Innovation and Digital Transformation in the Business Environment: A Case Study on Analyzing the Impact on Organizational Performance in a CAD Company

This article makes an exploratory attempt to study the impact of implementing a computer-aided design (CAD) system on a Romanian company. The firm has been established in 1998 and it is based on Baia Mare (Maramures), Romania. It is the commercial administrator of the CAD/CAM Technology Support Center. This center was a project initiated within the Maramureş Center for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), and it received funding from the PHARE FIDEL program, an European Funded program that supported at that time the development of SMEs). Using a multifaced approach encompassing semi-structural interviews and financial analysis data, the results show integration of innovative CAD technologies yields substantial gains for operational efficiency. For instance, most of the KPIs associated with production have improved: the time required to complete one cycle of production has decreased by 15%, from an average of 20 hours to 17 hours per unit and the efficient use of materials has increased by 10% resulting in cost savings. This research shows how Romanian companies can adopt CAD technologies and improve their activities.