[Webinar Recap] New Research Findings: The Impact of Live Traceability™ on the Digital Thread
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In this blog, we recap the “New Research Findings: The Impact of Live Traceability™ on the Digital Thread” webinar.
Examine new industry research that highlights the reasons for the growing interest in digital thread and learn how Live Traceability™ enables the digital thread to reduce risk, save cycle time, and improve product quality.
The digital thread is a measurable data-driven architecture that links together information generated from across the product lifecycle and is envisioned to be the primary or authoritative data and communication platform for a company’s products at any instance of time.
During this session, James Roche, Practice Director of Aerospace & Defense at CIMdata, Inc and Cary Bryczek, Director of Aerospace & Defense Solutions at Jama Software®, report on key findings from recent research on digital thread conducted by CIMdata on behalf of the Aerospace and Defense PLM Action Group — and in collaboration with Jama Software and other solution providers. The shared objective of this research was to gain an understanding of the needs and opportunities within industry that will inform digital thread solution strategies and roadmaps and guide industrial implementations.
Finally, learn how Jama Software’s industry-leading platform, Jama Connect®, helps teams manage requirements with Live Traceability across the systems development process for proven cycle time reduction and quality improvement.
Below is an abbreviated transcript and a recording of our webinar.
New Research Findings: The Impact of Live Traceability™ on the Digital Thread
James Roche: Thank you to Jama Software for inviting me to participate in today’s discussion of the exciting and important topic of digital thread. In this presentation, we’ll report key findings from recent research on the topic of digital thread conducted by CIMdata on behalf of the aerospace and defense PLM action group member companies in collaboration with Jama Software and other PLM solution providers. We’ll begin with an introduction of how this research came about, who sponsored it, and for what purpose. We’ll explain how the information was gathered and from whom. Then we’ll review the key findings from the research in various categories as shown here, the what and why of the digital thread, the current reality, planning future investments, and solution capability and provider alignment with the needs and strategies of their industrial customers.
I will then turn the session over to my colleague from Jama Software, Cary Bryzcek. The initiators and prime sponsors of this research are seven A&D OEMs who are the current members of the Aerospace and Defense PLM Action Group. Since its founding in 2014, the A&D PLM Action Group has sponsored research and jointly staffed projects on topics such as model-based definition, multiple-view bill of materials, PLM technology obsolescence management, global collaboration, model-based system engineering, and digital twin digital thread. The members regularly interact with the principal PLM solution providers in project collaborations and executive level strategic discussions.
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Roche: The group’s leadership has recently determined to expand its reach into the PLM solution provider community, and engage in collaborative research and dialogue on strategic topics. The topic selected for this program was digital thread. We know that investment in digital thread today is real and substantial, and the level of investment will continue to rise. That reality positions digital thread as an emerging strategic opportunity within the PLM ecosystem. To invest effectively in solution development as a software provider, or solution implementation as an industrial user requires insight into current state enablers and barriers and future investment drivers.
The shared objective of this research was to gain understanding of needs and opportunities within industry that will inform digital thread solution strategy and roadmap, and guide industrial implementations. The project used two methods of gathering information, subject matter expert interviews and an online survey. Interviews were conducted by CIMdata with three communities, the participating solution providers, key A&D customers nominated by the participating sponsors, and the A&D action group member companies. The second method of information gathering was through a web-based survey targeted toward a broader community beyond practitioners in industry. The learnings from the interviews were applied to develop the line of inquiry for the web-based survey.
RELATED: Extending Live Traceability™ to Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) with Jama Connect®
Roche: CIMdata conducted a total of 15 interviews, five with the solution provider sponsors, five with their key customers, and five with A&D action group members. A total of 90 complete and validated survey responses were received and have been analyzed. Review of the names of the companies represented and the positions held by the interviewees and survey respondents confirms that the information received is representative of the most influential companies and leading thinkers within the aerospace and defense industry. The survey was open to all industries, but it was targeted toward and most heavily promoted within aerospace and defense, and nearly 60% of responses were from that industry. The response distribution was evenly spread across companies’ size by revenue.
We began our interviews and the survey with an exploration of the what and the why of digital thread. The conceptual understanding of digital thread within industry is very immature. All interviews began with a question, “What is your definition of digital thread,” which yielded 15 different definitions. Nearly half of the company’s survey do not have a commonly accepted definition of digital thread, and less than 10% use the published definition. Our search for the reasons for digital thread’s rise to prominence revealed the traditional drivers such as product complexity, time to market and search for efficiencies are clearly still in play, but new realities such as rising customer expectations as evidenced in the DOD’s digital engineering strategy with an authoritative source of truth, and new enabling technologies are major drivers of the digital thread’s rise to prominence.
Among specialists, there is a broad shared perception of what digital thread does, and what a digital thread is. The most prominent characteristic of what a digital thread is and what it does relate to establishing linkages and traceability between product data. Interestingly, if you combine the most prominent characteristics of what a digital thread does, you have a reasonable definition of the digital thread, establishes traceability of product information across multiple domains in the lifecycle, mechanical, electrical or electronic software and firmware to provide meaningful relationship connections between a product’s digital assets. Our research examined the current and expanding digital thread value footprint in three dimensions, program stage, data, and use cases.
To watch the entire webinar, visit
New Research Findings: The Impact of Live Traceability™ on the Digital Thread
Cary is the Director of Solutions Architecture for Aerospace and Defense with a focus on the specialized business and technical needs unique to this market. She helps lead the company in Systems Engineering and Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) domain. She has over 25 years of experience leading Systems Engineering in the A&D industry with roles at the US Government, Lockheed Martin, PTC, and Jama Software. She is a member of the International Counsel on Systems Engineering and member of the Women in Aerospace organization. Outside of work she enjoys playing jazz guitar and gardening around her farm which sometimes requires the operation of tractors and UAVs.
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