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CNC machine shop software that follows the heat number.

The heat number gets booked at goods-in, then biro'd onto a paper bag that walks the shop. Bulk carries it through every op to the shipped serial, so the FAIR pack builds itself, and a customer NCR is answered in minutes.

  • Multi-op routing & travellers
  • Heat-lot & material traceability
  • First-article & in-process inspection
  • Setup sheets & cert packs

This is your floor. These are the modules on it.

Bird view of a cnc machine shop floorMaterial Cert IntakeAutomationHeat-Lot GenealogyModuleMachine LoadingAI agentMulti-Op TravellersModuleFirst-Article InspectionModuleSetup Sheets & Cert PacksModuleSpindle-Time & OEEReporting

Where Bulk fits best.

Machinist loading a billet into a CNC milling machine

Jobs that cross four machines

Op 10 to op 40 on one live traveller, not a paper bag round the shop.

Operator checking stamped heat numbers on bundled bar stock at goods-in

Heat numbers you must answer for

Booked once at goods-in, carried to the serial; an NCR answered in minutes.

Inspector measuring a machined part on a CMM against a ballooned drawing

First articles that hold approvals

CMM results land on the ballooned drawing; the AS9102 pack builds itself.

Quality engineer at a desk assembling a cert pack beside the shop floor

Spindles watched, paperwork not

Keep monitoring and the ERP; Bulk runs traveller, trace and cert between them.

From raw bar to shipped serial, one thread.

Book in the bar

Goods-in books the billet to its heat number and mill cert, typed once, never again.

See data thread
Mill cert readGoods-in · Job 4417 · today 07:48

Heat K31088 · EN 10204 3.1 cert attached · 6 billets Ti-6Al-4V

Heat K31088 booked

Today's reality: built on paper.

Illustration of a machine shop job on paper: a traveller in a job bag, mill cert, ballooned print and a sticky note

  • FAIR packs by hand

    A day in Word and Excel per first article, every customer's format.

  • The heat-number chase

    Hours in job bags before you can even answer the NCR.

  • Travellers gone walkabout

    Sign-offs lost between ops; nobody can say where the job is.

Cobalt 3D render of a machined aerospace bracket with a routing tag

The blocks that hold an AS9100 approval.

  • Multi-op routing & travellers

    Every op booked live, so you always know which machine the job is on.

    Routing

  • Heat-lot & material traceability

    The heat number follows the metal to the serial; a recall is a query.

    Data thread

  • First-article & in-process inspection

    CMM results land on the drawing; the FAIR pack builds itself.

    Quality

  • Setup sheets & cert packs

    Setup sheets at the machine; certs and FAIR packs out the same day.

    Documents

  • Machine loading & job scheduling

    Load against real spindle capacity and quote a date that holds.

    Scheduling

  • Spindle time & utilisation

    Cutting, setup and downtime per machine: where the next spindle-hour is.

    OEE analytics

The FAIR pack goes out the same day.

−84%Time to build an AS9102 FAIR pack at Ashcombe Precision
9 minHeat-lot to shipped-serial recall trace
0Re-keys between the machine and the cert
“A first article used to be a day in Excel ballooning prints and hunting mill certs. Now the FAIR pack assembles itself off the traveller, and when a customer queries a heat number I answer in minutes instead of trawling the job bags.”
AP
Danny Okafor, Quality ManagerAshcombe Precision Engineering, AS9100D subcontract machining

Questions, answered.

01

Is Bulk an ERP, an MES or job-shop software?

None of them, exactly, and that's deliberate. An ERP re-platforms your quoting, purchasing and accounts; a machining MES watches spindles and machine states. Bulk is the layer in between: production tracking, multi-op routing, material traceability and quality on the shop floor. Shops that already run an ERP keep it and wire Bulk to the floor; most shops our size are replacing paper travellers and spreadsheets, not systems.

02

Can Bulk build an AS9102 FAIR pack automatically?

Yes. As the job runs, Bulk captures the ballooned characteristics, inspection results, CMM data, mill certs and operator sign-offs against the drawing. The FAIR pack (Forms 1, 2 and 3 with objective evidence) assembles itself from that record in your customer's format, instead of being rebuilt by hand in Word and Excel per first article.

03

How does heat-lot traceability work across a multi-op route?

The heat/lot number and EN 10204 3.1 mill cert are booked against the material at goods-in and carried through every op (op 10 to final inspection) onto the finished part's serial number. When a customer NCR or recall names a heat lot, you query it and see every job, operation and serial made from that material, forwards and backwards, in minutes.

04

We already run machine monitoring or DNC. Does Bulk replace it?

No. Keep your machine-monitoring or DNC system; Bulk runs the job, not the spindle. Where a system exposes cutting-time or utilisation data we can pull it into the OEE view, but Bulk's job is the traveller, the traceability and the cert pack around the machining: the record your customers and auditors ask for.

05

We do fabrication and welding as well. Is there a page for that?

Yes. Our metal fabrication & welding software page (/metal-fabrication-software) is the sibling to this one. It covers weld maps, EN 1090 / ISO 3834 and heat-number traceability for fab shops. Shops that do both machining and fabrication run one Bulk with both routes on the same floor; the two pages just speak the vocabulary of each trade.

06

How long does rollout take and what does it cost?

One part family end to end first (raw bar to shipped serial with its FAIR pack), proven on real jobs in weeks, then the rest follow on the same pattern. Never a big-bang cutover. Pricing is one per-site figure with every module included, no per-module upsell, hosting and rollout in the number. Early-access shops work directly with the build team.

Let's run one job through.

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