Kuken Industries searches 70 years of drawings in minutes

Kuken Industries, a major Japanese maker of cooling towers and ventilation equipment, has digitized 70 years of engineering drawings but faced challenges in making them easily searchable, especially for newer engineers. Partnering with Japanese AI startup Recursive and using OpenAI models, Kuken built a search system and field app that allows engineers to find drawings by part number, model, or even a screenshot of a parts list. The tool is expected to cut drawing search time by about 90%, freeing experienced engineers to mentor others and enabling newer engineers to work more independently. Kuken is also developing an AI tool to check partner drawings for discrepancies, with prototype testing showing about 90% of flagged issues were genuine. The initiative aims to preserve and transfer engineering knowledge to the next generation.

(Source：OpenAI)