Customer Relationship Management
Quote and Order Management
Pulse's quoting and ordering module streamlines sales processes by enabling users to create, manage, and track quotes and orders within the Pulse system. It integrates pricing, discounts, product catalogs, and approvals, ensuring accuracy and efficiency. This module enhances customer experiences, accelerates sales cycles, and improves overall business productivity.
Contact Management
Pulse's cusomter module streamlines communication by centralizing contact details, interaction histories, and engagement insights in one intuitive interface. With robust search and filtering features, it enables efficient organization and quick access to customer data.
Document Mangement
Pulse's document management module simplifies file organization with secure storage, version control, and easy sharing capabilities. It supports a variety of file types, enabling seamless collaboration and access. Advanced search options ensures quick retrieval, while role-based permissions protect sensitive data, fostering efficiency and security in managing business documents
Sales Inbox Management System
Pulse includes a Sales Inbox Management system (SIMS) that integrates directly with your Microsoft mail server to import relevant incoming and outgoing emails into a centralised repository in Pulse. That means all sales related emails are visible to all staff, no matter who received or sent the email. SIMS also automatically categorises emails and attaches them to the relevant Works Order.
Estimation
Fast Part Entry
Pulse has a suite of tools and workflows that enable fast part entry, for the simplest of parts through to parts with outside and secondary processing requirements. Parts can be keyed one by one or in batches using Pulse's DXF Importer. Pulse also Integrates with SigmaNEST to allow parts be imported directly from SigmaNEST Workspaces. Once keyed parts can be modified in bulk using a range of update tools.
CAD Tools
Several CAD tools have been developed for estimators to use within Pulse. These include the DXF Splitter Tool that allows part kits to be rapidly split out of a single DXF and imported into Pulse as individual parts, ready for production. The DXF Importer Tool allows multiple DXF files to be imported using a single workflow, with important part details specified quickly. The DXF control built into the DXF Importer and other modules in Pulse has an Auto-Clean feature that automatically removes unnecessary entities, the ability to highlight and close open contours, and capabilities that allow entities to be highlighted for secondary processing.
SigmaNEST Integration
Pulse integrates directly with your SigmaNEST installation to allow your sales team to generate accurate estimates of machine time and material usage during the quotation stage of the workflow. The process is automated, allowing salespeople to quickly generate estimates without needing an in-depth knowledge of nesting or SigmaNEST.
Scheduling
Best in Class Scheduling
Pulse’s advanced auto-scheduling algorithm is designed to optimize production workflows by automatically allocating jobs onto individual resource queues. As works orders reach production, each of their new jobs is scheduled in order to assign a start and finish time, ensuring seamless integration into the existing production schedule. The algorithm intelligently considers various factors to determine the earliest possible start time for each job.
These include the finish time of preceding jobs in the works order, as production processes are sequential, the specific shifts configured for each resource, and existing jobs already scheduled on the resource queue. Additionally, the algorithm accounts for lead times arising from stock availability or external processing requirements, ensuring realistic scheduling that aligns with material readiness. By factoring in these elements, the algorithm calculates the overall estimated ready date for the works order, providing accurate timelines for order completion.
Dynamic Rescheduling
Pulse’s schedule supports dynamic adjustments. Jobs can be manually dragged forward or backward within their respective queues or reassigned to different queues altogether. The schedule automatically adjusts start and finish times of jobs around these changes and provides feedback to the user so they can understand the impact of their changes in real time. This flexibility allows production managers to respond to changing priorities, unexpected delays, or resource availability.
With its intelligent scheduling capabilities and user-friendly interface, Pulse’s schedule algorithm increases resoure utilisation, reduces downtime, and supports precise production planning, making it an indispensable tool for managing complex manufacturing workflows in the steel profiling industry.
Planning, Stock Control and Purchasing
SigmaNEST Integration
The planning workflow processs has been integrated with SigmaNEST, this integration allows for Workspaces to be created and updated from within Pulse with a single click. Once programmed, allocations, key information, and nest layouts are imported back into Pulse, ready for cutting.
Plate and Non-Plate Purchasing
Purchasing of Plate and Non-Plate products is facilitated by Pulse's comprehensive purchasing module. Functionality includes configurable price lists for key suppliers, stock control for plate and consumable products and tools for simplifying managment of purchases for outside processing.
Test Certificate Management
Test certificates are tracked in Pulse along with their corresponding Plates so they can be viewed at any time. Where required test certificate summary reports that associate each part in an order with its test certificate can be generated and sent to customers automatically upon delivery.
Stocktake
Pulse's Stocktake Dashboard provides a consolidated interface for initiating and managing your stocktake workflow for plate and non-plate products. The functionality allows for flexibility in stocktake processes ranging from comprehensive stocktakes to rolling or batched stocktakes.
Production and Shop Floor
Production Management
The Shop Floor Control provides an array of tools for Production Managers to oversee the workshop. These tools illustrate the broader picture, allowing managers to get a snapshot of the overall workshop and all work underway, and also provide a finer resolution understanding of how particular jobs are tracking, all in real time.
Material Sourcing
One of the key elements of the Shop Floor Control is the Material Sourcing module. The module equips material sourcing personnel with a clear picture of upcoming material requirements across the workshop and provides functionality to ensure these requirements are met and remnants are returned to stock in a timely manner.
Job Control
The Job Control is a central component of the Shop Floor Control. The Job Control provides machine operators with a view of upcoming work and provides key information for in process jobs including nest layout reports, program info and notes from sales, planning and customers.
Accounts
Flexible Accounting Package Integration
With the ability to integrate with any accounting packing and syncronise key information across both systems, Pulse offers flexibility for your business.
Invoicing
Pulse provides options to customise invoice appearance and offers a tool to generate, email and print invoices in bulk, speeding up your receivables processing workflow.
OCR Creditor Workflow
By levering OCR technology, Pulse offers an automated workflow for processing creditor PDF invoices. The process indentifies key information on uploaded PDFs and cross matches data points with existing purchase orders in Pulse. When a match is found Pulse automatically generates an invoice saving time and reducing the errors introduced by manual processes.
Report Suite
Pulse offers a robust suite of reports designed to meet the diverse needs of the steel profiling industry, ensuring clarity and precision in operational oversight.
The sales reports provide detailed insights into customer trends, order histories, and revenue performance, enabling informed decision-making.
Management reports deliver high-level overviews and actionable analytics, supporting strategic planning and team performance evaluation.
For stock control, the reporting suite offers real-time inventory tracking, usage summaries, and stock valuation, helping businesses maintain optimal inventory levels.
Production reports streamline workflows by tracking job statuses, scheduling efficiency, and delivery timelines.
These reports are complimented by a set of data integrity reports that ensure the accuracy and consistency of critical business information, highlighting discrepancies and safeguarding operational reliability.
These reports are customisable, intuitive, and seamlessly integrated within Pulse, empowering businesses to enhance productivity, minimize inefficiencies, and maintain a competitive edge in the steel profiling sector.
Pulse Mobile
Plate Receipts
Management of plate purchasing functionality in Pulse is complimented by Pulse Mobile. The app allows expected plate purchases to be displayed, plates receipted into stock and plate barcodes to be printed.
Plate Transfers
For businesses with more than one location, transfers of plate stock between sites is supported by Pulse Mobile. Upcoming plate transfers are displayed within the app, with functionality covering both picking and receiving of the transfer built in.
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance at each step of the production process is supported by Pulse Mobile with the ability for users to photograph parts as they are manufactured. Photos are instantly associated with the relevant Items in Pulse. Other quality assurance features are being built out as part of the ongoing Pulse Mobile development.
Stocktake
Barcode driven stocktake from within Pulse mobile is fast and simple. Plate stock is scanned and easily updated with status and location details as part of your inventory management process.
Truck Driver
Pulse Mobile has truck drivers covered with functions to view their current delivery runs and key details of each delivery. Upon delivery drivers are able receive signatures and capture photographs of delivered goods to act as proof of delivery.