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With the benefits of enhanced efficiency, improved collaboration and more informed decision-making, widespread adoption of software solutions will help make supply chains more efficient.For manufacturing and supply chain professionals, the integration of advanced software solutions has emerged as a pivotal force in reshaping operations. From optimizing production processes to enhancing inventory management and fostering collaboration, software solutions have become essential tools in the global supply chain. Here, we evaluate three core areas where we see software solutions transforming the industry and discuss how businesses can determine the best software for their needs.<h2>Streamlining Operations and Enhancing Efficiency</h2>One of the hallmark achievements of contemporary software solutions is their ability to significantly enhance the efficiency of production processes. At the core of these advanced systems are sophisticated data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) algorithms, which collectively work to streamline operations across a wide spectrum of industries. Consider the example of warehouse management software, which is specifically designed to increase output while simultaneously minimizing downtime. This is achieved through meticulous analysis of operational data, allowing for the identification of inefficiencies and the formulation of targeted strategies for improvement.Furthermore, these software solutions extend their impact by focusing on waste reduction and the initiation of improvement initiatives, thereby setting the stage for increased operational efficiency, cost savings, and productivity enhancements. The breadth of industries benefiting from such technological advancements is vast, ranging from manufacturing to logistics, each witnessing a transformative shift towards more streamlined and effective operations. By leveraging the power of data and predictive analytics, businesses are now equipped to make more informed decisions, optimize their resource allocation and achieve a competitive edge in the marketplace. This digital revolution is not just about optimizing current operations but also about reimagining what is possible in the future of industry.<h2>Fostering Collaboration and Critical Knowledge Retention</h2>Collaborative software platforms are breaking down departmental silos that have long hindered the flow of information between departments. By providing a unified platform for sharing data, documents and insights, tools enable teams and stakeholders to synchronize their activities, anticipate bottlenecks and archive essential data for future reference.<h2>Enhanced Decision-Making and Strategic Insights</h2>Driven by the benefits of enhanced efficiency, improved collaboration and more information decision-making, there is a widespread adoption of software solutions within the global supply chain. Traditional inventory management systems often struggle to keep pace with the complexities of modern supply chains characterized by global sourcing, fluctuating demand, and diverse product portfolios. Advanced software can now accurately monitor inventory levels for a wide array of products and utilize AI to automate refilled orders.Thanks to the integration of software solutions into business processes, global supply chains are becoming increasingly efficient. With the benefits of enhanced efficiency, improved collaboration and more informed decision-making, widespread adoption of software solutions will help make supply chains not only more efficient but also more resilient.‍

Three Key Areas Where Software is Impacting the Supply Chain

CADDi, a leading manufacturing solutions provider, is pleased to announce the appointment of Aaron Lober as Vice President of Marketing. With a wealth of experience spanning over 15 years across diverse industries, Lober joins CADDi to spearhead strategic marketing initiatives aimed at propelling the company’s growth and advancing digital transformation in manufacturing.Throughout his career, Lober has successfully launched and shepherded products across various industries, navigating every phase of their lifecycle with finesse. He has managed portfolios exceeding $100 million, demonstrating his ability to drive substantial growth and value creation. Notably, Lober played a pivotal role in guiding Procore to its public offering, showcasing his knack for strategic leadership and market positioning.At Procore, Lober launched the company’s first data and analytics product, Procore Analytics, in 2020—the first successful predictive analytics tool in the construction project management ecosystem. He also oversaw the launch of Procore Estimating in 2021, which featured machine learning applications using OCR (optical character recognition) to extract metadata from drawings, a process closely aligned with CADDi’s technological approach.“As we position ourselves for exponential growth, Aaron’s appointment underscores our commitment to assembling a top-tier team,” said Yushiro Kato, CEO and Co-Founder of CADDi. “His deep understanding of marketing strategy will be instrumental in amplifying the reach and impact of CADDi Drawer, further solidifying its position as a game-changer in the industry and driving strategic growth.”Most recently, Lober served as the Head of Marketing at Blameless, where he led transformative marketing initiatives and significantly elevated the brand’s visibility within the incident management industry.In the midst of rapid digital transformation in the manufacturing sector, CADDi remains at the forefront with its revolutionary flagship product, CADDi Drawer—an AI-powered drawing management system designed to revolutionize the way manufacturers operate. CADDi Drawer seamlessly integrates engineering, procurement, and sales teams onto a single platform, providing an interconnected web of actionable manufacturing data. With its advanced AI capabilities, CADDi Drawer empowers users to streamline procurement processes, accelerate project timelines, and reduce operational costs.“I’m thrilled to join CADDi at such a pivotal moment,” said Aaron Lober, newly appointed Vice President of Marketing at CADDi. “Digitization has created amazing opportunities for manufacturers to enhance productivity and profitability up and down the supply chain. That said, most organizations haven’t yet been able to fully harness that potential. What we’re doing at CADDi is going to help manufacturing organizations of every size and type take that next step.”‍

CADDi Names Aaron Lober VP of Marketing to Enhance Brand Visibility in the US and Propel Industry Innovation

The Power of Centralized Data and #AI in Manufacturing

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2F906bf4ddff2540748b36f1002f0460f4"><h2>CADDi is distinguished as the sole manufacturing SaaS featured on Fast Inc.’s esteemed annual rankings list</h2><a href="https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&amp;l=en&amp;o=4119229-1&amp;h=185867071&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fdrawer.caddi.com%2F&amp;a=CADDi" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CADDi</a>, a leading manufacturing solutions provider, is honored to announce its inclusion in Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the Most Innovative Companies for 2024. This recognition from a leading media company covering the future of technology and work underscores CADDi’s commitment to driving innovation, efficiency, and cost reduction within procurement departments and the manufacturing sector as a whole.Fast Company’s exclusive list of innovators is an annual ranking that honors select organizations globally that are making a lasting impact in their respective industries. CADDi is recognized among iconic global brands like Nvidia, YouTube, and more.“We are thrilled Fast Company validated the work our organization is doing to help empower manufacturers to unleash their potential,” said Yushiro Kato, co-founder and CEO of CADDi. “This accolade is a testament to our dedication to building a manufacturing platform designed for teams across the supply chain—from sales to engineering to procurement departments—to enhance manufacturing workflows.”Fast Company’s list celebrates organizations that are spearheading groundbreaking advancements in their respective industries, setting the standard for future innovation. CADDi’s inclusion highlights its position as a trailblazer in driving efficiency in procurement and transforming the manufacturing landscape with its flagship CADDi Drawer, an easy-to-use secure SaaS platform that uses AI to help procurement teams centralize and search for drawings in a central hub.“Our list of the Most Innovative Companies is both a comprehensive look at the innovation economy and a snapshot of the business trends that defined the year,” said Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan. “We saw extraordinary innovation across the board in 2023, but we also saw a handful of clear patterns: the growing footprint and impact of AI, the triumphant return of live events, and great leaps forward in climate tech. We face daunting challenges on many fronts, but the solutions we celebrate in MIC give me plenty of hope about the future.”CADDi Drawer revolutionizes manufacturers’ procurement and supply-chain operations by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to unlock unprecedented access to comprehensive data. Utilizing a cutting-edge, patented image analysis algorithm, CADDi Drawer effortlessly digitizes intricate details from drawings along with their corresponding supply-chain information. This seamless integration of data, combined with its innovative “similar drawings search” capability, establishes CADDi Drawer as the premier search platform in the manufacturing sector. By enabling procurement teams to tap into a wealth of past manufacturing insights, CADDi Drawer breaks the cycle of reinventing the wheel to drive significant cost savings and innovation in future projects.In July 2023, CADDi raised $89 million in a Series C funding round, bringing its total capital raised to $164 million. The company is expanding in North America and opened its U.S. headquarters in Chicago to bring its solution to manufacturers in the region and nationwide.“We want to make the lives of the people who work daily in manufacturing easier,” Kato added. “Organizations have never had the opportunity to access historical drawings and supply-chain data in a centralized system—until now. By harnessing the power of AI and our patented algorithms, we are enabling them to not only access drawings but make decisions based on having essential information literally at their fingertips.”CADDi remains committed to addressing broader industry pain points. The platform reduces manufacturing costs—leveraging past insights to eliminate pricing inconsistencies common in the non-standardized and opaque procurement process to optimize supplier selection—and helps bridge the knowledge gap between experienced workers retiring and newer ones entering the workforce in an era when the manufacturing industry faces persistent worker shortages.CADDi’s recognition in Fast Company reflects its profound impact on the manufacturing sector and industry at large. As CADDi continues to push the boundaries of innovation, the company remains steadfast in its commitment to delivering exceptional value to its clients and partners.For more information about Fast Company’s original article, click <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91033684/caddi-most-innovative-companies-2024" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>.

CADDi Named to Fast Company’s Annual List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2024

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2Fa44624f271da47d6be3084f3eb09f777">Are you an Amazon addict? The sort of person who always has stacks of brown boxes piling up outside their door? If so, you are far from alone. As of 2023, 67% of all American households have an Amazon Prime subscription, and Amazon owns 38% of the e-commerce market in the US.It’s easy to see why the online marketplace is so popular. Simply by searching for a pair of shoes within an intuitive user interface, users are given a seemingly limitless amount of choices each with prices, photos, measurements, and any other metric a shopper could desire.Would Amazon be successful without giving users an abundance of data? Imagine trying to find shoes in an unintuitive Amazon. There’d be no photos, no prices, nothing except a terse description.All you can do is try to decipher perplexing descriptions to try to visualize or remember product details like image and price, take a leap of faith by ordering one, and discover a pair of oversized, overpriced slippers dropped on your doorstep a few days later.As preposterous as this thought experiment seems, it is the reality of procurement departments in manufacturing firms across the United States. Worse yet, their responsibilities are far more important than purchasing a pair of sporty sneakers.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/o/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2Ff0e06ebd2adc4398bfa9ea538c7db253?alt=media&amp;token=b274de4a-15a8-46c4-8fe8-18f77013e66f&amp;apiKey=209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df"><h2>The Procurement Predicament</h2>Procurement professionals need to secure thousands of parts for many different products at the best price possible for their company. Getting overcharged or ordering the wrong part can be the difference between profit and loss.Worse yet, as long-time professionals retire, getting the right part at the right price will become even more challenging. This difficulty stems not merely from a lack of memory, but from a lack of familiarity with parts never encountered before.&nbsp;Without centralized methods of storing data, when workers leave manufacturing companies, key insights and manufacturing depart with them. This leaves new employees in a bind, struggling to ensure a steady influx of parts.To manufacturing professionals, this may seem natural, even inevitable. But manufacturing can improve the procurement process, along with company-wide efficiency, by ‘Amazon-ifying’ their internal records of drawings.<h2>Bringing the Amazon Online User Experience to Procurement</h2>What might an Amazon-ified system look like? And how would it help firms strengthen their bottom line? Instead of drawings, sales data, and various records being scattered across the organization, they would all be centralized in one software system. Anyone could search through the directory and find a page containing drawings, prices, and other information about a specific part.Within <a href="https://supplychaingamechanger.com/featuring-our-12-best-procurement-articles/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">procurement</a> departments, the current model outlined above would melt away in favor of an intuitive and easy-to-search interface. This would transform procurement professionals’ work and improve efficiency drastically.Instead of calling up suppliers, procurement officials would have immediate access to the prices of competing products. This would enable them to find bargains that would have otherwise been invisible.Additionally, suppliers will have a more holistic understanding of the value of what they’re paying for. Two I-beams may be priced the same but having access to drawings, photos, and other additional information could reveal significant pricing inconsistencies that can be fixed with replacing a supplier or changing the design.For example, one type of steel material might have been cheaper at one point due to raw material price fluctuations and a new material might yield significant cost reduction.<h2>It’s Not Only Procurement That Benefits From Being “Amazon-ified”</h2>Successfully implementing such a system would reverberate beyond procurement. Engineering and fabrication would stand to benefit from having a centralized, easy-to-navigate record of all the pieces and parts a given company has ordered or developed.In many engineering departments across major manufacturers, schematics and critical knowledge are scattered across filing cabinets, various services, or, worst of all, employees’ minds.Engineers can spend hours trying to recover lost files. Sometimes, this process is so time-consuming that it is simpler to start again and make a new drawing from scratch. When critical engineers leave, the problem grows even more acute. These workers can know critical information about products. So, when they walk out the door, a part of the company’s product leaves with them.Keeping drawings inside the same Amazon-ified interference would prevent these problems from occurring. Engineers could easily search and find old schematics. By keeping all the details about a product in a centralized location, there is no risk of losing knowledge to attrition.Using this system would also solve an age-old problem in manufacturing organizations: communication between engineering and fabrication departments.Engineers are used to the logic and language of designing a product while fabricators are concerned with turning these ideas into reality. These gaps in understanding cause friction when developing and manufacturing a new product.Leveraging an Amazon-ified database as a tool for sharing designs between each department would improve communication. Instead of using the clunky UIs found in most engineering software, fabrication officials could explore new designs through an intuitive interface.This way, collaboration would improve between both groups, leading to greater innovation across the organization.Managing procurement may never be as pleasurable as binge shopping on Amazon. However, through Amazon-ifying their procurement process, manufacturers can cut costs and grow their bottom line. And isn’t that more satisfying?

“Amazon-ifying” Procurement and How it Can Reverberate Across Manufacturing!

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2F70812fb8f63145d4a354cc4d3b79cb4c">This recognition spotlights the top software and technology startups in the supply chain and logistics space.CHICAGO, Dec. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/— Food Logistics, the only publication exclusively covering the movement of products through the global cold food supply chain, and Supply &amp; Demand Chain Executive, the only publication covering the entire global supply chain, selected CADDi as one of this year’s Top Tech Startups, which spotlights top software and technology startups in the supply chain and logistics space.CADDi’s software, CADDi Drawer, is a drawings search software that optimizes procurement and supply-chain functions by improving supplier section and parts consolidation. It automatically extracts and digitizes structured data from drawings, including shapes, title block information, and dimensions. The “similar drawing search” function uses a patented image-analysis algorithm to analyze and identify similar drawings based on depicted shapes, promoting efficient data utilization.“We are honored to be recognized as a top innovator in the manufacturing and supply chain space. At CADDi, we’re on a mission to unleash the full potential of manufacturing, and this accolade fuels our commitment to transforming the industry through innovative AI-enabled solutions,” said Yushiro Kato, co-founder and CEO of CADDi. “We’re excited about the future and the opportunity to showcase our initiatives on the Innovation Stage at Manifest’s event in 2024.”AI-powered automation retains its top spot from a majority of the winners (46% vs. last year’s 35%), with AI, smart data capture and real-time transportation management trailing behind (41%, 33%, and 29%, respectively). Winners range in revenue from $1 million to $20 million, with startups beginning operation as early as 2000.“Many of today’s startups are poised to disrupt the logistics space. Whether it’s raising money to improve sustainability, visibility, and food safety or empowering companies to enhance the last mile, these startups are putting innovation at the forefront. They’re introducing real-time tracking and carbon footprint solutions and developing robotics and wearables to better move product from Point A to Point B in the safest, most efficient manner,” says Marina Mayer, editor-in-chief of Food Logistics and Supply &amp; Demand Chain Executive. “The future of the supply chain industry is now. And now is the time to spotlight these startups’ initiatives.”This year’s award recipients will also be profiled on <a href="https://foodlogistics.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">FoodLogistics.com</a> and <a href="https://sdcexec.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SDCExec.com</a>. Click <a href="https://foodl.me/5z0zecqd" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a> to view the complete list of Top Tech Startup winners.<h3>About CADDi</h3>CADDi is a global manufacturing company on a mission to “unleash the potential of manufacturing.” The company strives to transform the manufacturing industry through its primary offering, “CADDi Drawer,” an AI-enabled drawing management system, helping further unlock the potential of manufacturing by significantly improving the efficiency of procurement teams.<h3>About Food Logistics and Supply &amp; Demand Chain Executive</h3>Food Logistics reaches more than 26,000 supply chain executives in the global food and beverage industries, including executives in the food sector (growers, producers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and grocers) and the logistics section (transportation, warehousing, distribution, software, and technology) who share a mutual interest in the operations and business aspects of the global cold food supply chain. Supply &amp; Demand Chain Executive is the only supply chain publication covering the entire global supply chain, focusing on trucking, warehousing, packaging, procurement, risk management, professional development, and more. Food Logistics and Supply &amp; Demand Chain Executive also operate SCN Summit and Women in Supply Chain Forum. Go to <a href="https://www.foodlogistics.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.FoodLogistics.com</a> and <a href="https://www.sdcexec.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.SDCExec.com</a> to learn more.

CADDi Receives 2023 Top Tech Startup Award by Food Logistics, Supply & Demand Chain Executive

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2Feef039c9b2c14b2ca0f977f59ae734cf">A global supply chain startup is looking to expand its Midwest presence in the next year.Founded by a former McKinsey &amp; Co. manufacturing consultant and Apple Inc. engineer, Caddi Inc., which launched in Tokyo in 2017, opened its U.S. headquarters in downtown Chicago earlier this year. With that opening came a pledge of 100 jobs for the city in the next 12 to 18 months.Caddi has more than 600 employees globally.When Caddi CEO Yushiro Kato was setting up the business, visiting manufacturing companies across the U.S., he noticed that all the connecting flights were in Chicago. That’s when he realized it made the most sense to pick Chicago as the supply chain startup’s U.S. HQ, according to Caddi director John Tezuka.Tezuka added that Kato looked at California before ultimately landing in Chicago. The company operates out of 223 W Jackson Blvd.“We found that there was a rich source of talent in the Midwest and in Chicago and that the affordability index was much greater,” Tezuka said.Kato said the company is focused primarily on the Midwest for expansion for now but expects ultimately to open branches in other areas of the country as well.The startup is looking to bring more efficiency to the global supply chain using artificial intelligence.Caddi closed an $89 million Series C earlier this year, bringing its total funding to $164 million. The funding round was the largest for any Japanese startup in the first half of 2023, according to Caddi.The supply chain startup works with manufacturers on issues like procurement and data management. Its software-as-a-service program uses artificial intelligence to turn drawing libraries into searchable assets for manufacturers, fabricators and engineers.Kato said the AI-based drawing management platform reads, analyzes and stores 2D drawings and data and makes the content easily searchable and accessible for manufacturers.He added that AI is at the core of Caddi’s technologies, and he thinks the emerging technology could transform the global supply chain by digitizing a space that historically has been paper-driven.Tezuka said Caddi’s technology is designed to enhance worker efficiency, not replace people.“Caddi was created in Japan, where it is notoriously difficult to fire anyone, so Caddi has always had as part of its mission to transform the manufacturing industry without cutting jobs,” he said.

CADDi targets Midwest expansion after closing $89M round, opening Chicago office

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2Fe96635a9a94041c883329efef552d86c">Suzuki Motor Corporation, an esteemed automotive company, has grappled with persistent issues related to accessing and utilizing historical design drawings when developing new vehicle models. This prompted the company to collaborate with CADDi Inc., a company focused on transforming the manufacturing industry’s supply chain, to implement CADDi Drawer, a cloud-based service aimed at organizing and utilizing drawing data efficiently.<h3>The Problem</h3>Suzuki’s design team consistently faced challenges locating past drawings and identifying relevant part information for new models. This hurdle created inefficiencies in their workflow, resulting in time-consuming searches and hindering productivity. Recreating similar parts due to the lack of an organized system further impacted resource allocation and delayed the development of new car models.<h3>The Solution</h3>To address these challenges, Suzuki chose to introduce CADDi Drawer, a cloud service enabling the registration of a vast number of historical drawings. This implementation provides the design team with a search function that rapidly retrieves information through keywords, part numbers, or images. A pivotal feature is the “similar drawing search,” employing an algorithm that analyzes three-dimensional shapes in drawings to identify and retrieve relevant and similar parts. This functionality significantly reduces redundant design creation and optimizes resource allocation for the development process.<h3>Impacts and Benefits</h3>The integration of CADDi Drawer at Suzuki Motor Corporation is expected to significantly impact the design team’s efficiency. By facilitating quick access to past drawings and parts information, the service is anticipated to improve work efficiency. This optimization in workflow and resource allocation is poised to enhance productivity within the design department and streamline the development of new car models.Suzuki Motor Corporation’s integration of CADDi Drawer represents a significant step toward addressing their challenges in accessing and utilizing historical drawing data. This implementation highlights the potential for improved work efficiency, reduced redundancy, and optimized resource allocation within the design processes of the automotive giant.<h3>About CADDi</h3>CADDi is dedicated to revolutionizing manufacturing by focusing on procurement innovation. Their CADDi MANUFACTURING platform employs proprietary technology to analyze manufacturers’ drawings, connecting them with processing companies worldwide meeting quality, delivery, and pricing criteria. The recent launch of CADDi Drawer further demonstrates their commitment to leveraging drawing data for digital transformation. With a global presence across 11 locations, including Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, and the U.S., the company’s recent Series C funding round raised a total of 21.73 billion yen, highlighting investor confidence in their innovative solutions.<h3>About CADDi Drawer</h3>CADDi Drawer is a cloud service designed to leverage accumulated drawing data for reducing procurement costs and enhancing productivity. Drawing on technology from CADDi MANUFACTURING, it automatically extracts and stores structured data from drawings, including dimensions, symbols, and text. The “similar drawing search” function uses a proprietary algorithm to analyze and identify similar drawings based on depicted shapes, promoting efficient data utilization.

Enhancing Efficiency in Design: Suzuki Motor Corporation’s Integration of CADDi Drawer

Imagine, as an engineer, spending hours, days, or even months designing a part, only to find out later that it already exists. Unfortunately, it’s all too common, especially in machine building and manufacturing facilities that have been operating for decades. The problem is, a part designed 30 years ago is filed away in a cabinet somewhere as a 2D design. And, while this data can be digitized and stored online, it’s still not searchable — and there can be hundreds of thousands of drawings to sift through.But an AI-powered technology, called Caddi Drawer, is ushering in a new era of searchable 2D data. The drawing management platform reads, analyzes, and stores 2D drawings and data and makes the content easily searchable and accessible by centralizing the drawings in a single location, regardless of format. The technology provides the ability to search historical drawings that have been archived using any keyword, including material, size, designer’s name, part name, or a note. It can even access and search handwritten drawings. This is welcome news for engineers who have been working in a space that has historically been paper-based.“Some of the oldest drawings that we’ve brought into our system are from the 1920s,” says Chris Brown, Caddi’s vice president of sales. “It’s amazing. They were handwritten and our technology was able to read them and still digitize them into searchable data.Led by <a href="https://us.caddi.com/company" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yushiro Kato</a>, co-founder and CEO, Caddi has been operating in Japan for about six years, focusing on the automotive and construction equipment industries. In 2023, Caddi opened an office in Chicago to position it for the U.S. market. The expansion also includes reaching out to new market segments, including packaging OEMs.“We’re realizing that there’s a lot of integrators and line builders that are in the packaging industry. [The companies] might only be 15 or 20 years old, but because there are so many parts and components, and every installation is completely customized, they’ve created a massive amount of drawings for themselves as well,” Brown explains. “And rather than have somebody sit there and search through all these drawings on a computer, we can enable them with a similarity search, based on the shape of parts and the environment that they’re installing these parts into.”The AI filtering technology the company developed is cutting-edge. So much so, that the company recently closed $89 million in Series C funding, bringing its total funding to $164 million. Caddi has also been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in 2024.To get a better idea of what <a href="https://us.caddi.com/product-tour" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Caddi Drawer is all about</a>, Design World caught up with Brown at the PACK EXPO East show in Philadelphia to ask him a few more questions.Q: Is Caddi Drawer a CAD system?Chris Brown: So, we don’t provide any way to draw a part. We are not a CAD system. What we are doing is, we are digitizing 2D drawings, typically in a PDF format, using two pieces of artificial intelligence, one of which is a traditional OCR [optical character recognition]. So, we’re looking at the tolerance callouts, the general dimensioning, and the tolerancing specifications of a part. We’re looking at the dimensions of the part, or reading everything that’s in the title block or the notes section of a part, and making all of that searchable. Whereas before, you had to rely on either naming the file something that you could search, or using a product development management [PDM] system to categorize your parts and only being able to search by those categories.We’re able to search for anything that’s on that drawing. So, for example, in the notes section, it says “integrates with part number XYZ,” that information wouldn’t be anywhere in any system that currently exists. And, let’s just say the first part was drawn in the 80s. Right? And no one has been at the company for the last five years that remembers that drawing. And some new company comes along and says, “I need something that integrates with component XYZ.” What would have happened is that they would have started an entirely new engineering development sprint to develop something to integrate with that. Now, they can go into Caddi and they can simply search “integrates with XYZ,” and it’ll find that on the drawing and pull that forward for them. They can do a quick review, and if it is exactly what they need, they don’t have to reinvent the wheel.&nbsp;Or, they can use that as a fast forward in their design and say, “Actually, I like 80% of this, so we’re going to start with this drawing, but we’re going to modify a few things here.” That saves 80% of the time that it takes to start that drawing and figure out how to start all of that engineering work.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/o/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2F246f84fb5c0f486aa65bf0269ae2f270?alt=media&amp;token=83359f1a-184c-4c6c-9284-0c4292e4e4e1&amp;apiKey=209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df">Chris Brown, VP of Sales, Caddi Inc.Q: So, it accelerates the design process. Does it also enable some level of collaboration between engineers?Brown:&nbsp;&nbsp;Think more in terms of the collaboration that happens between engineering and procurement. The piece of AI technology I haven’t explained yet is actually the shape recognition AI that we built to go along with that text recognition AI. And so, what that shape recognition AI can do in a use case is, an engineer can get done drawing their part, let’s just say that it’s a bearing, right? They’ve got their drawing completely done out of AutoCAD, and they go to hand that into procurement.&nbsp;Maybe it’s a newer member of their procurement team. Maybe there was some institutional knowledge just lost by somebody leaving the organization and this new person doesn’t know who their three suppliers of bearings are, for example. And, and they don’t even really know what those parts should cost. And so that procurement person is typically going to go around the office and ask people, or they’re going to do a Google search, or they’re going to go on one of the online directories [to look at] all of the manufacturers to try to find somebody. Instead, they could take that drawing, they could load it into Caddi, and through our shape analysis and recognition, they can easily find all 100 bearings that the company already sources. And because we’re connected to ERP systems and procurement systems and quality management systems, they’ll be able to see who they’re sourcing them from, what the average cost per part is when sourcing those types of parts from that company, and they’ll be able to see their quality scores and their on-time delivery scores. Now, they can quickly and instantly analyze and say, “Oh, these are my three top performing companies for this particular part, based on the shape of this part, rather than just the description, and be able to go right out to quote to those companies already knowing about what it should cost. That way they can have a lot of checks and balances in place while feeling educated, even though the person who knew all this information had long since left the institution.Q: How is all this information aggregated?Brown: So, let’s just say we go into an organization that has 250,000 to half a million drawings. Those are typically behind either an AutoCAD Vault program or some level of a PDM program or even we’ve seen things like them just being stored on a Google Drive. And so, we’ll go in and we’ll transfer that entire Google Drive or that entire PDM folder over into our system. It’ll take about three to four days for our AI to consume all of that data, convert everything into metadata, and store that inside of our servers to make it instantly searchable.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/o/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2Fd85913e10a764d7bba528e2aef0c4067?alt=media&amp;token=b414525a-3f55-4702-920d-03524e497f92&amp;apiKey=209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df">Caddi Drawer technology applies shape and text analysis to 2D drawings.It’s a cloud-based solution. So, users, no matter where they are, as long as they’re given access through either a single sign-on situation or two-factor authentication, can access this. Imagine, for example, your maintenance and repair operators who are trying to fix the line and maintain the line and keep that line moving. Let’s just say that a bearing goes down, for example. They can have an iPad and have our web app running in the background of it. Rather than having to remember this is assembly XYZ or ABC, and having to go flip through all of those drawings to find what bearing it was and then go order it, they can just take a quick picture of it, bring it onto their iPad, add a couple of dimensions to it, and then search right from that picture and our system will pull forth all of the drawings that are in your system. If it’s connected to an inventory management system, for example, it could instantly tell you, “This part is a 99.9% match to the one that you just took a picture of. It’s on shelf 15, bin 20, go grab one and see if it’s the same part and try that.” In that event, it’s probably saving that person an hour and a half of just researching and trying to figure out what part just broke before they can go find it on the shelf.Q: Why are you entering the packaging market? What is the opportunity you see here?Brown: I see a lot of really, really, really old assembly lines, right? I see a lot of equipment that is wearing, and I see a lot of professionals that are getting close to retirement age. I also see a lot of young professionals who are afraid to get into the industry because not a lot of documentation has occurred about what’s happening on the shop floor and what’s happening in the engineering space. We’re bringing forth all of this institutional knowledge and making it searchable in a way that is very familiar to the younger generation. We like to call ourselves kind of a Google image search of 2d drawings. And that’s a very familiar process to somebody who’s just graduating with a packaging degree from college. Rather than [joining] a company and having to dig through all of that data, which they’re not going to have the time to do to meet the demands of the floor and the line, this is just a great way to help them enter into the market. And it’s a great way to preserve the 100 years’ worth of knowledge that has been created that otherwise would have gone by the wayside.‍

CADDi Drawer generates searchable 2D drawings, saving design time and procurement costs

<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2Fca031340692d410ea5f4d367cabc4467"><h2>Strategies and tools should conform to three rules for intergenerational success.</h2>With some of America’s legacy operators being in business for over a hundred years, they have acquired a long backlog of designs – often going back to the 1920s or earlier. Of course, schematics for these designs are not kept on their original centuries-old paper. Today, many legacy manufacturers are uploading their oldest documents into online databases for safekeeping.The image of a one-hundred-plus-year-old design being uploaded to the cloud is emblematic of how manufacturing has — and must continue – to evolve in the face of technological advancement. Whenever any business needs to advance technologically, a core challenge is the successful implementation and adoption of new tools.The manufacturing industry also faces unique challenges due to the age structure of its workforce. In 2023, 51 percent of all manufacturing workers were over the age of 45 and this figure will only grow. With an increased demand for skilled workers and a vacuum of necessary skills amongst younger workers, getting the most out of industry veterans will become increasingly critical for manufacturers.For that reason, when industry leaders implement AI and IoT technologies, they need to make sure the strategies they develop and tools they purchase conform to three rules for intergenerational success.<h3>1. Design a Tool with Functionality in Mind</h3>New technologies need to be easy to use. In any company, implementing new systems poses adoption challenges. The first hurdle is whether or not employees even bother to use the technology. This struggle is especially acute in intergenerational firms.While young professionals may be easily convinced to invest the time and effort needed to understand a complex system, experienced employees can be disinterested. Having learned how to do tasks ‘the old-fashioned way,’ adding additional layers of complexity can be a tough sell. The most critical factor in determining an AI or IoT product’s ease of use is the quality and simplicity of its user interface (UI). A good general rule is that a tool should be as easy to understand and start using as Google Drive.<h3>2. Ensure Widespread Usage Across Departments</h3>The second rule is related to the previous one, but touches on a separate issue facing manufacturers: the need for tools to be used across departments. Although departments like engineering, procurement, and fabrication operate under the same roof, too often they are divided by different technology systems.Take engineering, for instance. Engineers and designers are taught to think about particular problems in a specific way. They are also taught how to use specific software to design solutions. Autodesk, the software company that develops AutoCAD, is not successful because its products appeal to the largest market possible. Their success is a result of building software specifically for engineers.Although Autodesk has captured one group of manufacturing workers, its popularity hinders communication between departments. This is because Autodesk does not design for non-engineers, making cross-departmental work difficult. Working with many different software platforms also decreases intergenerational productivity because it increases the number of tools a hesitant worker has to learn. Finding a solution that serves all departments is a more effective fix.<h3>3. Leverage Specialized AI for Niche Industries</h3>Finally, manufacturers need to avoid giving in to the AI hype. That’s not to say AI isn’t important or that it doesn’t present enormous opportunities for the manufacturing industry. It does, but not in the same ways it does for other industries. For that reason, industry leaders need to learn to look past what’s popular and identify practical solutions specifically tailored to manufacturing problems.Companies like OpenAI or Google might seem like they’re on the edge of AI development. The reality is that they are only at the forefront of general-purpose, consumer-facing algorithms. AI experts make a distinction between horizontal and vertical AI. Horizontal AI describes programs that have a wide range of applications but with no specialization. Vertical AI refers to systems that are designed to tackle a specific problem.When you have an exact, industry-specific problem you want to solve, using a vertical AI trained on data related to that problem yields far better results. Specialization also helps experienced workers master the system faster. Being designed for purpose means that these systems need less prompting to get the correct result, making it easier for workers to master.ChatGPT would be an example of horizontal AI, while a program designed specifically for one or more problems faced by the manufacturing industry would be a vertical AI. When implementing AI, manufacturers should look beyond popular horizontal AI systems and find tools that help them deal with the problems they’re facing.By following these three principles, you can find the most effective technologies to help your intergenerational workforce stay ahead of emerging trends. Doing so will set your company up to survive and thrive over the next one hundred years.

Implementing IoT and AI Tools for a Multi-Generational Workforce

Peer-to-peer forum on June 23 in Chicago gathers operations, quality and engineering executives on the data conditions automation depends onCHICAGO, Ill. — <a href="https://us.caddi.com/?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CADDi</a>, the global technology company behind the AI data platform for manufacturers, today announced an invitation-only executive forum during AUTOMATE 2026 focused on a question shaping every plant operations agenda: what separates automation programs that deliver measurable results from those that stall after deployment.CADDi Connect AUTOMATE 2026 takes place Tuesday, June 23, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago. The session is designed for up to 30 operations, quality, and engineering executives from manufacturers across automotive, aerospace, food, logistics, and pharmaceuticals. Seats are limited and require advance registration.The session opens with a keynote from Sara Zimmerman, vice president of customer experience and product at Sumitomo Machinery Corporation of America, the U.S. company behind the Sumitomo Drive Technologies brand and an existing CADDi customer. Zimmerman's keynote, "<a href="https://us.caddi.com/owned-events/caddi-connect-at-automate-2026?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">From AI Curiosity to Operational Impact: How We Applied Automation to Solve Real Manufacturing Challenges</a>," will examine how automation strategy succeeds or fails based on how clearly on-site problems are defined before equipment is selected. Group discussion among attendees follows, structured around the same question: what changes when the operational problem is defined first, and the equipment second.The forum draws on signals from CADDi's recent <a href="https://us.caddi.com/resources/whitepaper/2026-manufacturing-outlook-study?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">2026 Market Research Report</a>. The study found that 79 percent of manufacturers identify the skilled labor shortage as their most significant external challenge, and 56 percent point to poor cross-departmental collaboration as the primary obstacle to using parts data effectively. The average employee spends roughly an hour each day searching for engineering information, and substantial institutional knowledge sits with senior engineers approaching retirement. Tariff and trade volatility add further pressure, with 66 percent reporting a significant impact on their business.These conditions shape what automation investment can and cannot deliver. Robots, vision systems, and motion control equipment operate on the engineering data, supplier history, and prior decisions feeding them. When that information sits in disconnected systems, teams rebuild context every time a quality, yield, or changeover problem surfaces, and automation outcomes plateau regardless of the equipment installed.Zimmerman's organization is already operating against these constraints with measurable results. <a href="https://us.caddi.com/resources/news/sumitomo-drive-technologies-news-mar-31-2026?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sumitomo Drive Technologies partnered with CADDi to transform six decades of engineering data into an AI-powered intelligence hub, reducing research time by up to 90 percent.</a> In one documented case, the engineering team used CADDi to identify a past design that closely matched a new complex order, saving weeks of design work and shortening lead time for the customer. The company plans to expand the centralized knowledge base beyond North America into a global engineering asset. <a href="https://us.caddi.com/resources/news/amerequip-transforms-100-years-of-engineering-data?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Amerequip, a 100-year-old equipment manufacturer, has applied the same approach,</a> using CADDi Drawer to unify drawings, assemblies, specifications, and cross-referenced part numbers into a single search workflow accessible across its engineering and quality teams."Operations leaders are well past debating whether to automate. The harder problem is making sure the data, supplier context, and prior decisions an automation strategy depends on are accessible when a team has to act," said Patrick Harrigan, vice president of sales at CADDi U.S. "This forum brings executive peers into one room to define the operational problem first, then evaluate the solution."The CADDi Connect session is structured to address the operational layer adjacent to that agenda: the engineering, supplier, and decision data that automation programs depend on. CADDi has hosted similar executive convenings adjacent to major industry events, including <a href="https://us.caddi.com/resources/insights/ces-2026?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CES</a> and the <a href="https://us.caddi.com/resources/insights/caddi-connect-whats-next?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Construction Expo</a>.Registration closes Saturday, June 20, 2026. Executives attending AUTOMATE 2026 can save a seat at: <a href="https://us.caddi.com/owned-events/caddi-connect-at-automate-2026?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">us.caddi.com/owned-events/caddi-connect-at-automate-2026</a>. Seats are limited.AUTOMATE 2026 takes place June 22 to 25 at McCormick Place and is expected to draw more than 50,000 attendees across robotics, vision systems, motion control, and industrial AI. In addition to CADDi Connect, live CADDi AI data platform demonstrations will be available upon request at Booth 1669.‍About CADDiCADDi is an AI-powered data platform that makes design and supply chain data accessible and actionable for manufacturing teams. Headquartered in Tokyo and Chicago, the company was founded in 2017 by industry veterans Yushiro Kato and Aki Kobashi, formerly of McKinsey and Apple. Its flagship product, CADDi Drawer, uses advanced AI to centralize and analyze unstructured design and production data, helping manufacturers improve efficiency, reduce redundancies, and unlock innovation. Recognized globally for innovation, CADDi was listed in Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies and won the SaaS Award for Best Business Intelligence and Engineering Management Software. To learn more, visit <a href="https://us.caddi.com/company?ref=US-PR-2026-Q3-CADD-Connect-Automate-Chicago-BW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">us.caddi.com</a>.Media ContactMilbien MedinaSenior Manager, Brand MarketingCADDi USA<a href="mailto:milbien_medina@caddi.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">milbien_medina@caddi.com</a>

CADDi to Convene Manufacturing Leaders at AUTOMATE 2026 on What Positions an Enterprise for AI and Automation Success

CADDi leverages AI to digitize drawings and procurement data, making manufacturing insights searchable by shape, text, dimensions and part names.