One order in, one kit on a truck
The design is fixed. The order is what changes. That is where the software goes.
A drawer kit is designed once per vehicle and lives in Onshape. Every order is that design plus a handful of options. Turning the order into the exact kit, turning the kit into a router program, and knowing where each part is between the router and the truck are the three hand steps on this line. The router itself is already automatic.
Two lines, read the same way
How CalWest's line works
YOUR CAD FILE → CUT → FORM → WELD → MACHINE → ASSEMBLE + TEST → ON A TRUCK
The customer brings the design. A CAD file goes in one end, five machines each take what the file tells them, an inspector checks the part against the model, and it leaves on a truck. The automation is one file driving every station. Nothing on that line has to work out what to make; the file already says.
How the Solid Wood Worx line works
YOUR ORDER → BUILD SHEET → PROGRAM → CUT → PROCESS + KIT → PACK + QA → ON A TRUCK
The customer brings an order, not a file. The design already exists for each vehicle in Onshape. What varies is the order: generation, false tops, bed extension, fridge slide, dividers, shipping or install. So the work software can take is different. It is working out which parts, how many, and which box from the order; turning that into the router program; and knowing where each part sits between the router and the truck. Today the first is done from memory onto a paper checklist, the second is done one toolpath at a time in VCarve, and the third is three columns on the same paper.
Station by station
| Station | Today | Built | Next |
|---|---|---|---|
| YOUR ORDERShopify | A kit product plus a “– Selections” line item written by the options app. Someone reads it. | Built Studio reads the order from its PDF or a typed form and fills a review screen. Nothing prints until a person confirms. |
Pull the order straight from Shopify. The code is written on a branch; it waits on API access from the store. |
| BUILD SHEETBuild Sheet Studio | The most experienced person deduces parts, counts and Box 1–5 routing from the order onto the checklist, every order. | Built A catalog per vehicle and generation holds that knowledge. The engine resolves the order and prints the sheet in the format the floor already uses, with a flag where an option is unclear instead of a guess. 11 of 11 real orders produced correct sheets; one golden order matched the hand sheet line for line. 9 catalogs exist, 2 verified. |
More verified catalogs, one vehicle at a time. Order changes and priorities are a later piece; too large to fold in yet. |
| PROGRAMOnshape → DXF → VCarve | Part drawings are exported from Onshape as DXF, imported into VCarve Pro, and toolpathed by hand. The LC250 job carries 26 toolpaths: drills by fastener, T-nut pockets, part-number engraving, cut-throughs. | A reader for the VCarve job file. It lists every part label, which sheet it sits on, both thicknesses, the flip, and all 26 toolpaths without opening VCarve. Read only; writing a job file from outside is not a route. | Designed VCarve automates its own toolpathing. Toolpath templates first: no code, re-applied by layer name, and the layer names are already consistent. A Lua gadget later, if templates run out of road, to make per-order decisions. Both use the shop's own tool library. |
| CUTCNC router | The operator runs the posted programs: .75 FACE UP, then .48 FACE UP Sh1 and .48 FACE DOWN Sh2. Part numbers are engraved on the parts. Which programs an order needs is worked out by hand. | The order's parts list, joined with what the job file says, is the raw material for a per-order cut sheet. The join exists; the sheet does not. | Designed A cut list per order: which programs, which sheets, which one flips, what the options add. The owner asked for a master cut list; it was agreed as a later project. Longer term, nest only that order's parts and let a gadget toolpath them for the operator to review. |
| PROCESS + KITT-nuts · hardware | Paper checklist columns C / Pr / Pa per part and St / Pa per hardware item. Nobody knows how long a part waits between columns, because nothing records it. | The catalog already holds the hardware quantities per kit and option, so the sheet prints the right hardware lines. | By hand Any tracking has to come free with an action people already take: a scan, a label, a sheet pulled. A step whose only purpose is a report stops within weeks. Instrument first, change nothing, then find the longest wait. Whether to track per box or per order is still an open question. |
| PACK + QABox 1–5 · sign-off | Parts go into Box 1–5 by the routing on the checklist. Packed By, QA Check By and Date are signed by hand. | Built The sheet prints the box groups exactly as the paper does; the routing is catalog data, so it cannot drift between documents. |
Who signs, and whether at the station or in a batch at the end, is unresolved. That answer gates any digital sign-off, so it stays on paper until it is settled. |
| ON A TRUCKcarrier | Shipping or install is an option on the order. The rest is as today. | Nothing. | By hand Nothing designed. Box labels, a customer status page and carrier hand-off are candidates on the same engine, none scoped. |
Read the pills honestly
Built means shipped as source and checked against real orders. Build Sheet Studio was handed over in July as a 60-file source package; the shop has not put it on a machine yet, so no sheet on the floor today comes out of it.
Designed means the route is chosen and written up, with its cost and its catch named. No time saving is claimed anywhere on this page, because orders per week and minutes of deduction per order were never measured. Measuring them is the first job on the line, not the last.