiveness for different screen sizes.
• Updated fields from older formats to newer formats.
• General clean up of transactions grid.
• General clean up and fixes for broken inputs in the inventory panel.

Fulcrum recently added the functionality to save the accounting code from newly created line items to the master item record. Now, clicking 'Update Parent' on a line item on a PO will also save the accounting code to the item. This helps permanently reduce missing data in the system, and makes it faster to clean up bad data.

A lot of our customers really like using Fulcrum’s chat tools as a way of both communicating quickly and capturing information (and sharing memes).  This release improved performance for heavy users of chat.

As we continue improvements on in-progress work order operation editing, we've identified the need for a clearer way to distinguish which timers are associated with the work order and which are tied directly to job operations. To improve traceability and clarity, we've added a WO tag to timers that are linked to the work order. You’ll see this tag in the Job Operations section.

As part of our ongoing effort to improve the work order workflow, we’re introducing the ability to edit operations in In-Progress work orders. We've heard consistent feedback requesting more flexibility in managing work orders to account for human error and real world production changes. This is just the start!

While the work order is in progress, you can now:

• Add or remove job operations
• Add or remove work order operations

Restrictions

• Editing is only allowed when:
  • Work order status is: Approved, Scheduled, In Progress, or Needs Review
  • Operation status is: Ready, Pending, or Paused
  • The work order operation does NOT have a nesting file uploaded
• Editing is NOT allowed when:
  • Work order status is: Complete or Cancelled
  • Operation status is: Running, Completed, or Cancelled
  • A nesting file has been uploaded to the work order operation

Notes on logged data:

• Logged time, picked quantities, and completed quantities are associated with specific job operations, not the work order as a whole.
• If a job operation is removed, the previously logged time and quantities will still remain associated with each job operation.
• If a job operation is added after time or materials have already been logged on the work order, the new job operation won’t inherit any of those logs.
• Newly added job operations will start from their own clean state (e.g., 0 or existing job operation status).

In short: Logged data always belongs to individual job operations, not the work order.

Let us know if you would like to be added to the beta!

You can now navigate directly to job tracking from a work order! If the work order status is Scheduled, In Progress, or Completed, a link to job tracking will be available for each operation.

If you’ve been following along the last few weeks, you might remember that we recently refactored our work order page to improve performance and unlock additional functionality.  Well, here’s some new stuff!
‍

Work order creation rules allow for quick creation of work orders from the jobs grid or from sales order. Previously, the only way to build them was to indicate what rules you wanted included in the resulting work order. However, sometimes it’s easier to say the operations to skip than list all the operations you want.  The new rule type for “excluded operations” allows you to do just that.

‍

Previously, there was no way to enforce the order in which in process tracking fields appeared in the routing or job tracking.  Now, you can assign an order, and the IPT checks will respect that sequencing.

‍

Previously, Fulcrum required the quantity to be greater than zero for a newly added line item.  However, if the PO is still in draft you may want to add items and work out some details, such as quantity, later. Now you can!

Creating a Purchase Order from Purchase Planning will now look at the jobs requirements within your “Order By Date” filter and automatically add those jobs as associations on the line item on the PO.  For example, this item has demand from jobs 2444 and 2492. Creating a PO from Purchase Planning automatically adds those on the line item on the PO.