#Japan #CADDi #AI Data Platform #Yanmar #Chikugo

Introduction

Yanmar Heavy Machinery, a prominent global player in the compact construction machinery sector, has recently announced its strategic implementation of the CADDi artificial intelligence data platform developed by Caddi, Inc. This initiative marks a significant step towards enhancing operational efficiency across several dimensions of the company’s manufacturing processes. With the full-scale utilization of CADDi set to commence in the 2025 fiscal year, the organization aims to integrate AI-driven insights into development, procurement, cost planning, quality assurance, and quality control departments.

Background and Challenges

Yanmar Heavy Machinery, a subsidiary of Yanmar Holdings Co., has been a leader in developing a diverse range of small construction machines, including mini excavators. The company prides itself on providing an integrated service that spans from design and manufacturing to sales and aftercare, supporting construction sites worldwide.

However, Yanmar faced significant challenges due to its fragmented systems in design, procurement, and quality management. The lack of cohesive information flow often resulted in excessive work hours and difficulties in accessing required data. The employees frequently struggled to locate similar designs, leading to wasted resources and increased direct and indirect costs. Additionally, the knowledge of leveraging design data was concentrated among a few veteran employees, creating bottlenecks when addressing product issues and sharing insights across the organization.

Achievements and Improvements

Since implementing CADDi, several departments have started witnessing tangible results. Particularly, three departments highlighted the platform's effectiveness in improving their workflows:

1. Purchasing Department: Utilizing AI to identify similar designs has dramatically reduced the time spent selecting suppliers for each component from 5-10 minutes to just 2-3 minutes, achieving up to a 70% reduction in selection time. Newer employees are now able to identify supplier candidates with accuracy comparable to that of seasoned staff.

2. Quality Assurance Department: By establishing a management system that links thousands of supplier investigation reports to design documents, the department can now rapidly disseminate information to other departments in the event of quality issues. Immediate access to investigation reports concerning design changes has also been facilitated.

3. Development Department: Consistent use of CADDi has led to the implementation of various practices such as identifying specific annotations in designs and searching for similar-shaped components. This shift has resulted in a one-hour efficiency gain per employee per week. Most CADDi users express a desire to continue using the platform, which is steadily gaining traction across the organization.

Within just one year, each department has begun to discover its unique use cases for CADDi, expanding the organization’s collective approach to data utilization from isolated points to a more comprehensive system. Not only have efficiency gains been quantifiable, but the access to previously underutilized data is now evolving into a shared organizational asset, continually broadening its application.

Future Prospects

Yanmar Heavy Machinery's goal is to extend the effective use of CADDi beyond individual departments to foster cross-functional collaboration among design, cost planning, and quality control teams. By implementing design reuse across models and minimizing new design instances, the company expects to lower design time and quality risks, constructing a robust flow to prevent recurrence of defects by linking issues back to design documentation.

To further enhance its data utilization capabilities, Yanmar has set a login rate goal of 20%, which will foster regular research habits and promote awareness of manageable data systems. This initiative aims to support less experienced employees as they ramp up to contributing members of the team, thus raising the organization's overall data competency.

In conclusion, Caddi Inc.'s CEO, Yoshirō Kato, emphasizes the necessity for a continual improvement of operational efficiency, quality of work, and information management practices. Engaging in educational support and expanding CADDi's use are vital strategies moving forward.

About CADDi

The CADDi AI data platform is designed to analyze and connect data across engineering and supply chains in manufacturing industries, delivering insights to enhance production activities and decision-making. By leveraging manufacturing expertise alongside AI and technology, CADDi transforms disparate data and experiences into valuable assets that increase competitive advantage.

About Caddi Inc.

Caddi Inc., with a mission to unlock the potential of the manufacturing industry, focuses on converting scattered data and experiences into organizational assets. They provide the CADDi platform to support strategic decision-making and execution in manufacturing. The company operates in Japan, the USA, Vietnam, and Thailand, aiming to drive global transformations in the sector. With a cumulative funding total of 25.73 billion yen, Caddi is at the forefront of technological innovation.

For further information about CADDi, visit Caddi Official Site.