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 faced challenges in quickly locating the right drawings for replacement parts, especially for newer engineers. By partnering with AI startup Recursive and using OpenAI's models, Kuken developed a search system that allows engineers to search by part number, drawing number, or even a screenshot of a parts list. The tool reads part numbers, returns possible matches, and helps engineers verify specifications. Kuken expects the tool to reduce drawing search time by about 90%, enabling experienced engineers to mentor others and newer engineers to work more independently. The company is also developing an AI tool to check partner drawings for discrepancies, with prototype tests showing about 90% of flagged issues were genuine. This initiative helps Kuken pass on decades of engineering knowledge to the next generation.

(Source：OpenAI)