From Tribal Knowledge to Repeatable Excellence: How Spudnik Equipment Increased Assembly Throughput with Dirac’s BuildOS

Executive Summary

“Within a week of buying the software, we had instructions on the floor.” – Jaden Hokanson, Spudnik Manufacturing Engineer 

Spudnik Equipment Company, a leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery, implemented Dirac’s BuildOS platform to overcome a long-standing challenge in manufacturing: reliance on the undocumented knowledge of a single experienced operator to build critical assemblies. By deploying BuildOS to automatically generate animated, model-based work instructions, Spudnik was able to standardize processes, accelerate training, reduce rework, and build operational resilience across its production team.

The result is a repeatable, scalable build process that enables faster ramp-up, consistent quality, and improved throughput.

Customer Overview

Spudnik Equipment Company is a premier U.S. manufacturer of large-scale agricultural machinery such as harvesters, conveyors, and custom crop-handling equipment. Based in Blackfoot, Idaho, Spudnik supports farmers across the U.S. and beyond with high-performance, precision-engineered tools to power modern agriculture. They build large equipment like the 6740 Harvester. Like many manufacturers with deeply experienced teams, Spudnik historically relied on the deep, hands-on expertise of an individual seasoned operator to build critical assemblies. 

A Critical Build, Held by One Pair of Hands

Among Spudnik’s product lines is the lower boom assembly (model #880), a critical sub-assembly known for its complexity and precision requirements. For years, it could only be reliably built by a single, highly experienced operator with 15 years of experience on the job. This operator’s tribal knowledge was never formally documented, a common challenge in fast-paced production environments where expertise is built on the floor, not written down.

When that expert was temporarily unavailable, less experienced team members struggled to complete the build efficiently or correctly. This bottleneck in tribal knowledge exposed risks in scalability, training, and production resilience—risks that Spudnik set out to address with BuildOS.

Bridging Design and the Factory Floor

Spudnik’s drive to increase throughput and improve build consistency aligned closely with the offerings of Dirac’s BuildOS platform, which enabled the company to replicate expert-level execution in a scalable digital format. By equipping operators with automated model-based work instructions, Spudnik aimed to mitigate risks such as:

1. Tribal Knowledge Bottlenecks: Only one operator could consistently build the lower boom assembly. When unavailable, builds slowed and rework increased.

2. Production Downtime and Training Gaps: During the expert’s two-week vacation, the same assembly took 15 hours for new operators—2.5x longer than usual–with higher error rates.

3. Rework Due to Missed Critical Steps: A recurring issue involved skipping a bolt installation early in the build sequence, leading to 2+ hours of rework per incident. This risk, tied directly to undocumented tribal knowledge, became a major driver for change.

4. Scalability and Staffing Resilience: Production forecasts depended entirely on assembly capacity, which in turn hinged upon operator availability and manual training methods.

5. Lack of a Tool to Translate EBOM to MBOM: Engineering BOMs were often structured for design, not manufacturing. BuildOS empowered manufacturing engineers (MEs) to restructure models and BOMs for assembly, enabling modularity and reducing engineering bottlenecks.

“We didn’t have a tool to go from EBOM to MBOM. BuildOS gave our ME team that power.” — Stuart Talbot, Spudnik Manufacturing Engineer Manager

Engagement & Implementation: From First Call to Factory Floor in One Week

Dirac’s BuildOS was implemented at Spudnik with exceptional speed. From the time of purchase, Spudnik had animated work instructions deployed on the shop floor in just one week. After uploading a model for a simpler assembly, engineers were able to produce an initial work instruction in under 15 minutes.

This rapid deployment allowed Spudnik to digitize key tribal knowledge and immediately empower new operators on the line.

“I had never built this assembly before. The BuildOS instructions had everything I needed.” – Pedro, Spudnik Assembly Manufacturing Engineer (Acting Operator)

Ten weeks after initial deployment, BuildOS was already helping reduce training time, improve build consistency, and avoid common rework incidents. Operators and engineers alike reported high satisfaction and productivity improvements.

Key Results with BuildOS

Spudnik’s implementation of BuildOS yielded measurable gains in productivity, consistency, and resilience that strengthened its manufacturing capabilities.

1. 33% Reduction in Build Time for New Operators: Without BuildOS, a less experienced team took 15 hours to complete the lower boom build during the lead operator’s absence. With BuildOS deployed, that time was reduced to 10 hours, representing a 33% improvement after a single training cycle (See Figure 1), with fewer errors and less stress on the shop floor, exceeding Spudnik’s expectations for the impact from using BuildOS. The week following Spudnik’s initial use of the BuildOS WI, a new operator was able to build the assembly entirely independently. As BuildOS use scales and familiarity grows within the organization, Spudnik expects even greater reductions in build time and ramp-up duration.

2. Reduction in Rework and Costly Mistakes: Prior to BuildOS, a common and costly error involved missing a bolt installation before mounting a gearbox. If skipped, this step would result in 2+ hours of rework per incident. BuildOS’s clear, animated sequencing eliminated this mistake entirely during trial builds.

“Pedro didn’t miss the bolt this time. Just showing the step clearly in the instruction prevented a 2-hour setback.” – Hokanson, Spudnik

3. Standardization and Knowledge Transfer: BuildOS turned undocumented knowledge into a standardized digital instruction set that could be shared across teams and reused year after year, even for rare builds like Model #1695, a custom machine assembled only once or twice annually. Model #1695 used to be dreaded. But with BuildOS, operators said: “That wasn’t so bad.”

4. Empowerment of Manufacturing Engineers (MEs): BuildOS gave Spudnik’s MEs the tools to adapt designs for the realities of manufacturing. They could now restructure BOMs, visualize assemblies, and build modularity into the process without relying entirely on the design team or CAD tools. They also noted that opening a model in BuildOS is faster than in their CAD tool.

5. Strengthened Business Case for Documentation: Historically, documentation was always seen as important but hard to prioritize. BuildOS shifted that mindset by delivering ROI in weeks, helping justify investments in digitization and process knowledge capture.

“We always said we needed documentation. Now we finally have the data to back it up.” – Talbot, Spudnik

Looking Ahead

Spudnik plans to:

• Expand BuildOS across additional product lines
• Reduce the 15% time cushion typically budgeted for first-time builds
• Eliminate 40–50 hours of assembly rework per week
• Use BuildOS data for continuous improvement across teams

Spudnik’s adoption of BuildOS marks a powerful evolution in their manufacturing strategy. By transitioning from tribal knowledge to digital documentation, they’ve unlocked speed, consistency, and resilience—turning their greatest risk into a scalable system for success.