Guide To Choosing the Right Work Instructions Software for Manufacturing

Investing in work instruction software is the best bang for your buck in digitizing and elevating your assembly process. Transitioning to digital work instructions is a critical decision for modern manufacturers. Digital tools are no longer just a 'nice-to-have', but a necessity for staying competitive. But with so many options available, how do you know which features are essential for your specific needs? 

The software landscape can feel overwhelming. Choosing the right work instructions software can revolutionize your assembly process, leading to increased efficiency, reduced errors, and a happier, more productive workforce, while the wrong choice can lead to frustration and wasted resources, impacting your bottom line. 

This guide breaks down the must-have features of work instructions software, helping you make an informed decision that streamlines your operations and drives tangible results in manufacturing. 

Ready to unlock the power of digital work instructions? Let's dive in.

Why Choosing the Right Features Matters When Picking Work Instructions Software

When it comes to work instructions software, the features you prioritize directly impact your efficiency gains from going digital, the quality of your work instructions and ultimately, the success of your entire manufacturing operation. 

What are the consequences of making the wrong choice? Let's take a look. Clunky interfaces and a lack of automation can grind workflows to a halt. Difficulty creating clear and accurate instructions leads to costly errors and rework. The inability to capture and share expert tribal knowledge results in a constant loss of valuable expertise. Software that cannot adapt to your growing or changing needs limits your potential. A system that is difficult to learn and use is abandoned by your team. A poor selection not only fails to improve your processes, but actively hinders them.

On the other hand, the right features can be a massive force amplifier for your manufacturing operation and team. These features can empower your team to achieve:

• Increased Productivity: Streamlined workflows and automated tasks free up your valuable time.
• Reduced Errors: Clear, accurate and continuously updated digital work instructions minimize assembly errors and rework costs.
• Improved Training: Interactive, visual and engaging work instructions accelerate the learning process and onboarding of new employees.
• Enhanced Knowledge Capture: Tribal knowledge and expertise from your operators and engineers is consistently and systematically captured and made easily accessible throughout the organization.
• Better Compliance: Robust documentation and audit trails simplify regulatory requirements.

Choosing the right features means not just avoiding problems, but proactively creating a more efficient, streamlined and compliant environment for your manufacturing process. 

Must-Have Features in Work Instructions Software

To avoid these pitfalls and unlock the true potential of work instructions software, these are the essential features for work instructions software for manufacturers.

One Centralized Hub For Your Work Instructions 

Are your work instructions scattered across multiple drives, file folders and even paper binders? Anyone who has worked on an assembly line is familiar with the chaos that the traditional approach to work instructions can be. 

Good work instructions software should become your one-stop shop for everything to do with work instructions at your company. From creating work instructions, updating them, animating them and delivering them to your team of operators on the factory or shop floor, everything should be covered by your work instructions software.

Leave the chaos of the past behind and centralize and digitize your work instructions in one centralized software tool. This is an absolutely must-have feature in our experience. 

CAD File Integration

Do you spend countless hours manually creating work instructions from CAD drawings? If so, a software tool that integrates directly with your CAD Files is an absolute game-changer. This feature allows you to directly import CAD files (e.g., SolidWorks, STEP) to automatically create work instructions.

By automatically parsing CAD data, you eliminate manual screenshotting, annotation, and the tedious re-creation of information, dramatically reducing creation time. This eliminates the risk of manual transcription errors, resulting in far more accurate instructions. It enables engineers to easily update work instructions when designs change, ensuring your team is always working with the latest information. This feature isn't just about saving time, it's about enhancing accuracy and efficiency. 

It's a fundamental shift in how work instructions are created and managed. Streamline your processes, improve accuracy, and accelerate your workflow with software that includes this key feature.

Animated, Visual Work Instructions 

The power of good visuals cannot be overstated. Ditch the word documents and pages of endless text and embrace a visual-first approach to work instructions. Look for a user-friendly interface for easily adding images, videos, annotations, and other visual elements to work instructions. Even better if the software generates these visuals and animations itself!

By providing your team with clear visuals, you significantly improve understanding, reducing ambiguity and fostering faster learning. Errors are minimized when workers can see what to do, rather than just reading about it. This is especially useful for complex tasks that are easier to understand when demonstrated visually. This feature is critical for improving understanding, reducing errors, and empowering your team to learn faster and more effectively.

Real-time Updates, Version Control and Revision History 

Imagine your team using outdated work instructions to build a particularly complex assembly. You’re probably not surprised to find out this happens all the time in manufacturing and we’ve heard countless painful stories that fit this description. 

You can draw a straight line from outdated work instructions to assembly errors, rework, and even safety hazards. This is where real-time updates, version control and revision history become indispensable. 

The beauty of digital work instructions is the ability to push updates to your work instructions immediately to the factory floor without having to update powerpoint files, word documents or print out work instructions and deliver them by hand. Digital work instructions also make tracking changes and revisions to work instructions seamless and automatic. 

View Instructions on Any Device, Anywhere on the Shop Floor

Your team should be able to access and view work instructions on tablets, smartphones, and other mobile devices anywhere on the shop floor. 

Easy digital access across devices allows operators and engineers to access the information they need, when and where they need it, directly on the shop floor. More importantly, you enable your manufacturing operation to operate more efficiently by cutting out several steps such as updating and printing out work instructions and delivering them to the shop floor. 

BuildOS: The World’s Most Powerful Work Instructions Software For Manufacturers 

At Dirac, we understand that choosing the right work instructions software is a critical decision. That's why we've designed BuildOS to be the most powerful work instructions software for manufacturers. BuildOS isn't just software; it's a complete solution for transforming your assembly processes including all the essential features you need.

Here's how BuildOS delivers on these must-have features:

• Automated Work Instruction Generation from CAD: BuildOS automatically transforms your CAD files into detailed, step-by-step work instructions saving you countless hours.
• Centralized Hub for Work Instructions: With BuildOS your work instructions are created, updated and managed from BuildOS. No need for any other tools, BuildOS is your one-stop shop for all things work instructions. 
• Visual, Animated Work Instructions: BuildOS automatically generates dynamic 3D animations of each step in your assembly process, significantly improving your operators ability to understand your work instructions. 
• Capture Tribal Knowledge: BuildOS automates 80% of assembly work instruction creation. For the remaining 20%—your technicians' tribal knowledge, like specific greasing, thread-locking, or torquing procedures—BuildOS provides intuitive tools to document and integrate this critical expertise directly into the digital work instructions.
• Real-Time Feedback Loops: The platform enables immediate feedback on your work instructions from your assembly team, ensuring continuous improvement and updates on your work instructions.
• Support and Onboarding: We provide easy access to a dedicated onboarding team, enabling you to easily digitize your approach to work instructions and ensuring a smooth transition and ongoing success with BuildOS.

BuildOS is more than just a software, it's a commitment to empowering your manufacturing team with the tools they need to succeed. 

Don’t just take our word for it. Ancra Aircraft, a leading aerospace OEM, deployed BuildOS and immediately reduced the time spent on creating and updating work instructions from an average of 4 days to just 1 hour. 

Conclusion

Choosing the right work instructions software is a game-changer for manufacturing operations. The right software can significantly cut down on the time your team spends creating and updating work instructions, reduce assembly errors with real-time updates and enable digital access across devices on the shop floor. . 

Prioritizing the key features we’ve explored when picking work instructions software will help set your manufacturing operation up for success as you begin to digitize your operation. Don't settle for less – choose software that truly meets your needs. Your team, and your bottom line, will thank you.

Ready to find the perfect work instructions software for your manufacturing operation? Explore BuildOS and learn more about how our powerful, purpose-built software for work instructions can transform your manufacturing processes!