Neaton cuts search time 70%

Neaton Auto Products Manufacturing said on May 19 that it reduced document search time by 70% after deploying CADDi’s AI data platform across design, engineering and quality control. CADDi said the Eaton, Ohio-based Tier 1 automotive supplier used the system to centralize more than four decades of engineering and procurement information. The companies said the project was aimed at speeding quality investigations and reducing time spent locating drawings, notes and related records. ### What exactly did Neaton say changed? CADDi said Neaton consolidated more than 140,000 drawings, design notes and related engineering documents into a unified searchable platform. The company said teams that previously had to move across multiple systems, request files from other departments and manually verify relevance were able to find needed records much faster after the rollout. (us.caddi.com) The 70% reduction refers to search time for engineering information, according to CADDi’s case study and announcement. CADDi said the faster access supported shorter design cycles, more consistent revision processes and more efficient quality-control investigations. ### Why would search time matter in a quality-control workflow? (us.caddi.com) Neaton said the same engineering records are used daily not only by design staff but also by prototype engineering teams and quality-control teams handling service-part validation and troubleshooting. In that setup, delays in finding the latest drawing or prior design note can slow root-cause work and extend the time needed to confirm a fix. (us.caddi.com) Naomi Noda, vice president of design engineering at Neaton, said in the case study that manufacturing has already gone through digitalization, but “the next challenge is making that data truly usable.” CADDi said Neaton used the platform to make historical records easier to search across departments rather than leaving them scattered in separate repositories. (us.caddi.com) ### What kind of company is Neaton? Neaton Auto Products Manufacturing says it is a Tier 1 automotive supplier and a wholly owned subsidiary of Nihon Plast Co., Ltd. The company says it was founded in 1984 and is headquartered in Eaton, Ohio, serving major OEMs in North America. Neaton says it makes automotive interior, exterior and safety-related components, including steering wheels, airbag modules, center consoles and other trim parts. (financialcontent.com) The company says those products are built to meet near zero-defect quality standards, which helps explain why rapid access to revision history and design records would matter in engineering and quality workflows. (neaton.com) ### What does CADDi say its software does? CADDi says its platform digitizes drawings and procurement data and makes manufacturing information searchable by shape, text, dimensions and part names. The company says the system is designed to aggregate fragmented engineering and supply-chain data so manufacturers can reuse historical knowledge in design, procurement and quality processes. (neaton.com) CADDi’s May 19 announcement framed the Neaton project as a case study in using a targeted AI data platform to centralize manufacturing knowledge rather than as a broad factory-automation rollout. That distinction matters because the reported gain was tied to a specific bottleneck: the time engineers and quality teams spent locating the right document. (us.caddi.com) ### Where can readers check the details next? CADDi published the Neaton case study on its U.S. website in May 2026, and the company’s announcement links the results to engineering, procurement and quality-control use cases. Neaton’s corporate website separately identifies the company as an Eaton, Ohio-based supplier and lists its product lines and headquarters details. (us.caddi.com)