Manufacturing Company A Case Study: The Path to 90% Reduction in Information Search Time

Introduction: Fifty Years of History, a Labyrinth of Information

Manufacturing Company A is a precision parts maker with approximately 800 employees. With over 50 years of history, their technical capability is highly regarded in the industry. But that long history produced more than expertise — it produced an enormous accumulation of documents, a complex folder structure, and the situation where "nobody knows where that information lives."

TIMEWELL first connected with Company A in the spring of 2025. IT department head Tanaka (name changed) reached out with a concern: "We need to do something about internal information search." This article traces the path that led Company A from that starting point to a 90% reduction in search time through ZEROCK.

Before Deployment: Growing Urgency

Scattered Information Assets

Company A's information assets were scattered to a striking degree. Engineering drawings lived in a dedicated PDM system. Manufacturing process records were in the ERP. Quality management data sat in a proprietary database. Sales materials were on the file server. And individual employees had large volumes of files saved on their local PCs.

Tanaka describes the situation: "If you wanted to look into a particular product, the first problem was figuring out which system to check. Check the PDM, check the ERP, search the file server, and finally email the person responsible. That was the daily routine."

The Generational Transition Crisis

Making the situation more urgent: workforce succession. Company A's founding-era veteran engineers were reaching retirement age in growing numbers, and knowledge inheritance had become an immediate concern.

"Veteran engineer Yamada (name changed) had spent 40 years here and knew everything there was to know about our products. But most of that knowledge lived only in Yamada-san's head. What would happen when Yamada-san retired? We felt real urgency about that," Tanaka says.

Quantifying the Problem

Company A conducted an internal study to quantify the challenge — a company-wide survey and time-and-motion studies in selected departments.

The results: technical department employees were spending an average of 1 hour 15 minutes per day on information search. With 240 working days per year, that was 300 hours per person — 37.5 working days — lost to searching. Across 800 employees, the annual total was 240,000 hours: 30,000 person-days.

The Decision to Deploy ZEROCK

Comparing Multiple Tools

Company A evaluated multiple tools to address the challenge — conventional internal search engines, enterprise integrated search platforms, and next-generation AI-powered solutions.

Key evaluation criteria: search accuracy, multi-source capability, ease of deployment, and future-readiness. ZEROCK's search accuracy through GraphRAG technology and multi-LLM flexibility were the differentiating factors that led to the final selection.

Pilot First

Company A chose to start with a pilot in the Technical Support department rather than a company-wide rollout. This department handles customer technical inquiries and requires access to virtually all technical information — making information retrieval challenges most acute there.

The pilot ran for 3 months — enough time to validate impact, address issues, and build the case for full deployment.

The Deployment Process: Careful Preparation and Execution

Data Preparation Phase

The first month was spent on data preparation. TIMEWELL's team worked alongside Company A's IT department to inventory potential data sources and set priorities.

Technical specifications, product manuals, past inquiry history, quality control reports — these were organized and loaded into ZEROCK's knowledge base. The critical judgment: distinguishing "documents that get used" from "documents that don't." Loading all documents indiscriminately increases noise and degrades search accuracy. Documents referenced within the past 3 years were prioritized; earlier documents were made available for addition on an as-needed basis.

User Training

Training for the 20 Technical Support staff focused on "business usage scenarios" rather than feature explanations.

"When a customer calls saying 'Error code 001 appeared on Product X,' try asking ZEROCK this way" — concrete scenarios gave users a clear mental model for how to actually use the tool on the job.

Intensive Early Support

For two weeks post-training, TIMEWELL's Customer Success team provided near-onsite support — collecting feedback like "I asked but didn't get a good answer" or "this information isn't in the knowledge base" in real time and continuously improving.

That intensive early support was a major contributor to long-term adoption.

Post-Deployment Results: Transformation in Numbers

90% Search Time Reduction

Effectiveness measured 3 months into the pilot: information search time in Technical Support dropped from an average of 1 hour 15 minutes to 7 minutes — a 90.7% reduction. Better than the original target.

The most dramatic improvement: past case searches. "Has this product had a similar error before?" — previously required a multi-system tour. With ZEROCK, natural-language questions surface relevant past cases instantly.

Improved Inquiry Response Quality

Faster search also improved response quality. Access to more past cases improved answer accuracy and consistency. Customer complaints dropped 15%, and customer satisfaction scores improved.

Veteran Knowledge Inheritance

Another major result: veteran knowledge inheritance progressed. As veteran employees answered AI queries during daily work and saved work-related insights to the knowledge base, tacit knowledge converted to explicit knowledge.

"Part of Yamada-san's knowledge is already inside ZEROCK. Even when Yamada-san retires, that knowledge stays in the organization. That's the most valuable outcome," Tanaka says.

Company-Wide Rollout and Beyond

Staged Expansion

Following the pilot's success, Company A committed to company-wide deployment. The Technical Support success story was shared internally, department needs were gathered through interviews, and Engineering & Design, Manufacturing, and Sales were rolled out in sequence.

The company-wide rollout took approximately 6 months. Rather than a simultaneous cutover, each department cycled through data preparation, training, and adoption support — ensuring solid results at each stage.

Continuous Improvement Cycles

After the company-wide rollout, improvement work continues. Monthly usage analysis identifies "frequently searched but not found" information, expanding the knowledge base. User feedback drives ongoing search accuracy improvements and usability refinements.

Expanding Into New Applications

ZEROCK use has expanded beyond the original information search scope. AI slide generation for faster proposal creation. Mid-Career Staff AI for automated internal inquiry handling. Full use of ZEROCK's capabilities is driving further efficiency gains.

Success Factor Analysis

Executive Commitment

A key factor in Company A's success: executive commitment. Framing this not as an IT tool deployment but as "transformation of information utilization" — and securing the budget and people to match — provided the organizational momentum the project needed.

Field-Led Approach

Carefully gathering field input throughout the deployment process also mattered. "What are you struggling with?" "What information would help?" — listening to the field and reflecting those answers in how the knowledge base was built.

A Culture of Continuous Improvement

"Deployed and done" mentality would have undermined the investment. Regular reviews, user feedback collection, knowledge updates — these cycles sustain and grow ZEROCK's value over time.

Conclusion: Transformation Is Achievable

Company A's case demonstrates that information search challenges can be solved. Fifty years of scattered information, retiring veterans, urgent succession pressure — with the right tool and the right approach, dramatic improvement is within reach.

Your organization can achieve the same transformation. If information search is a challenge you're living with, we'd welcome the conversation. TIMEWELL is committed to being a full partner in your transformation.

The next article covers building a prompt library — the know-how for raising organizational productivity through shared AI capability.