Product Updates

While we still believe the future of scheduling is automated and algorithmic, we understand that sometimes a quick manual adjustment to the schedule will help you get your shop back on track. To accommodate those needs, we’ve added the ability to drag and drop objects within the schedule to give you that flexibility, but only for changes in the near-term schedule so as not to create cascading issues later on. You can also cancel jobs, set up new ones, and change operations as necessary, and the rest of the schedule will adapt to whatever changes you make, optimizing the rest of the jobs to keep everything flowing smoothly. The path to every job being on-time has some sudden turns, now you can handle them with ease. This feature requires a bit of setup from your launch team member, so please reach out to them if you're interested in implementing this immediately.

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The new blanket order feature will streamline the workflow of order entry, production, shipping, and invoicing for large quantity orders with multiple releases. Use the "blanket order" item type on any sales order to add a release schedule and easily keep track of the quantity produced, shipped, and invoiced against the total order quantity.

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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.

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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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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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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Think of this as a companion to the real-time operations report we released last month: At a glance, you’ll be able to see who is clocked in, what job they’re clocked into, and how long they’ve been working on it compared to the estimated time. This is a great way for managers and owners to see what’s running long, who is working efficiently, and who could benefit from additional help or oversight.

This will work for every Fulcrum user, but there are aspects of it that will be less useful for those not currently using the time clock feature within Fulcrum. If you’d like to move onto Fulcrum time — which will easily integrate with your current payroll system — let your launch team member know and they’ll get you set up!

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Once again, we’re giving you the ability to get the real-time information you need as quickly as possible. With the new jobs grid, you’ll be able to see what is waiting to be reviewed, what jobs are currently in progress, and what jobs are late — and how late they are. With the newly added progress bars, you’ll even be able to get a feeling for what’s about to happen on the floor based on what’s about to finish on a machine. This may not look like a crystal ball, but you’ll still feel like you can see the future!

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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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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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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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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!

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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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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Our barcoding system has always been a great way to track inventory and raw materials, but we've made accessing it even more convenient! Right from the job tracking page, users will now be able to scan labels as well as print new ones when necessary. So, if you've got a long pick list of raw materials, you can scan the label from the job tracker to quickly add it to what you're working on.

Finally, we're adding QR search capability gradually to more and more grids. If you see the QR code icon next to a grid in Fulcrum, it means you can scan a QR code into that search bar!

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