Case StudyKairos · Automotive Manufacturing

1,900 documents.
Two languages.
Zero margin for error.

A Tier-1 automotive supplier needed every engineer on the floor to find the right work instruction — in the right language — in seconds, not minutes. Here's how Kairos made that possible in eight weeks.

Tier-1 Automotive Supplier2 Assembly Plants50+ Engineers~1,900 Work Instruction PDFsIATF 16949 Compliance2 Operating Languages

The Challenge

The documents existed. The answers didn't.

A language problem at every lookup

~1,900 work instruction PDFs existed in two languages. Engineers couldn't confirm which version was current or which language held the authoritative revision. In practice, the answer was always: check both.

No version of truth at the point of use

Updates moved by email and word-of-mouth. On the floor, under time pressure, there was no mechanism to confirm a document was current. Non-conformance findings under IATF 16949 were the direct consequence.

30–45 minutes per lookup, six times a shift

PDFs and SAP exports lived in completely disconnected systems. Finding one specification required knowing the system, the folder, and the exact filename — before the actual search could begin.

"The language requirement was not a feature request. It was the baseline. If the system only worked in English, it was not a solution for us."
Plant Operations Head — Tier-1 Automotive Supplier

Our Solution

One retrieval layer. Every document. Either language.

We ingested every work instruction PDF and SAP export across both plants into a single retrieval layer. Engineers query in either language and receive answers — with source citations — in their preferred language. The system doesn't just translate. It retrieves, reconciles, and flags discrepancies the client didn't know existed.

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Bidirectional multilingual retrieval

Query in either language. Retrieve from documents in either language. Answer delivered in the engineer's language, with source citation in the original.

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IATF-grade audit trail by default

Every response cites document ID, revision number, and effective date. Traceability is not an add-on — it is the output format.

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Version conflict detection

When two language versions of the same instruction diverge, the system surfaces the discrepancy at query time — before it becomes a non-conformance finding.

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Sub-8-second response under peak load

Latency was a design constraint from Day 1, not an afterthought. Load-tested at simultaneous shift-start burst across both plants.

8-Week Deployment Timeline

Weeks 1–2

Discovery & doc audit

1,900 PDFs catalogued by language, type & revision state
SAP Excel export structures fully mapped
Top-50 query types validated with plant leads

Weeks 3–4

Ingestion & build

OCR pipeline deployed — 98.4% accuracy on scanned PDFs
Multilingual embeddings fine-tuned on domain vocabulary
Revision-aware metadata applied to every document chunk

Weeks 5–6

Tuning & load test

Cross-language accuracy: 91% → 96% post re-ranking
150 real engineer queries validated for correctness
Both-plant simultaneous peak-load test passed

Weeks 7–8

Go-live, both plants

1-hour onboarding per plant — no IT support required
First query answered in under 8 min from account creation
Full runbook & admin access handed to client team

Measurable Outcomes

Numbers that came from the operation, not a slide deck.

85%Faster to find the right answer30–45 min average lookup → under 8 seconds★ Measured

95%Queries resolved under 8 secondsBoth plants at simultaneous peak shift load★ Measured

96%Cross-language retrieval accuracyAfter re-ranking pass — up from 91% at build★ Measured

8 wksPilot to full go-live50+ engineers, both plants, fully onboarded★ Measured

Compliance Impact

What changed — and what it means for IATF 16949.

Before Kairos

After Kairos

No way to confirm which document version a technician acted on at the time of use

Every response cites document ID, revision number, and effective date — audit trail generated automatically at query time

Cross-language lookups treated as equivalent to verified retrieval — no reconciliation step

Bilingual responses show the source passage alongside the answer — independently verifiable at the point of query

Version discrepancies between language editions went completely undetected across the organisation

Conflict flag surfaces divergences at query time — 3 previously unknown discrepancies found in go-live week

Document updates took days to reliably reach engineers at both plants

Updates indexed within 4 hours of upload; a stale revision cannot be returned as a valid answer

Non-conformance findings from outdated or misidentified instructions created rework and audit risk

Zero version-related non-conformances recorded in the 90 days following go-live

"The language requirement was not a feature request. It was the baseline. If the system only worked in English, it was not a solution for us."
Plant Operations Head
Tier-1 Automotive Supplier

"The conflict flag was the unexpected win. We found three cases where the two language versions of the same instruction had diverged. We didn't know those discrepancies existed until the system surfaced them."
Quality Lead
Tier-1 Automotive Supplier

See if its right fit for your team!

Test Kairos with your hardest documents.

Select the manuals, procedures, and work instructions your teams struggle with most. We deploy Kairos in a localized sandbox using those handful of your past, unclassified manuals. Your engineering team can thoroughly test its accuracy with zero connection to your live network.

Strong fit if you have:

Documents in more than one language

500+ work instructions in PDF or scanned format

SAP / ERP data with no unified search layer

Engineers spending 20+ minutes per lookup

IATF 16949, ISO 9001, or equivalent compliance requirement

Request a 4-Week POC Explore Kairos First

* Figures verified against pre-deployment baseline or logged system data. 8-week timeline measured from signed agreement to both-plant go-live.

1,900 documents.Two languages.Zero margin for error.