Product Updates

We’ve built out additional functionality in the rework workflow to allow users to indicate not only that something needs rework, but also what step specifically needs to be redone and how many parts are affected. This automatically creates a new operation for those parts, which allows for better tracking of additional material and labor costs associated with the rework.

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Circumstances change, sometimes on short notice, and the schedule needs to adapt to that. Now, you can make really detailed changes to the schedule, including accounting for modified shift start or end time and maximum equipment capacity adjustments to the day.

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We believe market-based pricing is the best way to maximize income into your shop, but there are certain types of manufacturing that are more closely tied to the cost-plus model of pricing. To make sure we’re not leaving anyone behind, we’ve added functionality for calculating price based on margin inputs. The pricing takes into account the cost to produce an item and calculates a price based on your margin requirement. As the cost changes, the price will change. This method can be used on price breaks, quotes, sales orders, and in the item setup itself.

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We’re now offering clearer workflows for companies that invoice customers before work begins instead of invoicing after work has been completed. To take advantage of this feature, indicate that a deposit is required on the sales order and the amount. This will kick off an invoice for the deposit upfront.

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Not every customer buys in the same way, so we’re making it easier to customize the unit of measurement during the sales process. You can set different units of measure and custom conversions for sales and inventory or set customer-specific units for repeat customers that have consistent needs, whatever best suits your shop’s needs.

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We’ve updated our operation instructions fields to support external hyperlinks to additional documents or instructions from the Job Tracker. We know there's other spots you may be storing key information and can now make sure it's easy to access for your team.

Whether you need in-process data for ISO certification, GMP standards, or any other type of quality management record-keeping, Fulcrum makes that process easy for operators to record and monitor, and easy to compile for later audits.

These quality checkpoints are often exactly what keeps companies from going digital, so this is a huge step forward in digital quality management and we’re excited to be leading in this way.

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It would be great if work flowed from one machine to the next, with no breaks for movement or additional processes between stations, but that’s not exactly how most shops work. So, to account for the realities of moving big pieces between stations or factors like drying time, we’ve added buffer times to operations.

You’ll be able to preset buffer times at the operation level, which means for repeatable times you’ll only have to do it once. However, since some times will change based on part size or other factors, we’re giving you the ability to select whether that time can be overridden. If so, users will have the option to change it during the BOM and routing set up.

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As with everything we do, we want the job tracker to be easy to use, incredibly powerful, and help everyone from the shop floor to the back office take advantage of modern technology to make their work better, easier, and more satisfying.

Job tracking in Fulcrum was already one of our best-loved features, so why did we rebuild it from the ground up?

Simple: We knew it could be better and we weren’t satisfied with leaving it at less than the best.

The new interface — designed based on the feedback we received from users — puts the focus on what individual operators need to do, while giving them access to the schedule as a whole as well. Within each job, the drawings take center stage: 3D renderings and static images now show up big and bright, and users can spin them or zoom in for finer details.

Take a look at the video below as Alex Troesch, our head of product, demonstrates how easy and intuitive the new job tracker is:

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Even the most diligent of users sometimes forget to clock out for the day or clock out of the job they just completed. To help keep your data accurate and save you time on data corrections, you'll be able to stop the timer from the real-time personnel report. Managers can find this option exclusively on the real-time personnel report to start, but we will be expanding it to other sections in the coming months.

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One of our most asked-for features is now part of Fulcrum! From the pricing page, you can now set prices based on quantity ordered, so if you’re a business that offers bulk discounts, this is a way to communicate that information both to your customers and to the system.

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To help you get the information you need from Fulcrum as quickly as possible, we've updated the look of some of our most popular sections. Starting with quoting — which you can see below — we're improving the grids in Fulcrum to prioritize key information and communicate it more clearly. We'll be updating the whole system over the next few weeks, adding more insights, clearer callouts, and denser data, so keep an eye out for that!

Our new invoicing grid is designed to improve the workflow of anyone that has to deal with getting cash in the door. At the very top of the page, you’ll get an actionable dashboard showing where each invoice is in the process, as well as everything that has been paid or remains unpaid. Mouse over the red square (or press on mobile) within the unpaid invoice section and you’ll see the maturity of every outstanding invoice as well as who it was issued to.

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Since processes like drying don’t require constant supervision and don’t take up machine time, we’re giving you the option to set certain work areas as having unlimited capacity. This, along with the unattended run option we debuted earlier this year, should make it possible to set up a run that does not take into account either personnel or machine availability.

As always, we’re here to help! If something in an update like this sounds interesting to you, but doesn’t match with how your shop is running right now, touch base with your launch team member and we’ll be happy to help think through with you whether it’s a good fit and how to get it implemented if it is.

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We’ve retooled the algorithm behind purchasing to give you an even better plan for what to buy and when. Fulcrum takes into account current inventory levels, when materials are needed based on the schedule, the historical lead time of your vendors, what's already coming in on other purchase orders, any minimum stocking levels, and vendor price breaks stored in the system, and comes up with a recommendation of how much to buy today.

Along with a more robust back end, we’ve updated the front end to give you the ability to switch the entire planning page to see it in your vendor’s unit of measurement and added item tags here for enhanced searchability.

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