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In both design and procurement, work became increasingly dependent on individuals, leading to the creation of numerous new drawings and significant fluctuations in procurement prices.

Kashiyama Industries

Kashiyama Industries successfully developed the dry vacuum pump, which became its flagship product, in 1986, and has since engaged in the manufacturing and development of numerous vacuum devices. The company, which upholds "Faster, Fewer, Simpler" as its action guidelines across the organization, is highly regarded in the market for its quick response to industry needs. Kashiyama Industries holds a top position globally in the dry vacuum pump industry, essential for semiconductor and liquid crystal panel manufacturing.Kashiyama Industries has its own processing division and has been processing key parts that determine product performance in-house. Other parts are ordered from various suppliers. A single product can use as many as 100 different parts, and the total number of parts for all products handled by the company at any given time reaches approximately 15,000. Moreover, the products manufactured by Kashiyama Industries often involve custom designs based on customer specifications, resulting in a large number of unique drawings being created daily.The drawings are stored in a drawing management system introduced in recent years. However, the details of the drawings were only known to the design engineers and procurement personnel involved in the orders. To find drawings of past similar projects, the only options were to ask the relevant person or to manually search through each drawing, which required an enormous amount of time. Additionally, since the purchase history data and drawing data were managed in separate systems, even if the relevant drawing was found, it was necessary to open the order management system to search for the purchase history related to that drawing.In principle, procurement should involve comparing multiple suppliers to select the most suitable one. However, many cases prioritized delivery time, making the selection heavily reliant on the experience of the procurement personnel. As a result, procurement work became increasingly individualized, leading to fluctuations in procurement prices of up to 20-30% for similar cases.Similarly, in the design department, the lengthy search process often led to the creation of new drawings instead of utilizing available similar drawings. The use of past drawings and knowledge depended on the designer's experience, further advancing individual dependence in this area.

Kashiyama Industries was seeking to reduce individual dependence in design and procurement, minimize procurement price fluctuations, improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and promote standardization through the unification of parts. The growing demand for semiconductors was expected to further increase the need for dry vacuum pumps in the future, making a quick response to these needs imperative.As Kashiyama Industries searched for a new system, they were introduced to CADDi Drawer, a cloud-based drawing data utilization service. After a successful trial, they decided to implement the system. "It was very user-friendly. One of the key factors in our decision to implement CADDi Drawer was its ability to address areas that our existing drawing management system couldn't," explained Kyohei Hara, Procurement Department, Production Headquarters, discussing the background of the implementation. "One of the key factors in our decision to implement CADDi Drawer was its ability to address areas that our existing drawing management system couldn't."- Kyohei Hara, Procurement Department With the implementation, the efficiency of procurement department operations significantly improved. CADDi Drawer allows keyword searches based on the contents noted in the remarks column of registered drawings. This reduced the time required to search for similar drawings by a significant margin compared to the previous methods of asking around or guessing and checking. Now, anyone can easily find the necessary drawings. Additionally, since similar drawings are linked to purchase records, there is no longer a need to switch between multiple systems, resulting in an average reduction of over 60% in the time required to gather information about the parts to be ordered, select the supplier, and finalize the order.The ability to perform instant searches also enables the selection of the most suitable supplier based on past records without relying on personal experience. This has resolved fluctuations in procurement prices and reduced procurement costs. The ease of using similar parts also contributes to these benefits. Previously, cost reductions were primarily achieved through mass production effects by increasing lot sizes, but now it is also possible to reduce costs by switching to similar, more affordable parts or standardizing parts. CADDi Drawer has thus achieved the goals of improving operational efficiency, reducing costs, and promoting standardization.

The positive impact of the implementation extended to the design department. The ability to easily search for similar drawings made it possible to reference them during the design process and consider the standardization of parts. This reduced the number of new drawings created. Even when creating new drawings, it became easier to utilize past drawings. Less experienced designers used to rely on asking more experienced colleagues if similar drawings existed, but CADDi Drawer eliminates this need. Now, designers of all experience levels can easily leverage past design knowledge.Kotaro Nakatani, Deputy General Manager, Procurement Department, Production Headquarters, discussed the future prospects of using CADDi Drawer: "Initially, the implementation project mainly involved design and procurement. In the future, we hope to operate it as a project that includes departments such as manufacturing, production technology, and quality assurance. "Using CADDi Drawer, inter-departmental communication becomes easier."- Kotaro Nakatani, Deputy General Manager, Procurement Department For example, if there is a problem with a product, quality assurance can investigate whether the same issue affects similar parts or related products and horizontally deploy this information to other departments. By using CADDi Drawer, inter-departmental communication becomes easier. I believe it would be beneficial if departments could collaborate across functions to propose design methods or cost-saving measures."Kashiyama Industries plans to continue practicing "Faster, Fewer, Simpler" and remains committed to ongoing improvement efforts and challenges.

CADDi Drawer enables anyone to instantly search for similar drawings and purchase records, leading to improved operational efficiency, cost reduction, and standardization promotion.

Resolving Fluctuations in Procurement Prices

Mitsubishi Materials already incorporated modern data management practices, but needed to take it to the next level in order to make custom-engineered products more efficient.

Mitsubishi Materials USA

Mitsubishi Materials USA implemented CADDi to take their repository of engineering and sales data and make it more searchable and insightful. When tackling a new engineering project, CADDi can instantly surface relevant past designs to give design engineers a head start. Everything from past design revisions to quality reports is collected for each drawing, allowing engineers to accelerate their design process and more efficiently incorporate the lessons learned from past projects.

When new custom orders come in, CADDi’s dynamic search capabilities help streamline workflows. CADDi’s ability to search and index information extracted from drawings, materials, and notes allows the sales teams to find relevant data from any starting point. They can quickly verify if a requested custom design is similar to a previously manufactured project and extract relevant information without a back-and-forth with the engineering department or the requesting company to get specific information.A regional sales manager for Mitsubishi Materials USA spoke on the ability to find critical sales and cost data quickly:Mitsubishi is looking forward to expanding CADDi’s application beyond the initial implementation. As more team members get up to speed on using CADDi and integrate it into their workflows, it creates productivity gains larger than the sum of their parts. By continuously utilizing CADDi, Mitsubishi Materials USA is ensuring that its custom engineering is supported by fast, consistent, and searchable knowledge.

With CADDi, new custom projects get off the ground faster, with quick and accurate lookup of relevant previous drawings to work from.

Unlocking the Potential of High-Value Custom Engineering

To retrieve drawing-related information, team members previously submitted formal inquiries to the design department. Due to high workloads, responses often took a week or longer, creating bottlenecks that delayed every stage of production.

SUBARU

The automotive industry is currently experiencing a once-in-a-century transformation, driven by the convergence of the CASE (Connected, Autonomous/Automated, Shared, Electric) paradigm: a new mentality towards consumer demands for cars. This period demands not only product innovation but a total revolution of manufacturing processes. In response, SUBARU Corporation has announced a new management strategy, the "One SUBARU" initiative. This strategy emphasizes returning to a flexible and agile organizational culture, closely integrating manufacturing, development, and the supply chain to enhance productivity.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2F25c182481ac0452aaca020294fc4ef59">SUBARU facilitiesWithin this context, the Cost Innovation Promotion Department was established to address cost-related challenges and formulate strategies across the organization. SUBARU aims to be at the forefront of "Manufacturing Innovation" and "Value Creation" under its new management system. One significant goal in "Manufacturing Innovation" is to halve the number of processes, components, and steps involved in production, starting with the reduction of non-productive work.The existing system at SUBARU required specific information such as part numbers or design notification numbers to search for drawings. This often necessitated inquiries to the busy design department, with responses taking up to one or two weeks, causing delays in operations. Even within the design department, finding drawings was challenging for those working in different areas or with less experience.

SUBARU sought ways to leverage its accumulated drawing assets to reduce non-productive tasks. The company identified CADDi Drawer, a cloud-based manufacturing data AI platform, as a potential solution."I have about 20 years of experience in design," says Kei Matsumura, EP Planning, Cost Innovation Promotion Department. “In the design work, searching for drawings took up a significant amount of time. I always felt that if I had more time, I could engage in work that added more value.”When Matsumura learned about CADDi, it resonated with him, as he knew that it could reduce the tedious searching and unlock valuable additional time to do meaningful work.Following the introduction of CADDi, SUBARU succeeded in reducing the time spent on drawing searches and inquiries across the company by several hundred hours per month. As use of CADDi expands across departments, these time savings are expected to multiply even further.Masateru Ido, from the Cost Innovation Promotion Department, also found CADDi revolutionary:"Many data management solutions focus on merely accumulating information, but CADDi allows us to analyze and utilize the data within the same system.”Finding cost reduction opportunities requires quick and consistent access to data. For example, you have two similar designs with different costs, and you want to understand where the cost differences come from to ensure cost-effective future designs. Before CADDi, Ito would have to request this sort of information from the design team, often waiting over a week for a response. With CADDi, he could immediately find the information he needed himself.

‍The introduction of CADDi has also contributed to talent development. Previously, new employees needed to be guided to specific drawing numbers to search for the right documents. Now, they can search for drawings by product name or material using keywords, making it easier to find the information they need without involving senior employees and taking them away from valuable tasks."Before, if you didn’t know the drawing number, you couldn’t search for a drawing. Even if you wanted to inquire, you’d first need to figure out who to ask. Now, even without the drawing number, you can search by part name. For example, typing 'bumper' will immediately bring up the relevant drawing, making information much more accessible. The amount of information that can be referenced for decision-making has increased dramatically since CADDi Drawer was introduced. Moreover, the cycle of researching and obtaining information by oneself enhances learning, and those using CADDi Drawer are undoubtedly becoming more skilled. The new value creation, evolution in creativity, and the impact on human resource development are immeasurable. Moving forward, I hope CADDi Drawer will further energize communication, serving as a starting point for projects from planning through after-sales, involving the entire supply chain. Our goal is to create an environment where everyone uses it." - Kei MatsumuraThe Cost Innovation Promotion Department is now spreading the good word of CADDi across the rest of SUBARU. As a result, the number of proactive users across departments is steadily increasing. Yuji Otani, another member of the Cost Innovation Promotion Department, summedSUBARU’s "One SUBARU" initiative aims to standardize CADDi Drawer across the company. They envision a future where CADDi Drawer is the first tool employees turn to, not only in design and manufacturing departments but also in subsidiaries, overseas affiliates, and suppliers. Through this comprehensive adoption, SUBARU strives to achieve world-leading manufacturing through revolutionary improvement in data access, insightful analysis, and onboarding.

With CADDi, team members skip the long inquiry process to the design department: the information they need is easy to find. This eliminates hundreds of hours of unnecessary slowdowns every month.

Accelerating Every Stage of Design and Production with CADDi

After merging four companies in 2021, Astemo found itself managing duplicate workflows and disconnected systems, forcing teams to keep running each legacy company's processes side by side rather than as one. Rushing to integrate meant piecing together a "lowest common multiple" system that tried to satisfy every legacy company's needs at once, and the resulting time lost hunting for product data hit overseas sites especially hard.

Astemo

Astemo Corporation covers a wide range of products spanning both four-wheel and two-wheel vehicles, including electric powertrains and advanced chassis systems. Formed through the merger of four companies in January 2021, the company launched with high hopes of expanding sales channels and improving R&amp;D efficiency by combining each company's strengths.But the road to integration brought harsh realities. The first obstacle was fragmentation across the legacy organizations, and Astemo was no exception. Each of the four legacy companies had kept its own separate systems, everything from design and development tools to ERP, leaving information fragmented. And the problem wasn't limited to systems. Even something as fundamental as the process from customer inquiry to the start of mass production differed completely across the four legacy companies.General Director Shintaro Hikuma described the toll this took directly, explaining that his team had to keep producing documents the old way while simultaneously complying with the rules of the new Astemo, effectively doubling their workload.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2Ffd5b8a281b04442e9d6e3a026045b557">In the integration project, prioritizing speed led to building a large, unwieldy system and set of business processes that tried to accommodate every legacy company's way of doing things. Looking back, Shintaro describes it as having "created rules based on a lowest-common-multiple mindset," reflecting that the team hadn't been able to sufficiently simplify requirements at the time.Around that time, at Astemo, physical distance compounded the problem, making it chronically difficult to access information like design and cost data. The time spent tracking down that information kept eating into the team's actual work.

The catalyst for change came from a chance encounter: the division leader at the time crossed paths with CADDi Inc. at a trade show and, intrigued by what he saw, encouraged Shintaro to look into the company further. Shintaro researched CADDi right before his posting to Vietnam and immediately sensed it was a very strong match for the problems they were facing.Getting it to take hold on the ground wasn't easy, though. At first, few team members initially saw it as something directly relevant to their own work.What changed things was hands-on experience with a CADDi demo. Showing skeptical team members the actual Similarity Search and Document Linking features sparked a lightbulb moment, and they quickly began to grasp the practical value it could bring to their work.That hands-on sense of "this actually works," felt directly by the people on the ground, is what changed the mood across the organization.And the deciding factor in adopting CADDi wasn't just that the tool proved useful in practice. Shintaro adds that it also came down to CADDi's deep understanding of manufacturing, and the trust that built.General Director Shintaro Hikuma noted that CADDi's team came to their factory to understand what was happening on the ground, and that the simple and transparent nature of their proposals made CADDi different from other vendors. More than anything, he felt on an instinctive level that he wanted to work with people who approached problem-solving with real passion and a mission to transform Japanese manufacturing.

Rollout began with three departments: production engineering, the project management team, and quality assurance. Since quoting and form management were where the pain points were felt most strongly, adoption spread quickly.From there, real change started to take hold. With much less time spent gathering and verifying information, the team could start considering how to redirect resources into new areas.Quality inspection illustrates this well. Historically, each new problem prompted the addition of another inspection item, but the team never had time to revisit whether earlier inspections were still necessary, causing the workload to grow steadily over time. Now, with that time reclaimed, the team can question whether each inspection still serves a purpose, and expects this practice to reduce the overall inspection burden. There is also growing optimism that AI could help ease the load of approval processes and similar tasks going forward.Another major outcome mentioned was that a team once entirely consumed by responding to customer requests can now proactively research competitor activity and think ahead about creating value before being asked. Given the company's original goal of maintaining market share, that shift matters a great deal.An unexpected change also emerged. General Director Shintaro Hikuma observed that team members have grown noticeably more proactive about using digital tools, increasingly approaching problems with a sense that they can tackle solutions themselves. He credits this shift directly to their hands-on experience with CADDi.Team members who were once skeptical of IT and digital tools now come forward on their own with questions and requests about the tool. A culture of embracing digital technology is starting to take root within the organization.

The team is working to optimize quoting processes overall and shorten production launch lead times using CADDi Drawer. This momentum is helping build a structure that can respond to customer needs more quickly and flexibly.Shintaro's next focus is creating synergy across company divisions. While respecting each site's own priorities, the plan is to eliminate wasteful duplication across group companies that strains cash flow, generating two or even three times the synergy.Beyond that lies an even bigger vision: visualizing and optimizing the global supply chain, and unifying inventory management systems across the group.General Director Shintaro Hikuma believes that value comes from having a countermeasure for every failure encountered along the way. He hopes leaders will give frontline teams real opportunities to try new things, and that the people driving change on the ground will have the resolve and boldness to keep pushing forward by starting small. As he put it, holding back on change means the thousands of people on the ground end up paying the price for years to come, while if something fails, he alone bears the responsibility as the person who championed it. That calculation is what led him to simply try.Rather than waiting for perfect preparation, start at the smallest possible scale and let hands-on experience change the organization. Building a culture, together, from both leadership and the frontline, where people aren't afraid to fail and keep trying. That's the essential lesson Astemo's digital transformation push has proven.One site's success now serves as the starting point for productivity gains across the entire Astemo group, and its momentum toward stronger competitiveness continues to build.

With less time spent gathering and verifying quoting and production data, Astemo's team redirected their energy toward higher-value work like competitive research and refining customer requirements, while also picking up momentum on quality inspection reviews and shorter production launch timelines. Adopting CADDi became the catalyst for a broader culture of self-driven digital adoption among frontline staff.

'Just Try It': How Astemo Sparked a Grassroots Digital Culture Shift

Information on similar products and past purchase history was siloed, leading to slow data retrieval. Veteran and less experienced employees assessed projects differently, leading to discrepancies and errors.

Kawasaki Railcar Manufacturing

Ono Takushi

Sakai Koichi

Hayashi Kazuki

In the past, the company's procurement department had been creating and using a database in Excel that could estimate reasonable costs by inputting information from drawings. However, the database had to be updated manually, and it had various problems, such as being slow to operate due to the large amount of data it handled.By introducing CADDi, it became possible to quickly search for similar drawings, reducing the time to find a particular part by 4.4 minutes per case. This represents a reduction of more than $20,000 in labor costs per year.Furthermore, the Procurement Department conducted cost analysis using CADDi, which resulted in the discovery of many cost reduction opportunities.

Within the three months since the introduction of CADDi, over 90% of the Procurement Department adopted the product for weekly if not daily use. CADDi's many quality-of-life features and ease of use made it an obvious fit in the procurement team's workflows.Project leader Hayashi Kazuki calls out CADDi's Viewer feature as an example of CADDi's ease of use. Before, to find a particular drawing, they had to manually open each one, one at a time, and check if it was correct. CADDi's ability to bring up every relevant drawing at once alongside the pricing data, while highlighting differences between them, made this task go from hundreds of clicks to just one.Another quality-of-life feature called out by Mr. Kazuki is the ability to search multiple part numbers simultaneously. Their requests for quotes usually came in with a long list of part numbers that they used to have to search for one at a time. Again, a time-consuming, tedious task was turned into a quick and simple one-click solution. These time saves may not seem significant at first, but given how many times these tasks are repeated in a day, optimizing them quickly becomes extremely valuable.With CADDi, data becomes a true asset: something that could be easily accessed and analyzed to inform decisions.

The Procurement Department is expected to be able to increase its work efficiency by more than 5% in just three months with CADDi. In the future, the company plans to expand CADDi Drawer to other departments as well, aiming to improve productivity across the entire company.We wanted to see why CADDi's usage across the Procurement Department soared in such a short time, so we asked Project Leader Hayashi Kazuki, his superior Ono, and Procurement Department Manager Sakai Koichi about their efforts after the introduction.

When introducing the system, each department first set a goal and explained how CADDi would be used to reach it. After that, an explanatory meeting was held for the entire department. Instead of simply telling employees how to use the system, each employee was interviewed individually about their work. Based on the work flow and labor cost breakdown that was identified, more detailed usage and benefits of using the system were explained.The utilization rate of CADDi gradually increased, but the productivity gap between those who used the system and those who did not began to widen. As a result, Mr. Hayashi held use case sharing sessions to appeal to employees with low utilization rates. By providing support, the utilization rate gradually increased up to 90%.

Mr. Hayashi was selected to lead the CADDi initiative. Hayashi has always been highly praised for his work attitude and results, but Ono says that since he was put in charge of the CADDi project, his work performance has improved even further.Through the promotion of CADDi, Mr. Hayashi has been able to increase his collaboration with other departments and the project has allowed him to consider business problems from a higher perspective.The growth opportunities for Mr. Hayashi continue to develop. Mr. Takushi notes that the results of business improvements using CADDi are regularly reported at meetings attended by the heads of each division, and in the future Mr. Hayashi will be tasked with promoting CADDi Drawer at this meeting across divisions.

CADDi customer success meets with the Kawasaki team once per week to check progress and formulate future strategies to further improve productivity gains.The company has set a "Group Vision 2030" that aims to quadruple sales over the next six years. To that end, the Procurement Department is working to improve work efficiency. By using CADDi, the path to efficiency has gradually become clear, but there are still many challenges to overcome. "No matter how good a system is, it won't produce results unless it is widely adopted. It is important to have a common goal in order to increase utilization rates," says Ono.Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. will continue to use CADDi to improve business efficiency across the company.

Team members can quickly search for similar products and past purchase history. Standardized workflows help every team member work more efficiently, no matter their experience level. With similarity search, team members can validate costs, spot unusual pricing, and speed up the approval process.

Realizing the Potential of Hidden Drawings and Purchasing Data

As experienced specialists aged and retired, Omron saw valuable knowledge disappear along with them, while what remained stayed locked in siloed, disconnected databases. Division-level accountability structures compounded the problem, reinforcing organizational silos that kept teams from sharing what they knew.

Omron

Omron Corporation is a global leader in industrial automation, electronic components, and control equipment, with a long-standing reputation for precision manufacturing built over decades of engineering expertise. Within Omron's Global Procurement, Quality &amp; Logistics Division, the Processing Technology Group is responsible for building technology-driven cost structures into the company's machined parts, a role that depends on deep, well-organized engineering knowledge.That knowledge, however, was becoming harder to access. Like much of the manufacturing industry, Omron is navigating an aging workforce of experienced parts designers. As those designers retire, they take with them years of tacit knowledge that was never fully documented, while the number of active development projects keeps growing. The result was a widening gap between the knowledge the company needed and the knowledge it could actually reach.

Nobuaki Kuwae, Group Leader of the Processing Technology Group, spends much of his time reviewing drawings as part of Omron's cost-structure work. Over time, he began noticing a pattern: knowledge that previous designers had built up simply wasn't carrying forward to the next project or the next generation of engineers.Conversations with designers on the ground revealed why. As experienced staff retire, the number of development projects keeps climbing, leaving fewer experts to support them in depth. Knowledge and databases had also grown siloed over the years, so even when the right answer existed somewhere in the company, designers often couldn't reach it.Omron's leadership recognized this as more than an efficiency problem. It was a design quality risk with implications across the business. That insight shaped how Omron approached the solution. Rather than chasing the short-term efficiency wins that many digital transformation projects prioritize, Omron focused on something further upstream: building quality into parts at the earliest possible point in development.

The push to adopt CADDi Drawer came from both directions at once. During a company-wide quality review, frontline engineers raised concerns about passing down their accumulated knowledge before it was too late. Leadership within the Global Procurement, Quality &amp; Logistics Division heard those concerns and saw an opportunity in CADDi. The team aligned around a simple next step: run a pilot and find out.Support on the ground was immediate. Kuwae recalls the urgency designers expressed once the purpose behind CADDi Drawer was explained.Instead of a broad rollout, they focused the pilot on the development department in the Electronic Components division and the sensor development department in the Control Equipment division, areas where the promotion team and CADDi's Customer Success team could provide close, hands-on support.As users watched the platform improve in response to their feedback, and saw firsthand how quickly the underlying AI technology was advancing, their posture shifted. Even the skeptics who had once asked whether CADDi was really the right choice moved toward wanting to expand it further. Omron sees this as a genuine turning point in adoption.

The most powerful results have come from something Omron didn't fully anticipate: knowledge moving across organizational lines. Once drawings, procurement data, and technical documentation from across the company were centralized in CADDi, designers began finding and applying insights that originated in entirely different business units, sites, or departments.For departments already short on their own experts, reaching another department's knowledge had previously been nearly impossible. CADDi Drawer removed that barrier by making it searchable.That searchability is starting to evolve into something bigger: a way for people to find each other, not just documents. Surfacing previously invisible knowledge has sparked new conversations across the company, and those conversations are drawing out even more of the tacit expertise that used to disappear when someone retired.

Omron plans to expand this initiative well beyond the business units currently piloting it, turning what started as a targeted effort into a company-wide knowledge management strategy. The team also intends to shift day-to-day ownership from the head office to the individual business units themselves, a move designed to accelerate adoption and let each team shape CADDi Drawer around its own specific knowledge needs.

Omron has since pooled knowledge company-wide into a shared asset that business units can discover and apply well beyond where it originated. This has given rise to new, data-driven networks that connect people across the organization in ways the old siloed structure never allowed.

Connecting People Through Data: How Omron Turns Tacit Knowledge Into a Shared Asset

Team members had difficulty collecting past drawing data and manufacturing information because the information was not linked. With development cycles accelerating, change was necessary to maintain design quality within the limited time available.

Sumitomo Riko

<a href="https://www.sumitomoriko.co.jp/english/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sumitomo Riko Company Limited</a>, which boasts the top global market share for automotive anti-vibration rubber, has been engaged in advanced manufacturing for over 90 years. Based on its core competency in polymer material technology, the company operates in four fields - automobiles (mobility), infrastructure and living environment, electronics, and healthcare - and contributes to creating a safe, secure, comfortable, and environmentally friendly society. The company also has a wide lineup of automotive parts such as engine covers and interior parts, and has been deeply involved in the development of the automotive industry.Sumitomo Riko's product development of anti-vibration rubber for automobiles has involved a consistent process from advance development to prototyping and mass production launch for each automobile manufacturer to which it supplies. One of the most important outputs of the development department is drawings. The biggest role of the development department is to link drawings that achieve the best functionality and specifications required by customers and the market at the lowest possible cost to the manufacturing process. To achieve this, the development department has been required to carry out designs quickly and with high precision without rework.Sumitomo Riko, with its long history and large market share, has a huge amount of drawings and manufacturing-related information. By utilizing their large database of drawings, it is possible to improve design quality and speed and reduce rework. This is of great significance in improving development speed as global competition accelerates.Until now, "prevention," the key to design quality, has relied heavily on the knowledge of veterans. As a result, there was a large difference in work accuracy and speed depending on the experience of the person in charge and the amount of information input. In addition, although there are several search systems that are useful for development work, the information is not linked to each other, making it inefficient to gather the necessary information.

Sumitomo Riko, which had been promoting digital transformation company-wide for several years , was searching for the best tool to utilize past drawings and information. Ishikawa, General Manager of the Second Technology Department of the Anti-Vibration Technology Division of the Anti-Vibration Business Headquarters, learned about the CADDi Drawer cloud service for utilizing drawing data while gathering information at exhibitions and other events as the person in charge of promoting digital transformation in the department . After learning about functions such as searching for similar drawings and linking related information, Ishikawa felt that it could be used to achieve what they wanted to do, and after several trials, they decided to introduce it.&nbsp;Ryota Ishikawa, General Manager, 2nd Technology Department, Anti-Vibration Technology Division"What we were most concerned about was how to accurately extract identical or similar items from past PDF drawings. This was essential to utilize past assets, and the deciding factor in our decision to introduce the software was that we felt it had the potential to solve this problem. It can quickly find similar drawings with a high degree of accuracy, even from rough sketches. We thought that if we could find them, we could link all kinds of information and use them."Mr. Ishikawa said that the deciding factors in their decision to adopt the system included the consistent customer success support provided from before to after implementation, and the rapid rate at which functionality was improved."The fact that a customer success representative was continually available to help connect us to the system in order to realize our goals was also a deciding factor in our decision to implement the system. They provided thorough, speedy support, and the preparations leading up to the implementation went smoothly, meaning we were able to get started without spending too much time on the job. I also liked how they were proactive in making improvements to improve convenience, such as ongoing system updates.If the developers themselves don't actually feel the benefits, then there's no value to it, so we had them participate in the trials and proceeded with the introduction considerations together. We wanted to place the utmost importance on how the developers felt, so we made the final decision on whether to introduce it based on their opinion."

At Sumitomo Riko, which introduced CADDi Drawer, the time it takes to search for similar past drawings has been significantly reduced. Not only that, but it has also become easier for people in charge to obtain information such as past troubles and manufacturing costs linked to drawings at the early design stages. It has also reduced the personal process of asking people or relying on memory to find similar drawings. By further promoting the use of past data in the future, it is expected that development speed and quality will improve, rework will be reduced, and costs will be reduced through part standardization.Sumitomo Riko is also considering linking CADDi Drawer to other in-house core systems, hoping to seamlessly connect information globally and maximize utilization efficiency.Ryota Ishikawa, General Manager, 2nd Technology Department, Anti-Vibration Technology Division"In order to realize the new value creation that is set out in our company's future vision, we need to transform the way we work and create resources.As the automotive industry enters a period of great change, development cycles are becoming shorter, but opportunities for new challenges are also increasing. In order to respond to these challenges with limited resources, we must thoroughly eliminate unnecessary parts. By replacing the parts of development work that are dependent on individual skills with tools like CADDi Drawer, we aim to keep up with changes in the global environment and realize at a higher level the important role of providing the best products at the lowest cost.Sumitomo Riko will continue to transform and evolve its development work with CADDi Drawer.

Referencing similar drawing order history has become instantaneous. The introduction of CADDi has made it possible to quickly and accurately search for identical or similar drawings, and also to link and utilize a large number of past drawings and related information.

Improving development speed as global competition accelerates

Data was scattered between multiple systems, requiring teams to spend time navigating file systems, requesting documents from other teams, and manually verifying relevance. This caused slowdowns in their Design, Engineering, and Quality Control teams.

Neaton

Before CADDi, engineering documentation—including drawings, D-Notes, and QA sheets—was stored across multiple shared drives and folder systems.Because Design teams rely heavily on these documents in their daily workflows, locating the correct drawings and specifications required manual navigation through folder hierarchies. This created inefficiencies in design workflows and slowed engineering coordination across teams.Engineering teams, responsible for prototype development and validation, also depended on accurate and up-to-date design information. Confirming revisions and locating Design Notes required manual effort, increasing engineering preparation time.Quality Control teams faced similar challenges when investigating service parts and troubleshooting issues, where quick access to drawings and QA sheets is essential.Neaton needed a centralized solution to improve accessibility, reduce search time, and strengthen engineering efficiency across teams.While searching for ways to overcome these roadblocks, Neaton discovered CADDi. Our data platform can pull in unstructured information from any system, from PLM and ERP software to scanned documents with handwritten notes. After centralizing it in CADDi, it becomes searchable with one click.Neaton implemented CADDi to centralize engineering documentation and enable instant access across Design, Engineering, and Quality Control teams.Neaton consolidated over 140,000 drawings, Design Notes, and related engineering documents into a unified, searchable platform in CADDi.

Design teams are the primary users of CADDi, relying on it daily to reference drawings, confirm specifications, and access related engineering documentation.CADDi enables engineers to instantly search for drawings and related documents using part numbers, keywords, and specifications. This significantly improves workflow efficiency and reduces time spent locating files. Rather than being tied to their desks, CADDi means engineers can find what they want, wherever they are.Many slowdowns in the engineering process occur from inefficient communication. Traditional systems, where information is scattered across multiple systems, often demands switching between different applications to collect and send data. CADDi smooths out these potential stopping points, becoming a universal platform for all data requests and answers."[CADDi] will reduce unnecessary communications between personnel, and communication can be handled via email. I believe this tool will improve communication," says VP of Engineering Naomi Noda.

Engineering teams use CADDi to support prototype builds, validation workflows, and engineering coordination.By providing instant access to drawings and Design Notes, CADDi enables engineers to quickly confirm revisions and reference engineering documentation required for prototype development. CADDi keeps all the relevant notes for a drawing linked to the drawing itself. That way, revisions, concerns, and future plans are kept readily available, preventing errors from emerging. This improves engineering efficiency and reduces delays in prototype and validation workflows.The efficiency and power of keeping this data connected was remarked on by senior leadership:

Quality Control teams use CADDi to support service part validation and troubleshooting activities.When something goes wrong with a part, CADDi allows QC members to quickly locate drawings, QA sheets, and related documentation required for investigation. In these crucial moments, every second is costing money from lost productivity. QC members can skip the preliminary tasks of data collection, and move directly to diagnosing the problem.This improves investigation speed and supports faster root cause analysis. Moreover, it means that the power to launch RCA can be undertaken by any member of the team, regardless of their experience level. Managers and other veteran QA members are free to focus on high value work, without needing to guide their newer teammates.

By centralizing engineering documentation, Neaton has significantly improved accessibility to critical design information. They estimate that the time it takes to find data has been reduced by up to 70%.Engineering teams can now quickly locate drawings and related documentation, allowing them to focus on higher-value engineering work.Quality Control teams can respond more quickly to service part investigations and troubleshooting scenarios.CADDi also improves onboarding efficiency by making engineering knowledge accessible to all users, reducing dependency on individual experience.As a result, Neaton has established a scalable engineering knowledge platform that supports efficient operations across Design, Engineering, and Quality Control.

Building on the successful deployment of CADDi, Neaton is exploring opportunities to further improve quoting efficiency and cost visibility by adding on our procurement and RFQ management software, CADDi Quote.By connecting engineering drawings with quoting and cost information, Neaton aims to support more efficient and consistent quotation workflows.In traditional procurement workflows, a significant portion of time is spent on manual and repetitive tasks such as collecting supplier quotations, organizing data, and referencing past similar parts. This limits the time available for higher-value activities such as evaluating quotations and making strategic sourcing decisions.By introducing CADDi Quote, NAPM aims to minimize these manual efforts while structuring historical part and cost information into reusable, searchable data tables. This enables procurement teams to focus more on quotation analysis and supplier strategy rather than administrative work.Initial pilot operations have begun with selected commodity parts and a limited number of suppliers. These efforts are focused on:<ul><li>Reducing quotation lead time through streamlined workflows</li><li>Improving consistency and visibility in supplier quotations</li><li>Structuring historical part and cost data for reuse</li></ul>As part of this initiative, NAPM has aligned on a phased rollout approach, including supplier onboarding and training prior to broader deployment.Looking ahead, NAPM plans to expand the scope of suppliers and parts covered under Quote, with the goal of reducing procurement workload and enabling more strategic sourcing activities.This represents the next phase of Neaton’s digital engineering transformation.

By implementing CADDi, Neaton has centralized critical engineering knowledge and improved accessibility to drawings, Design Notes, and QA documentation.CADDi enables Design, Engineering, and Quality Control teams to work more efficiently by providing instant access to engineering information.This strengthens engineering workflows, improves quality investigation efficiency, and establishes a foundation for future quoting optimization.Want to see how CADDi can revolutionize your process for Design, Engineering, Quality Control and more? Sign up for a demo today.&nbsp;

With over 140,000 documents loaded into CADDi, Neaton’s teams were able to find crucial data as soon as they needed it. This led to shorter design cycles, more consistent revision processes, and more efficient QC investigations.

Strengthening Design-Driven Engineering Operations at Neaton

Accessing drawings, BOMs, and historical data required exact part numbers and a heavy reliance on the "tribal knowledge" of senior staff. This created significant information silos that slowed down onboarding and daily operations for the entire team.

Nichirin

Today, any team member can instantly retrieve drawings, BOM data, and necessary historical information using keywords or similarity search, without relying on drawing numbers or individual experience. Information that was once concentrated among a few veteran engineers is now broadly accessible across departments.This shift has significantly improved the onboarding process. New team members can locate technical specifications and past customer relationships without prior context. In the past, new employees frequently relied on managers to identify relevant data—an approach that was time-consuming for both trainers and trainees. Today, many of these tasks are handled independently.

As a result, Nichirin has significantly reduced the time required to search for information, directly improving quoting turnaround and allowing a focus on higher-value tasks. More importantly, the project is fostering a cultural shift: instead of immediately relying on supervisors, employees are encouraged to first search within CADDi, think independently, and take ownership of their work.

By linking drawings, BOM data, quotations, and control cards, the company is ensuring that every department can use CADDi as their single source of truth, turning individual expertise into shared organizational strength. Building on this success, Nichirin is now expanding the initiative to Nichirin Flex USA, spanning manufacturing facilities in El Paso and Mexico.Nichirin’s initiative demonstrates how digital transformation begins with people—with the willingness to rethink existing workflows and the determination to turn individual knowledge into shared organizational strength. As the company continues to scale this model across its global operations, it is setting a strong example of how to build a truly connected, data-driven manufacturing organization.

Any team member can now instantly retrieve drawings and related technical or commercial data via keywords or similarity search, regardless of tenure. This has democratized information, enabling independent work and turning individual expertise into a shared organizational asset.

Democratizing knowledge to empower independence with Nichirin Tennessee

60 years worth of data was spread across many different systems, requiring a major time investment to use. Locating prior work, reference designs, or application context often required manual effort, limiting how quickly teams could build on existing expertise.

Sumitomo Drive Technologies

SDT discovered CADDi while searching for ways to reduce this search time. After loading up their historical data into CADDi’s system, our manufacturing-specific AI was able to centralize them into one searchable, organized database.&nbsp;The benefits were dramatic and immediate. What used to be a tedious, many-stage search process across many systems has become a speedy singular search in CADDi. SDT estimates that the new searching process is 90% faster than before.

When new orders come in to SDT, they’re often complex, requiring a lot of time spent to parse requirements and develop a production plan. The design pre-planning can be a significant contributor to lead time. However, if a similar project was produced in the past, many decisions can be carried over, resulting in huge time savings. The problem is that tracking down the similar project often took longer than the time it saved: searching through multiple systems, correlating different pieces of data, and manually checking if the previous designs overlapped enough.With CADDi, things are different. Similarity searching on designs can instantly surface past designs that closely match new orders. This allows for a huge head start in fulfilling the new order, saving weeks of design work, shorting lead times for customers, and increasing the capacity of the shop.When time is saved in these areas, it can be spent on high value problem solving instead. Engineers can work more strategically, innovating and iterating on past lessons, rather than having to constantly reinvent the wheel. SDT has increased productivity on big challenges, such as product innovation, global standardization, and design revision.SDT plans on expanding their usage of CADDi to assist in their design review process, allowing for continuous improvement without sacrificing rigor or efficiency.

As SDT got up to speed with CADDi, they realized that this wasn’t just a tool to add to their process, or even just the basis of a new process. It was an entirely new way to think about their data. Things were possible now that hadn’t been imaginable before.In order to ensure that SMA was able to get the most out of CADDi, our customer success team worked with them to discover opportunities for deeper utilization and change.Want to see how CADDi can unlock valuable time for your organization? Sign up for a free demo today.

With over 50,000 documents and drawings centralized with CADDi, design engineers could find any reference material with ease, opening up time for high-value tasks and process transformation

Transforming “Searching” into “Solving” with Sumitomo Drive Technologies

Data was scattered across many systems, requiring long searches and reliance on knowledgeable individuals

Unytite

9Since 1986, Unytite, Inc. has been recognized as a trusted U.S. manufacturer of high-quality structural fasteners and cold and hot formed components. The products support critical applications in infrastructure, heavy equipment, and automotive industries. With a strong reputation built on reliability, product quality, and disciplined manufacturing processes, Unytite’s US facility plays a critical role in supplying large volumes while meeting strict standards and ensuring full traceability.However, as production demands grew and customer specifications became more detailed, Unytite encountered difficulties in how information was organized and accessed. In addition, Unytite also faced the difficulty of passing down technical manufacturing skills and knowledge to the next generation.<img src="https://cdn.builder.io/api/v1/image/assets%2F209ee507cedf4c298e100edae4bba2df%2Ff301431589ff4de8a5b346592a96b4c9?format=webp">Members of the Unytite and CADDi teams during an onsite visit.

Key engineering, production, and quality data — drawings, check sheets, tooling instructions, routing sheets, quality alerts — were technically “available,” but scattered across decentralized storage locations and emails. As a result:<ul><li>R&amp;D engineers used an extensive amount of time to investigate how past quotation projects had been designed.</li><li> </li><li>Quality engineers spent excessive time searching for past countermeasures, alerts, and customer feedback.</li><li> </li><li>Sales and Production frequently lacked visibility into process routings, process notes, or customer specification changes.</li><li> </li><li>Operational expertise was largely dependent on a few of the senior employees, which meant some activities stalled without them. This reduced efficiency and diverted their focus from high-value tasks.</li></ul>Even with disciplined processes, critical information was scattered across multiple platforms, causing delays, inconsistencies, and added risk in a fast-paced production environment.

In situations requiring detailed analysis or process reviews, teams often need to take preliminary steps, including:<ul><li>Cross-referencing customer drawings</li><li>Reviewing past alerts</li><li>Confirming previous corrective actions</li><li>Comparing revision histories</li></ul>Instead of focusing on analysis, they spent valuable minutes — sometimes hours — simply locating the correct files.Moreover, an internal survey at Unytite highlighted a recurring issue:“I searched inside the internal network storage, ERP system, and emails. Only certain people know where the right documents are.” — Survey RespondentThis heavy reliance on specific individuals created obstacles, slowed reaction time, and hindered knowledge transfer.

Recognizing the need for a centralized, intelligent, and revision-safe information system, Unytite implemented <a href="https://us.caddi.com/product-overview" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CADDi Drawer</a> across Production, Quality, Sales, and R&amp;D.The impact was immediate and transformative.

Drawer unified roughly 60,000 drawings, inspection sheets, routings, and customer specs under a consistent structure. Instead of navigating multiple systems, teams simply:<ul><li>search by part name,</li><li>search by drawing number,</li><li>search by keywords such as “check sheet,” “problem control,” or “routing,”</li><li>or even use AI-powered similarity search to locate related components.</li></ul>

Building on a centralized and reliable drawing management foundation, Unytite further addressed a key challenge: knowledge being dependent on individuals rather than the organization.By digitizing and centralizing past drawings, quotations, and quality records in Drawer, the following improvements were achieved:<ul><li>Visualization of individual knowledge</li><li>Past designs, estimates, and quality issues became visible and searchable for everyone, eliminating reliance on specific individuals.</li><li>Faster Sales proposals</li><li>Sales teams can reference similar past products and propose dimensions and specifications more efficiently when discussing with new customers and products.</li><li>Reduced R&amp;D and quotation effort</li><li>R&amp;D teams can quickly review past quotation studies and quality issue records, reducing evaluation time and quotation workload.</li></ul>Beyond improving efficiency, these changes fundamentally transformed the way knowledge is shared within the organization.

By shifting from “tribal knowledge in people’s heads” to “institutional knowledge in Drawer,” Unytite has made critical information discoverable for anyone — including new employees. <h5 class="">"I used to ask senior members where files were stored. Now I just search Drawer."</h5><h6 class="">Employee Unytite R&amp;D Department</h6>

<h4 class="">90%+ reduction in search time</h4>Before CADDi, a typical drawing lookup would take 10 to 15 minutes. With CADDi, it takes less than one minute. With many instances of drawing searches per day, this quickly adds up to hundreds of engineering and production hours saved per year.<h4> </h4><h4 class="">55,000+ documents centralized in a controlled, revision-safe structure</h4>Rather than having data scattered across many different systems, CADDi allowed Unytite to centralize access to all their manufacturing data.<h4> </h4><h4 class="">Faster quality response and RCA</h4>Cross-referencing between customer drawings, alerts, and past countermeasures has become immediate, dramatically shortening investigation cycles.<h4> </h4><h4 class="">Active adoption across departments</h4>Production, Quality, Sales, and R&amp;D teams consistently use Drawer for daily tasks, setting the groundwork for a unified digital workspace across the entire facility.

Building on early success, Unytite and CADDi have aligned on the next stage of transformation. Unytite plans on expanding the usage of CADDi in three major areas:<h4> </h4><h4 class="">Quote &amp; Cost Integration via CADDi AI Data Platform</h4>Combine Drawer drawings with:<ul class=""><li class="">PO history</li><li class="">Supplier pricing</li><li class="">Purchasing Management</li></ul>This will support smarter quoting, vendor evaluation, and spend reduction.<h4> </h4><h4 class="">AI Chat Search Implementation (conversational access to data)</h4>Enable members to ask questions like:<ul class=""><li class="">“Show me similar drawings with 1’’ threads.”</li><li class="">“What was the last Quality Alert for part XXXXX?”</li><li class="">“What materials meet that standard?”</li></ul>A major step to enhance the quality level and democratize expert knowledge.<h4> </h4><h4 class="">Japan–U.S. knowledge alignment with shared tenants</h4>Unytite can standardize documentation management across regions and accelerate cross-plant learning.In conclusion, CADDi Drawer is helping Unytite transition from isolated document storage to a unified, intelligence-driven manufacturing ecosystem.By connecting design, production, quality, and cost data, Unytite is unlocking the speed, traceability, and efficiency required in fastener manufacturing.Unytite reduced drawing search time by over 90% and built a unified, revision-controlled knowledge hub connecting production, quality, Sales, and R&amp;D — setting the foundation for global, AI-driven operational excellence.

Anyone can find any needed information quickly, searching in one central repository  ‍

Accelerating design for R&D teams at Unytite with CADDi

Shibuya Hoppmann’s aftermarket team fields many requests from customers for parts and enhancements. These requests have commonalities between new requests and previous designs. Finding past designs to reference, though: with hundreds of thousands of past designs, traditional search methods can be time consuming and inconsistent.

Shibuya Hoppmann

Shibuya Hoppmann’s aftermarket team fields many requests from customers for parts and enhancements. These requests are inherently going to have unique aspects, as each customer’s setup and aftermarket needs are different. However, there will also be commonalities between new requests and previous designs. Finding relevant past designs is no easy task, however: with hundreds of thousands of past designs, traditional search methods can be time consuming and inconsistent.CADDi streamlines and accelerates the process of surfacing the most similar past designs with AI-empowered search tools. It can find drawings based on text contained on the drawing, any metadata associated with the drawing, or even the shape of the drawings themselves. Once similar drawings have been found, CADDi automatically links relevant data such as design revisions and notes, production information, and quality reports. This makes it easy to design new aftermarket requests while incorporating all the lessons and best practices learned from previous designs.One aftermarket team member summarizes the revolutionary change of CADDi: “Before CADDi, it could take up to an hour to find a reference drawing from a customer inquiry, whereas with CADDi, it takes only a few seconds... I haven't not been able to find what I need yet.”

Alongside the aftermarket engineering team, the Shibuya Hoppmann sales team sees benefit from using CADDi to accelerate their quoting process. Using CADDi’s robust search options, the sales team can take whatever data is provided with the RFQ and find the most similar previous projects. CADDi links historical sales data for each drawing, instantly providing a starting point for making an accurate estimate quote.The aftermarket and sales team can use CADDi to help collaborate to get to the most accurate quote quickly. By proactively sharing information like customer expectations, previous design revisions, and performance reports, engineering and sales teams can move synchronously to produce an accurate estimate and finalized design quickly and reliably.Shibuya Hoppmann is excited to continue integrating CADDi into their teams and workflows. As more data is processed into the system and more connections are formed, their efficiency will only continue to increase.

CADDi streamlines and accelerates the process of surfacing the most similar past designs with AI-empowered search tools. It can find drawings based on text contained on the drawing, any metadata associated with the drawing, or even the shape of the drawings themselves.

Shibuya Hoppmann: Strengthening Aftermarket Value with CADDi

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