As the worlds of design, business, and advanced manufacturing converge into what is often called Industry 4.0, new software tools continually emerge, serving as the digital thread weaving these sectors together. One such platform is CADDi Drawer, which applies artificial intelligence to digitize, organize, and connect historical manufacturing drawings and supply chain data, enabling efficient search, comparison, and procurement processes. To learn more, we spoke to Chris Brown, Vice President of Sales at CADDi.

From Manufacturing Service to Software-as-a-Service

CADDi was founded six years ago in Japan, initially as a direct competitor to manufacturing service network Xometry, quoting parts for customers and sourcing work through a network of 600 manufacturing partners in Southeast Asia and Japan. The company quickly grew in revenue, attracting thousands of customers.

In 2022, CADDi’s CEO, Yushiro Kato, who graduated from the University of Tokyo at 17 and led McKinsey’s global supply chain operations by 20, recognized the limitations of the existing business model. He identified a greater need for their software among OEMs and tier-one and tier-two manufacturers.

“It’s really hard to make money inside of [a marketplace] model. On top of that, the software that he had created in order to run that business model actually met a very great need for the tier-one and tier-two manufacturers of the world,” Brown said.

Consequently, CADDi pivoted to a SaaS-based software organization, growing its SaaS operations to over 180 customers in Japan, generating $70 million in ARR.

Everything Inside CADDi Drawer

The company’s flagship software, CADDi Drawer, acts as a digital filing cabinet, connecting all company data—procurement, quality, and more—back to a drawing. This comprehensive view allows organizations to access all relevant information about a part quickly. CADDi’s AI tool further enhances this by identifying similar parts, turning shapes into metadata, and comparing them to existing data.

“Think of it as a filing cabinet drawer where you store all of your designs. That system connects to all of your company’s other data and normalizes that data back to those drawings,” Brown explained. “That’s all of the procurement and quality data that’s ever been produced for that part. It’s all normalized back to that drawing so that when you open the drawing inside of CADDi Drawer, what you see is a complete inventory of all of the data that your organization has about that particular part.”

CADDi Drawer’s auto-scanning feature extracts all data from drawings, including dimensions, text, and shapes, even converting handwritten drawings into searchable digital formats. It connects this information with data from ERP systems, CAM, CAD, and more, providing a unified view for easier management. Users can search their entire historical drawing archive using keywords, identify similar parts with shape-based searches, and upload photos of sketches to find comparable drawings.

CADDi Drawer also supports procurement by helping identify the best suppliers, consolidating similar drawings to reduce costs, and aiding in Value Analysis and Value Engineering (VAVE). It democratizes data access across the organization, transforming individual knowledge into valuable assets, especially useful for advanced manufacturing processes like 3D printing. CADDi plans to expand its capabilities to include 3D CAD models and streamline the RFQ process with the upcoming CADDi Quote product, aiming to further reduce costs and enhance efficiency in supplier negotiations.

Importantly, Brown pointed out that CADDi focuses on empowering humans rather than replacing them, potentially setting it apart from other solutions. By providing data and insights, CADDi helps organizations achieve more in less time. This approach resonates with the manufacturing industry, where the goal is to enhance productivity and efficiency.

From Japan to the U.S

Recognizing the potential in the U.S. market, CADDi’s global headquarters were moved to Chicago. The U.S. market’s understanding of digital transformation and data normalization has fueled CADDi’s success. CADDi’s primary product, CADDi Drawer, revolutionizes how organizations manage and utilize data.

It was when the firm moved to the U.S. that it located digital manufacturing veteran Chris Brown. Brown’s journey in the manufacturing sector began at Protolabs in 2007, where he contributed to the growth of their sales team and set up six European offices. His efforts were instrumental in taking Protolabs public in 2012. After leaving Protolabs, he spent two years in the AIC industry with Intertek, ensuring product safety and compliance. Xometry then recruited him, where he helped scale the company from $7 million to $430 million in revenue before exiting in 2023.

“The U.S. market really understands what happens through the transformation of an organization when you start normalizing previously un-normal data back to a design, back to a drawing or back to a model, and then being able to pivot all of that data based on shape. Organizations are really able to transform the way that they catalog and categorize their parts away from word-based descriptors and back to shape-based descriptors, which is perfect because machines only care about shape, right? They don’t care that you named it a hose clamp or a bearing casing. Those two shapes are exactly the same, and that’s how machines care about it. So that’s how we should think about our data as well,” Brown said.

Looking Ahead

CADDi plans to address the U.S. market’s specific needs, such as information security and compliance requirements. CADDi also aims to integrate 3D CAD models into its system, providing even more detailed insights and recommendations. Additionally, CADDi Quote will empower procurement professionals to manage RFQs efficiently, ensuring price consistency and accurate win rates.

CADDi’s roadmap includes expanding its capabilities to allow external stakeholders to access relevant data. This will enhance collaboration between OEMs and tier-one suppliers, ensuring a seamless flow of information. While this feature is a few years away, it aligns with CADDi’s vision of breaking down data silos and democratizing information access.

“We at CADDi truly believe that the digital transformation that occurred across the world 15 to 20 years ago was absolutely necessary and was a great first step towards understanding all of our data. The fault in that is, though, that all of this data remained in silos. We didn’t break it out of silos by changing it from the file cabinet. We just put it inside of a file on our computers, right? Now, what CADDi Drawer is really doing is pointing all of that data together back towards that drawing across all the systems.”

Brown concluded our conversation by touching on a point that I often bring up related to the state of 3D printing. Because the additive manufacturing sector is so new, we have the potential to set up the industry in such a way that we can try to avoid the problems of the past.

“3D printing is still very much a new process to the world, with many lessons being learned and a lot of data being gathered every day. If we don’t want to end up in a situation in 60 years like we have with machining, where much information and data remain tacit knowledge locked away in the human brain and not properly documented, we need to start organizing all the data we’re generating about the manufacturing process. I truly believe, especially after being in the industry for 17 years, that CADDi is a great solution for this. If we can all start thinking about how CADDi databases and structures unstructured data, we will end up in a world where 3D printing is far more understood than machining is today.”