Dirac Launches BuildOS v1: The Automated Solution for Model-Based Work Instructions

After a year of building alongside the American manufacturing community, today we're thrilled to announce the release of BuildOS v1! This isn't just an incremental update; it's a significant evolution for our platform shaped by the invaluable feedback and insights gained since our initial launch of BuildOS V0 in October 2023. We've taken everything we learned, focusing on user needs and real-world challenges, to create a power-tool for manufacturing engineers and operators to help catalyze America’s manufacturing renaissance. 

BuildOS V0 laid the foundation, proving the potential and benefits of a digital-first, model-based approach to assembly work instructions to bridge the gap between design and production. Now, BuildOS v1 builds upon that foundation, delivering enhanced performance, improved usability and expanded capabilities that directly address the pain points our users have experienced. This is the next step in our mission to empower the manufacturing world with software that makes their jobs easier, faster, and more efficient.

What’s New in BuildOS v1: Improved Performance, Usability and Security

BuildOS is your all-in-one digital solution for creating, managing, and deploying assembly work instructions quickly and continuously. Many manufacturers today struggle with an archaic, paper-based approach to creating and managing work instructions that causes numerous problems. 

BuildOS is purpose-built software designed to transform how manufacturers create, update, distribute and manage their assembly work instructions. 

Under the Hood of BuildOS v1: Highlights from the Release Notes

Here's a closer look at some key features from the v1 release:

• Simulation Overhaul Significant improvements to BuildOS’s simulation engine deliver faster, more accurate animations and dynamic sequence regeneration, ensuring instructions stay aligned with design changes.
• Smarter Assembly Steps with Kits Complex assembly steps are now easier to follow with the introduction of Kits—groups of grouped parts installed together in a clear, sequential visual format.
• Improved Upload Performance and JT Support Uploads are faster and more robust, with expanded support for .jt files in addition to .step and .sldasm. Automatic hierarchy reordering ensures models are always structured correctly.
• Automated EBOM to MBOM to BOP Conversion BuildOS now supports automated transformation from engineering BOMs to manufacturing BOMs to Bills of Process, enabling more seamless and reliable BOM management.
• Contextual Knowledge Management Tools, notes and images can now be intelligently applied across instructions where relevant, streamlining authoring and reducing the risk of missed context.
• Advanced Annotation Tools New annotation capabilities support high-quality visual markup directly in the viewer and exports, including support for custom cameras, bulk settings and more.
• GovCloud and Self-Hosting Support BuildOS now supports secure deployment in AWS GovCloud and ITAR-compliant environments, with both hosted and self-managed options available.
• PLM Integrations BuildOS integrates with leading PLM systems allowing for seamless transfer of CAD data into BuildOS and ensuring that model-based manufacturing assets can be held to the same configuration management standards as your CAD data.

To dive into more detail on all of these updates, check out our full release notes here. 

Who Benefits from BuildOS? Solving Shared Manufacturing Challenges Across Multiple Industries

BuildOS is a game-changer for a wide range of industries where manufacturing is a critical function, and multiple companies are already seeing the impact of BuildOS on their factory floors. 

The beauty of BuildOS is that it directly addresses a set of shared manufacturing and assembly challenges that are ubiquitous across multiple industries.

Here's how different segments benefit from BuildOS with real-world examples of our product in action:

Aerospace:

• Shared Challenges: Aerospace demands meticulous documentation, stringent quality and long-term knowledge retention for complex assemblies.
• How BuildOS Helps: Ancra Aircraft (see more in the next section) is leveraging BuildOS to cut work instruction creation time, capture critical tribal knowledge and boost their productivity. Their need to automate work instruction creation to increase engineer productivity and enable quick design iteration and compliance is perfectly met by the features of the BuildOS platform.

Automotive:

• Shared Challenges: Automotive manufacturing focuses on high-volume, standardized processes and complex assembly lines, demanding efficiency and cost control.
• How BuildOS Helps: A multinational automotive manufacturing company with 250,000 employees is actively testing BuildOS to streamline their high-volume production, standardize processes and optimize complex assembly lines. They're particularly interested in BuildOS's automated creation and real-time updates of work instructions, automated sequence planning and simulation to reduce errors and boost throughput.

Defense:

• Shared Challenges: Strict regulatory requirements, low-volume, high-complexity products and high demands on the time of their skilled operators.
• How BuildOS Helps: A leading US defense contractor is leveraging BuildOS to digitize their manufacturing processes today for building cutting edge defense hardware. BuildOS is directly enabling increased quality and reliability as well as increased productivity on their factory floor. 

Agricultural Machinery:

• Shared Challenges: Agricultural machinery manufacturers often face long, complex assembly processes for large agricultural equipment, with distributed assembly lines and the need for durable, high-quality and reliable products.
• How BuildOS Helps: A world-leading agricultural machinery manufacturer with 500+ employees is actively rolling out BuildOS today across its manufacturing lines to standardize processes, document tribal knowledge, improve employee onboarding and reduce assembly errors. They expect the digital work instructions, animations and knowledge base in BuildOS to minimize downtime, accelerate onboarding and maximize productivity.

Medical Device Manufacturing:

• Shared Challenges: Medical Device manufacturing faces some of the strictest quality standards, complex regulatory requirements (FDA), intricate assembly processes, and the need for skilled operators.
• How BuildOS Helps: BuildOS helps ensure high standards of quality and precision are maintained. The traceability features of BuildOS also enable companies to better manage and demonstrate regulatory compliance. 

BuildOS in Action: Ancra Aircraft’s Transformation

Ancra Aircraft, a leading aerospace OEM, equips over 60% of the world's aircraft freighter fleet with main deck cargo loading systems. Faced with the challenges of paper-based work instructions, Ancra sought a solution to streamline their assembly process and maintain their competitive edge.

By implementing BuildOS, Ancra transitioned seamlessly from paper to digital work instructions. The results were remarkable:

• Time Savings: Reduced the time spent on creating and updating work instructions from 4 days to just 1 hour. 
• Knowledge Retention: Ancra has captured and documented tribal knowledge on its assembly process and preempted the risk of knowledge loss due to retirement or turnover.
• Enhanced Quality: Standardized procedures improved product consistency and customer satisfaction and reduced costs due to rework and waste. 

Ancra's success showcases the transformative power of digital work instructions and serves as a blueprint for other organizations aiming to modernize their operations.

Learn More About BuildOS

BuildOS is not just software; it's a catalyst for manufacturing excellence. We are empowering engineers and operators with purpose-built software designed to solve their pain points and needs. 

Embracing digital work instructions isn't just about eliminating paper; it's about transforming your entire assembly process into a more efficient, modular and future-proofed system all while saving time and improving quality control. 

Some of the key features of BuildOS include: 

• Automated Work Instruction Creation: BuildOS transforms CAD files into detailed work instructions in hours, not days, automating 80% of the process. This frees engineers to focus on documenting the critical final 20%: your team’s tribal knowledge.
• Dynamic 3D Visualizations: Interactive animations that bring assembly steps to life, improving the understanding of your operators and engineers and reducing assembly errors.
• Single Source of Truth: BuildOS serves as your single source of truth, capturing and linking work instructions, expert notes, tool requirements, and safety precautions directly to parts and steps.
• Standardized Practices: Ensure real-time updates to your work instructions and consistency across all assembly workflows, improving quality at scale.
• Documenting Tribal Knowledge: BuildOS is designed to enable you to document the critical tribal knowledge and assembly know-how of your most experienced employees and to share that know-how widely across your team. 

To learn more about how BuildOS can transform your approach to creating work instructions and your assembly operations, schedule a demo with our team today here.