AI tool slashes search time for kuken industries engineers by 90%

Kuken Industries, a major supplier of cooling tower equipment in Japan, has deployed a new search system utilizing the OpenAI API to drastically improve how engineers access historical installation drawings. The tool reduces the time required to locate a specific drawing for a replacement part from nearly an hour down to just 4.5 minutes. Developed in partnership with Recursive, a Japanese AI startup and official OpenAI partner, the system allows engineers to input part numbers or upload images and PDFs of drawings. Kuken projects this technology will decrease drawing search time by approximately 90% annually, enabling newer staff to handle a wider range of tasks independently. Beyond searching, Kuken is also developing a secondary AI tool to compare partner-prepared drawings against specifications. In prototype testing, this comparison tool flagged genuine discrepancies about 90% of the time. The company aims to use this technology to preserve the accumulated engineering knowledge embedded in 70 years of installation records.