Kuken Industries searches 70 years of drawings in minutes

Kuken Industries, a major Japanese manufacturer of cooling towers and ventilation equipment, has digitized 70 years of engineering drawings but struggled with searchability. Engineers, especially newer ones, often spent half a day finding the right drawing for a replacement part, relying on experienced colleagues for guidance. Kuken partnered with Japanese AI startup Recursive, an official OpenAI partner, to build a search system and field app using OpenAI models. The app allows engineers to search by part number, drawing number, or by uploading an image or PDF of a drawing or parts list. Testing showed OpenAI models performed well on accuracy and cost. Kuken expects the tool to cut drawing search time by about 90% annually, freeing experienced engineers to mentor and newer engineers to work more independently. Engineers now spend more time studying drawings and exploring design improvements. Kuken is also developing an AI tool to check partner drawings for discrepancies; in prototype testing, about 90% of flagged issues were genuine. The company aims to use AI to pass engineering expertise to the next generation.

(Source：OpenAI)