Kuken Industries searches 70 years of drawings in minutes

Kuken Industries, a major Japanese manufacturer of air conditioning and ventilation equipment, has digitized 70 years of engineering drawings for its cooling towers. However, searching these archives was time-consuming, especially for newer engineers who lacked experience. To address this, Kuken partnered with Japanese AI startup Recursive and OpenAI to develop an AI-powered search system and field app. The tool allows engineers to search by part number, drawing number, or even by uploading a screenshot of a parts list. It uses OpenAI's models to accurately extract details and return possible matches. Kuken reports that the tool is expected to cut drawing search time by about 90% annually. This efficiency gain enables experienced engineers to mentor newer colleagues and allows newer engineers to work more independently. Additionally, Kuken is developing an AI tool to check partner drawings, with prototype tests showing about 90% of flagged issues were genuine discrepancies. The initiative aims to preserve and pass on engineering knowledge to the next generation.

(Source：OpenAI)