Production relies heavily on information (see S3). This information not only needs to be delivered promptly but also in a format that is easily digestible, minimizing the effort required on the shop floor to comprehend and utilize it. Information intended for production must be both comprehensive and unambiguous, ensuring its usability. 

The ramifications of providing ambiguous and incomplete information for production are substantial. When the information prepared for production lacks clarity and completeness, shop floor workers require additional clarification and supplementary details. This clarification process occurs in real-time, as workers invite designers to the shop floor to fill in the missing information and explain aspects that are not readily apparent from the provided documentation. This diverts designers’ time away from their core tasks, resulting in production delays. 

Woodwork for Inventor generates a comprehensive set of information from the model, presenting it in different formats tailored for various functional units. This includes aggregate material specifications and purchase specifications for procurement, cut part specifications for optimizing the cutting process, part specifications, and assembly specifications for assemblers, among others. Each production unit receives the necessary information, which is unambiguous and does not interfere with information intended for other units, as it all originates from the same source. 

Furthermore, the format of each of these reports can be customized and adapted to the company’s specific needs and established practices. This allows Woodwork’s information to seamlessly integrate into existing internal information flows without necessitating significant changes or requiring users to reorient themselves. Additionally, Woodwork provides drawings that contain much of the required information for the shop floor. Since this process is automated, it ensures the completeness of the information without compromising it or “optimizing” it to save the designer’s time.