Kuken Industries searches 70 years of drawings in minutes

Kuken Industries, a leading Japanese manufacturer of air conditioning and ventilation equipment, particularly cooling towers, has digitized 70 years of engineering drawings. However, searching this archive was time-consuming, especially for newer engineers who lacked the experience to know where to look. Kuken partnered with Japanese AI startup Recursive, an official OpenAI partner, to build an AI-powered search system and field app. The app allows engineers to search by part number or upload an image or PDF of a drawing or parts list. OpenAI's models were chosen for their accuracy and cost-effectiveness. The tool is expected to cut drawing search time by about 90%, freeing engineers to mentor colleagues and take on more independent work. Kuken is also developing an AI tool to check drawings from partners, with prototype testing showing about 90% of flagged issues were genuine discrepancies. The company aims to use AI to pass engineering expertise to the next generation.

(Source：OpenAI)