Above: CADDi uses optical character recognition and patented technology to search historical data by the shape of a part instead of by part number or description.
January, 2025- Reversing, in part, the offshoring trend that began in earnest in the 1980s, manufacturing is making a return to the United States a resurgence that could leave some fabricators at-footed. What happens when a job shop gets a quote for a part last fabricated in their facility when Ronald Reagan was in the White House and before there were computerized estimates, digitized CAD drawings or electronic supplier databases?
Chicago-based CADDi is helping fabricators prepare for the onslaught of onshoring and the looming retirement of a generation of institutional knowledge with a manufacturing intelligence platform that leverages a company’s massive legacy of information through artificial intelligence (AI).
“At CADDi, we offer a data lake that acts as a repository, where you dump all sorts of data types, from hand drawings and CAD files to work instructions and defect reports, even purchase orders,” explains Aaron Lober, vice president of marketing for CADDi.
Then, he says, “we use machine learning to extract and structure the information contained within all those objects, so your team can put it to work.
“Technology and data can be used to shorten the path for each individual step in the manufacturing process. This helps fabricators create quotes more efficiently for faster speed to market. This is where CADDi comes in,” Lober adds.
ONSHORING
Even before the COVID pandemic brought many businesses to a halt in early 2020, manufacturers were starting to return operations to the United States. They were fleeing natural catastrophes, rapidly accelerating energy costs and political uncertainty in foreign lands in exchange for sustainability benets and a more reliable supply chain back home.
“The pandemic was an accelerator to all that. Manufacturers spent the ’90s, and the first decade of the 2000s, really pushing heavily for a just in-time model. That led to some incredibly lean supply chains,” says CADDi’s vice president of sales, Chris Brown. Both Brown and Lober agree that to be closer to more reliable suppliers (and for a myriad of other reasons), manufacturers will be reshoring to the United States or near-shoring to politically friendly trading partners like Mexico and Canada.
Once a similar part has been identified in legacy files, CADDi will provide information on the previous supplier— a means of capturing institutional knowledge.
Supplier comparisons are also possible with CADDi.
“The United States, and North America in general, has some incredible advantages when it comes to education and technology. I believe we’re going to lean into what we’ve always done, which is be a leader in technology and embrace things that have the potential to transform the way that we work,” notes Lober.
Brown foresees a future where lights-out manufacturing is common. “Things like basic three-axis machining, standard press metal braking and repetitive tasks [will be] fully automated. All the steps from quote to cash will be automated so that people are focused on solving the hard stuff , the manufacturing challenges that have yet to be solved,” he predicts.
"CADDi’s one-click similarity software sorts through a fabricator’s hordes of project-related data then reports how the new order may differ from their previous orders." - Chris Brown, CADDi
MACHINE LEARNING
Lober sees data analyzed through AI as the linchpin to successful onshoring. “With CADDi, manufacturers have the tools to leverage cognitive analytic approaches to improving the way people work and to help customers do more with their current workforce,” Lober believes.
CADDi uses optical character recognition to capture, interpret and leverage a company’s entire library of legacy documentation. “Our software extracts, structures and creates holistic, unified data sets from a manufacturer’s massive jumble of different data types. A fabricator can upload a drawing into our system and we’ll extract every piece of relevant data out of it and make all of that data reportable and usable,” explains Lober. Instead of searching by a written description or part number, for example, CADDi relies upon its patented technology that identifies the shape of a part then searches for similar parts across all historical data.
Imagine an OEM that has decided to reshore metal stamping or fabricating a metal bracket projects that were last performed in the United States back in the early 2000s. “The people working at the OEM today do not have the institutional knowledge to identify their suppliers from 20 years ago. When that OEM does figure out their legacy suppliers, they call the organizations, but there’s no one there who remembers doing metal stamping or a specfic metal bracket,” explains Brown. Quickly capturing legacy data can put the fabricator at a competitive advantage in landing the newly onshored business.
CADDi’s smart algorithms can provide insights regarding historic procurement relating to past projects, including a menu of suppliers and the differences in supplier lead times and costs.
“CADDi’s one-click similarity software sorts through a fabricator’s hordes of project-related data, then reports how the new order may differ from their previous orders. The software will highlight any past problems relating to previous orders and output machine instructions for the new order,” says Brown.
RETIRING WORKFORCE
At the same time manufacturing is returning to U.S. shores, the generations of labor that may have sold, planned, designed, procured or fabricated projects in the past are retiring—or already have—leaving a huge crevice in institutional knowledge.
Lober sees one clear distinction between today’s manufacturing plant and one 50 years in the future. “None of the employees—be they an engineer, a sales rep or procurement ocer— none of them doing the job today will be doing the job in 50 years. There is a lot of institutional knowledge that is dening the way we work today. What happens when that institutional knowledge walks out the door without an employer nding a way to collect it? How do we capture that knowledge and make it available to the next generation?” asks Lober.
Some manufacturers are hoping their current software will serve as a net to catch the fleeting knowledge. Lober warns that these solutions don’t go far enough to actually encompass the entirety of the available information and then share that information.
“A product lifecycle management (PLM) tool that is just focused on engineering drawings and is only available to engineers does nothing to support procurement, sales or shop floor operations. We’re looking at a situation that’s worse than just reinventing the wheel. We’re looking at truly losing the skills and knowledge that we may never get back,” Lober adds.
CADDi software enables the fabricator to equip their current workforce with the accumulated knowledge of their most senior people. “And that is just a huge leap forward in addressing the skilled labor crisis and oncoming retirements,” says Lober.
Capturing institutional knowledge is a cornerstone of CADDi, which was founded in 2017 and has grown to more than 10,000 users and 132 million records stored.
“Preserving institutional knowledge is one of our core emotional motivators for why we’re doing this work. Our customers tell us they are all worried about what happens when they retire,” reports Lober. With CADDi software in their arsenal, these fabricators will be able to rest more easily knowing they are prepared to meet the future head-on.
Our software extracts, structures and creates holistic, unified data sets from a manufacturer’s massive jumble of different data types. Aaron Lober, CADDi
CADDi, 872/257-3965, us.caddi.com