Digital Thread

The digital thread is fast becoming one of the hottest topics in the industry. However, for many businesses, clarity is required on what it means and how it can benefit innovative organisations.

The adoption of the digital thread is on the rise throughout the UK industry. Its reputation has been established through successful implementation by early adopters in the aerospace and defense sectors, as well as by digital and high-tech companies that manage rapid innovation, swift development cycles, and heightened customer expectations.

At its core, the digital thread enables the power of collaboration. In its simplest form, it’s about connecting machines, data, processes and people across a whole business or supply chain. In essence, it ensures that the right data is delivered to the right place within a business at the right time. When implemented effectively, it creates a data-rich environment that enables predictive analytics and fosters innovation opportunities, all while avoiding time, productivity, and cost inefficiencies.

However, capturing and tracking data at all stages of a product lifecycle – from initial concept through to the design, manufacture, operation and decommissioning of a product – is not widely practised in industry. This results in the retracing, translating and moving of data between systems and the supply chain, with regular repetition of these time-consuming processes. Removal of this ‘non-value-add’ activity has the potential to increase productivity, through the reduction of time, cost and time-to-market.

CFMS and the digital thread

CFMS is an organisation with a vision to drive a practical revolution in engineering design capability. To do this we demonstrate the value of delivering innovative concepts. CFMS works with both large and small organisations to show how a future system can operate, tracking data, design changes and predicting performance and maintenance requirements, offering impartial guidance on how to make improvements to capture, curate and connect vital information throughout the product lifecycle.

Our aim is to help industry organisations develop their digital capability, having access to the right infrastructure, the ability to understand how data is captured, collated and connected. Focusing on driving value for the customer is at the heart of CFMS. We are one of the few companies bringing the product life cycle together, where the design, manufacture, service and decommission phases have historically had very distinct and autonomous roles.

With new terms and definitions being used on a daily basis, it has become difficult for engineering organisations to understand the digital engineering landscape and how, when, and where to deploy new digital technologies in their engineering processes.

For further information or support on implementing the digital thread, contact us today.

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