The Digital Thread Reference Lab
for Manufacturing

A torrent of technologies. A world of business problems. One connected product lifecycle.

Experience the future of connected product information.

A hands-on, vendor-neutral environment where manufacturing professionals, students, and educators can experience how connected product information turns into lifecycle intelligence, business value and better decisions.

Democratizing Product Development Information across Value Chain


Manufacturing organizations struggle with product information trapped in silos — fragmented across engineering, manufacturing, sales, supply chain, and field operations. Information access inefficiencies across enterprise applications prevent teams from making timely, data-driven decisions.

One Product. Dozens of Systems. No Single Source of Truth.
  • A single product record lives across PLM, PPM, ERP, MES, CRM, IIOT, Service & several others
  • Each system owns a slice of truth
  • No System owns the whole picture
  • The thread that connects them exists only in people's heads
Siloed
PLM PPM ERP MES CRM IIOT Service
Threaded
Impact Assessment Linkages AI Advisory Value Cockpit Governance
DIGITAL THREAD
Factory Twin Field Asset Twin
PLMPPM ERPMES CRMIIOT Service
One traceable thread — idea to field performance, and back through the twins.  |  Digital Thread Information Model Leverages Data from Underlying System to create a Seamless End-to-End View

NewDigital Twins join the Thread: the Factory Twin shows the plant live, and the Field Asset Twin shows each machine at work. See how they work together →

Digital Thread · Connected Value Chain

Digital Thread illustration

From idea to field performance — all connected through AI-enabled intelligence.

Start with your goal

What would you like to do with Digital Thread?

Whether you want to build Digital Thread capability or apply it to a manufacturing challenge, start with the path that fits you.

For Academia

Learn it. Explore it. Teach it.

Build practical Digital Thread understanding through hands-on, industry-contextual experiences—not concepts alone.

  • Students: explore connected product information through guided scenarios.
  • Educators: bring industrially grounded examples into teaching and labs.
  • Researchers: investigate lifecycle relationships, intelligence and emerging applications.
For Manufacturing Business

See the thread solve real problems.

Explore how connected product information can improve engineering decisions, reduce change disruption and expose value at risk.

  • Trace a change across engineering, supply chain, manufacturing and the field.
  • Compare scenarios and understand business consequences.
  • Identify where a Digital Thread approach could be applied in your organization.
One Digital Thread, two Digital Twins

The Digital Thread says what should happen. The twins show what is happening, in the plant and in the field.

A Factory Twin reports how the plant is performing. A Field Asset Twin reports how each machine is behaving at work. Both talk to the same Digital Thread, so what is learned on the shop floor and in the field reaches the people who can act on it.

Digital Thread

The record of intent

One connected record of what the company has agreed to make and how.

  • Product options, released plans and engineering changes
  • Work orders and their progress
  • The as-built record of every machine
The loop between them
1A change or plan is released in the Thread
2The twins apply it: plant capacity recalculated, machines tracked against their design
3Plant results and machine alarms, condition and usage come back
4The Thread routes each item to Service, Engineering or both
5Accepted items change the plan or the design
Factory Twin

The live picture of the plant

  • OEE by station, line and plant
  • Capacity and bottlenecks, down to a single asset
Field Asset Twin

The live picture of the fleet

  • Health, alarms and usage per machine, on a fleet map
  • Feedback routed to Service and Engineering
One answerThe same work order and the same percentage on every screen.
TraceabilityFrom a machine back to the station, asset and plan version that built it.
Faster decisionsWhich line to fix first, and what it is worth to plant OEE.
Trustworthy commitmentsCapacity quoted from the shop floor, not a spreadsheet.
Field-to-design feedbackService and Engineering inboxes turn field signals into decisions.
Fleet visibilityFrom one machine to the whole map.

Illustrated with an earthmoving-equipment reference plant and a simulated fleet. Plant data, fleet data and 3D movement are simulated.

Delivering Connected Enterprise

From fragmented systems to intelligent, traceable digital threads.

Enable manufacturing organizations connect fragmented product information into intelligent, traceable digital threads — from idea to field performance.

Digital Thread for Construction Equipment · Live View
Impact & What-if · ECN-1004
Track Chain hardness revision · simulated before release
ECN-1004 EXC-200-401-003 Track Chain WO-3002 PO-5004 BHP · MT700
Implement Now
$8.6M
Highest disruption
Consume Inventory
$3.4M
Recommended · moderate impact
New Production Only
$1.2M
Lowest disruption
Value Cockpit · Construction Equipment
Every operational signal priced — and traceable to its source
Potential
$17.9M
Gross opportunity pool
Addressable
$12.9M
72% of potential
Realized
$6.2M
48% of addressable
At Risk
$4.2M
Signals to address
🔧 Engineering changes → inventory exposure$5.7M
🏭 Quality → manufacturing rework$1.3M
📦 Supplier risk → delivery exposure$1.8M
🚜 Field issues → warranty / service$4.7M
Field → Engineering · SSL250
A single field signal travels back to design — closed loop
🚜
SC-005
Field signal
High-flow delay
🔧
NCR-001
Root cause
Attachment kit
📝
ECN · SW
Software fix
Hydraulic response
✨
Next Gen
Production
+ fleet update
🧠 AI Advisor · Product Manager
Accelerate SSL250 high-flow software rollout to 14 serialized assets across 11 countries.
Prioritize dual-sourcing for the high-flow attachment kit to prevent recurrence.
AI Advisor · Role-based intelligence
Same underlying thread — a different, evidence-backed answer per role
🏢 COO
68%
Value-Chain Health · Caution
3 bottlenecks · 2 high-risk suppliers
📈 CCB
4
Changes ranked by impact
2 immediate · 1 non-compliant part
📦 Product Mgr.
2
Field-grounded AI recs
Next-gen priorities
🧠 Current recommendations · based on field evidence
Accelerate SSL250 high-flow software rollout to 14 serialized assets.
Prioritize dual-sourcing for high-flow attachment kit.
Governance · Compliance trace
EXC-200-401-003 · Track chain service life ≥ 6,000 hours
Control
GOV-01
Machine Safety
Requirement
EXC-…-003
≥6,000 hrs
EBOM
Track Chain
600 mm shoes
MPM
OP-030
Undercarriage
Evidence
Pass
WO-3001
Asset
EMX220-24011
SW 4.2.1
Controlled
30
Compliant
26
At Risk
3
Gaps
1
Assets
14
Click any tab above — or watch it cycle through the five views | The numbers are illustrative & need to be worked out on case-by-case basis
Digital Thread Information Model

Conceptual hierarchy of the Digital Thread information model.

Connected data to real-world impact — a structured journey from the Digital Thread foundation, through connected intelligence, to the decisions and experiences it enables across the value chain.

Conceptual hierarchy of the Digital Thread information model

Each layer builds on the one beneath it — data, model, thread, intelligence and impact.

We make digital thread literacy a first-priority of every value chain induction.

tecTorrent is a mission-driven initiative built on decades of hands-on industry experience with focus on knowledge dissemination, mentoring, advisory & academic — create learning experiences that enables exploration of how real manufacturing organizations connect product information across the value chain.

Our Vision

A world where manufacturing enterprises benefit from ecosystem & workforce fluent in digital thread.

We envision a future where students, educators, and professionals are not just aware of PLM, BOM, and lifecycle data — but have actually touched a connected thread. A world where the classroom and the factory floor speak the same language, and where the gap between academic theory and industry practice closes through hands-on knowledge resources and practice, not slideware.

Our Mission

To democratize digital thread learning — making industry-grade product lifecycle context accessible to anyone, anywhere.

We do this by building digital thread sandboxes, guided scenarios, and knowledge resources that mirror how real manufacturing organizations use digital threads. Most of what we create is designed to be hands-on, curriculum-friendly, and accessible, so all can explore the same connected product record.

Why We Started

Built from the gap between industry practice and academic curriculum.

After more than two decades delivering PLM, digital thread, and Industry 4.0 programs for global manufacturing organizations, we kept encountering the same pattern: bright, capable professionals & graduates entering the workforce have almost no hands-on exposure to how product information actually flows through an enterprise. Even seasoned professionals struggle to conceptualize a Digital Thread. The tools were available in industry; the learning experiences were not.

tecTorrent was founded to close that gap. We package decades of real-world information model, datasets, and scenarios into a form that audience can adopt immediately — integration, and configuration overhead that has historically made enterprise software inaccessible to classrooms.

Our commitment is simple: the learning experience stays central. As the platform grows, its academic assets core remains free and its industry engagement remains a means.

I built tecTorrent because I wanted the next generation of practitioners & engineers to touch a real digital thread before they walked into their first engineering review — not after.

Digital Thread for Manufacturing Industries

Each is a pre-built, industry-tailored Digital Thread, kept true to the plant and the machine by Digital Twins — reducing time-to-value from months to weeks. Click a card with a video badge to watch an overview. Live Reference Build means a runnable reference environment with illustrative data; Blueprint means the thread design is defined and the build is in progress. Factory Twin and Field Asset Twin mark the industries where those twins already work with the thread.

Power Generation Equipment Watch video

Power Generation Equipment

Gas turbines, steam turbines, wind, hydro, nuclear — connect engineering to field performance.

See it running
Requirement to EBOM
Requirement to EBOM
steam turbine structure, parts and compliance
Requirements tree
Requirements tree
from top-level need to component
Product family and carbon
Product family and carbon
units in operation and footprint by segment
Fragmented data silos from design to field make turbine failure analysis a slow, manual detective exercise, while regulatory pressure demands carbon transparency that scattered systems cannot deliver.
Snippets of how the digital thread answers

An industry-specific Digital Thread connecting requirements, systems engineering, product structures, manufacturing processes, supplier transactions, installation, service and asset data into one navigable lifecycle view. Engineers can trace a turbine or generator from its requirement through EBOM, MBOM, manufacturing work orders, quality evidence and installation to the asset in operation. Governance views connect requirements, compliance status, evidence, asset coverage and changes, providing perspectives for engineering, manufacturing, operations, service and compliance teams. Impact & What-if analysis traverses affected requirements, products, manufacturing, supply chain, customer orders and field assets to assess consequences before an engineering or maintenance change is implemented.

Live Reference Build
  • Asset Passport
  • LTSA service agreements
  • Fleet reliability & MTBF
  • Performance uplift
  • Compliance trace
  • Bid won / lost
  • Value drivers & leakage
  • Interface & KPP scorecard
What you can try
  • Requirement to asset: trace a requirement through EBOM, manufacturing process and quality evidence to the installed assets, with any engineering change that touches it.
  • Contract vs reality: see each LTSA's availability guarantee and burn rate beside fleet MTBF against its target, linked to the same requirement.
  • Change before you release it: pick an engineering change or problem report, see the requirements, work orders, suppliers, customer orders and installed turbines it touches, then compare Implement Now, Consume Inventory and New Production Only in dollars.
Chief Engineer · Plant · Service · Compliance · Commercial Request Power Gen demo Try the 3D steam turbine
Earth Moving Equipment Watch video

Earth Moving Equipment

Construction, mining, agricultural machinery — manage complexity and global manufacturing.

See it running
Field-to-Design Loop
Field-to-Design Loop
fault code to design cause, ECN and every machine
Factory Twin
Factory Twin
plant layout, OEE and line capability
3D bucket
3D part model
opened from the engineering BOM
Thousands of variants, global production sites, and a fragmented supplier network mean engineering changes take months to reach the factory floor—and quality issues are nearly impossible to trace back to their source.
Snippets of how the digital thread answers

Connected Digital Thread linking product configurations and variants with requirements, EBOM, MBOM, manufacturing processes, suppliers, work orders, customer orders and serialized machines. As models, options, regions and customer-specific configurations evolve, their engineering and manufacturing relationships remain traceable across the lifecycle. Engineering changes can be analyzed through the thread to identify affected requirements, parts, manufacturing operations, work orders, suppliers, customer orders and installed assets, while What-if scenarios assess inventory, production, supply, retrofit and customer exposure before release. Serialized asset and service records extend this traceability into the field, enabling quality and service teams to investigate machine history without manual reconciliation across disconnected systems. A Factory Twin reports build steps, operation status, line capability and plant performance. A Field Asset Twin reports faults, alarms, telemetry summaries, usage, software, location and parts replaced. Both exchange messages with the Digital Thread, which checks them against the product, the process plan and the as-built record. A fault seen on one machine runs back to its design cause, the engineering change and the requirement, then forward to every machine carrying the same part revision. What the field learns flows back to design, and what design changes flows out to the plant and the machines.

Live Reference BuildFactory TwinField Asset Twin
  • Configure to order
  • Serial effectivity
  • Machine records & as-built
  • Signals & triage
  • Field-to-design loop
  • Impact & what-if
  • Value cockpit
  • Role-based AI Advisor
  • Factory Twin link
  • Field Asset Twin link
  • Service & Engineering inboxes
What you can try
  • Change a part: release ECN and see work orders, purchase orders, customers and machines it touches.
  • Field fault to design: raise a hydraulic overheating on one machine in the Field Asset Twin. Follow it into the Service Inbox, then to the Engineering Inbox and the Field-to-Design Loop.
  • Plant gap: see where the Factory Twin's measured line capability falls short of what the design assumes.
  • Same part, other machines: find every machine fitted with the same part revision, with the warranty exposure and the supplier recovery.
  • Prove compliance: pick a requirement and see its evidence chain down to the serial number.
COO · Change board · Product manager · Manufacturing · Plant manager · Field service Request Earthmoving demo (with Digital Twins) Try the 3D excavator
Automotive & Software Defined Vehicles Watch video

Automotive & Software Defined Vehicles

OEM & tier-1 supply chain, EV, autonomous systems — accelerate innovation.

See it running
Connected fleet and OTA
Connected fleet and OTA
VIN-level software status and campaigns
EBOM, MBOM, S/W BOM
EBOM, MBOM, S/W BOM
one vehicle line, every structure
Requirements by platform
Requirements by platform
linked to verification
Functional safety, variant complexity, and OTA updates require a unified digital thread—but disconnected ECUs, suppliers, and software versions make it impossible to trace a feature from requirements to field performance.
Snippets of how the digital thread answers

Create a connected, auditable Digital Thread linking requirements and system functions to hardware, software, manufacturing, suppliers, changes and deployed vehicles. Requirements trace through Systems Engineering, EBOM, MBOM, MPM and S/W BOM, with verification evidence and Engineering Change Notices maintaining configuration and compliance context. Supplier and production information connects components to their manufacturing and consumption points, while the Connected Fleet provides VIN-level software and firmware status and OTA deployment views. Role-based views expose the same thread through engineering, governance, manufacturing, service and fleet perspectives. Impact & What-if analysis then traverses these relationships to assess production, supply, customer and field consequences before change implementation.

Live Reference Build
  • E/E architecture
  • Software BOM
  • Connected fleet (VIN)
  • OTA deployment
  • Functional safety (ISO 26262)
  • Order-to-delivery
  • Plant map
  • Services & warranty
What you can try
  • OTA fix: follow a software requirement through its ECN to the OTA campaign: models, fleet size, rollout progress, success and rollback rates.
  • Safety trace: follow an ASIL D requirement through EBOM, build process and test evidence to the VINs in the field, with its software chain traced separately.
  • Battery change: select a battery-management ECN and see affected parts, work orders, purchase orders, suppliers, customer orders and fleet VINs, then compare three transition scenarios.
Systems engineering · Software · Safety & cybersecurity · Plant · Service Request Automotive demo
Industrial Engines & Generators

Industrial Engines & Generators

Diesel, gas and dual-fuel engines, generator sets, power packs, hybrid and hydrogen-ready systems — from requirements and emissions certification to field data.

Emissions rules differ by market and tier, calibrations and software baselines multiply, and every engine family has dozens of ratings, fuels and genset configurations. Certification evidence, test-cell data, production builds and field telemetry sit apart, so a calibration change or a failing component takes weeks to scope.
Snippets of how the digital thread answers

Requirements, engine and genset structures (EBOM, MBOM, SBOM and calibration sets), test-cell results, emission certificates, production builds and serial-level field telemetry are connected into one traceable thread. Compliance teams retrieve the exact evidence package for any regulation, market or serial number. Service and reliability teams feed field findings — injector wear, turbocharger failures, aftertreatment faults — back to engineering through a structured loop. Impact & What-if analysis shows how a design, calibration or software change spreads across ratings, markets and installed units, and prices the retrofit, warranty and certification effort before release.

Blueprint
  • Emissions certification (EPA Tier 4, EU Stage V, CPCB IV+)
  • Calibration & ECU software baselines
  • Rating / fuel / genset configurator
  • Test-cell to field linkage
  • Aftertreatment & DEF health
  • Serial effectivity & retrofit
  • Parts, service & uptime contracts
  • Hydrogen & biofuel readiness
  • Product carbon footprint
What you can try
  • Calibration change: adjust an injection map and see affected ratings, certificates, markets and serials.
  • Evidence pack: pick a market and serial and get the compliance chain from requirement to test to unit.
  • Field pattern: trace a repeated turbocharger alarm to a build lot and supplier, then open an engineering change.
  • Fuel options: compare diesel, HVO and hydrogen blends for cost, carbon and compliance.
Chief engineer · Calibration · Emissions & compliance · Plant · Aftermarket · Sustainability Request Engines demo
Consumer Durable Goods Watch video

Consumer Durable Goods

Appliances, electronics, furniture — managing product complexity, compliance, and customer satisfaction across global markets.

See it running
Claims to design: triage
Claims to design: triage
supplier lot, firmware or model design, with evidence
Forecast to build
Forecast to build
demand, capacity and material alerts
Impact and what-if
Impact and what-if
cost, carbon and time of a change
Rapid product refreshes, global supply chain complexity, and sustainability regulations demand a seamless product information thread—but disconnected systems turn every model change into a data reconciliation nightmare.
Snippets of how the digital thread answers

A reusable product information framework keeps design, sourcing, manufacturing, packaging, and post-sale data aligned across every SKU, market, and refresh cycle. Each model carries its compliance and sustainability attributes from concept to customer without manual reconciliation. Role-based dashboards serve product, supply chain, and marketing teams from the same thread, while Impact and What-if analysis quantifies the cost, compliance, and time-to-market effect of any design or sourcing change before it is committed.

Live Reference Build
  • Forecast to build
  • Recall scope by lot
  • RoHS / REACH traffic lights
  • Per-unit carbon
  • Alternate-part what-if
  • MPM lanes & critical path
  • Supplier risk
  • Field-to-design loop
What you can try
  • Recall by lot: start from a supplier lot and list units, models, regions and channels.
  • Swap a part: choose an alternate and see cost, weight, carbon and compliance move through the BOM.
  • Seasonal build: compare forecast with capacity, stock and certification alerts.
Product · Supply chain · Quality · Service · Marketing & sales Request Durables demo
Beverages Watch video

Beverages

Soft drinks, juices and other drinks — from formula to shelf, lot by lot, with packaging and co-packers.

See it running
Digital Thread home
Digital Thread: systems to outcomes
PLM, ERP, MES, SCADA, WMS and QMS feeding one thread
Recall and trace
Recall and trace
one lot to batches, pallets and customers
Regulatory matrix
Regulatory matrix
US, EU and India label and claim gaps
Hundreds of SKUs, seasonal and promotional packs, short shelf life and recall exposure meet formulas, packaging, co-packers and cold-chain data held in separate systems. When a flavour, ingredient or label changes, nobody can quickly say which lots, lines, retailers and markets are touched.
Snippets of how the digital thread answers

One connected record from brand and formulation through recipe (formula BOM), packaging BOM, bottling and canning lines, batch and lot genealogy, distribution and the retail shelf. Trace any consumer complaint or quality hold back to the ingredient lot, tank, filler and shift, and forward to every pallet, customer and market. Regulatory attributes — allergens, nutrition labelling, sugar-tax bands, deposit and recycled-content rules, EPR/PPWR packaging data — travel with each SKU. Impact & What-if analysis prices a recipe change, a supplier failure or a packaging switch against stock, line capacity, promotions and service levels before it is released.

Live Reference Build
  • Formula & packaging BOM
  • Batch / lot genealogy
  • Recall scope in minutes
  • Allergen & label compliance
  • Packaging & EPR data
  • Line OEE & changeovers
  • Shelf life & cold chain
  • Regulatory matrix (FDA, EU, FSSAI)
  • AI Advisor by role
  • Supplier & plant what-if
What you can try
  • Mock recall: start from one lot or complaint, trace forward to pallets and customers, or backward to ingredients.
  • Supplier slips: pick a supplier, material or plant and see the SKUs, customers and revenue it touches.
  • Label check: run the regulatory matrix for the US, EU or India and see the gaps to close.
  • AI Advisor: ask by role, with a live or simulated run.
Brand & R&D · Quality & food safety · Plant · Supply chain · Sales & trade · Sustainability

Each video explains the industry-specific digital thread challenges, solution approach, and business outcomes. All figures and data shown are illustrative. Twin data is simulated; twins send events and summaries to the thread, not raw streams.

Product Studio

Design · Build · Operate

One product, three lenses. Open a machine in 3D, read its structure from the Digital Thread, watch it being assembled the way the Factory Twin sequences it, then put it to work as the Field Asset Twin sees it.

Loading 3D model…

Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, click a part to select it. The 3D movement and machine signals are simulated from the reference model.

Pre-built Domain Focussed Digital Thread
for Manufacturing

Our digital threads are not just blueprints — they provide industry-specific, demonstrable, and working concepts that significantly provide a jump-start to your Digital Thread journey across the product lifecycle.

What's inside a Digital Thread?

Each packages domain knowledge, reference architectures, and data models, into a repeatable framework. Built on deep industry experience, they reduce risk and accelerate delivery.

Industry-Specific Data Model Foundation

A unified schema that anchors every product, process and asset record — the same across domains.

Business Rules

Governance logic encoded once and applied consistently across every domain and every interaction.

Associations with File System Data

MS Office files, images, PDFs, analysis documents and drawings — linked to the same thread.

Analytical Layer Cutting across Domains

A single analytical layer that slices across engineering, manufacturing, supply chain and service.

From Fragmented Data to Connected Intelligence

Digital Thread

Request Industry Demo

See how our platform works for your industry.

Thank you! We'll reach out shortly.

Digital Thread is not an integration project — it's a business transformation that connects value chain intelligence to every decision.

Key Features & Digital Thread Linkages

A connected view of every capability and every domain the thread touches — from requirements and engineering structures to supply chain, manufacturing, field service and market insight.

Key Features

  • End-to-End Digital Thread

    Connect the complete product value chain.

  • Product Family & Portfolio

    Platforms, variants and options on one connected record.

  • Market Insights & Idea Management

    Voice of market and customer feeding the idea funnel.

  • Impact & What-if Analysis

    Visualize the consequences of change.

  • AI Decision Intelligence

    Turn lifecycle context into actionable decisions.

  • Value Cockpit

    Quantify value, leakage, risk and opportunities.

  • Governance & Compliance

    Maintain auditable lifecycle traceability.

  • Digital Thread Linkages

    Navigate relationships across the product lifecycle.

  • EBOM / MBOM / SBOM

    Connect engineering, manufacturing and service structures.

  • Requirements Traceability

    Trace requirements through product and verification.

  • Engineering Change Intelligence

    Understand the full downstream impact of change.

  • Supply Chain Risk Intelligence

    Connect supplier risks to products, orders and production.

  • Connected Manufacturing & Quality

    Link production, materials, processes and quality.

  • Inquiry-to-Order & Configure-to-Order

    From customer inquiry to a confirmed, traceable order.

  • Field-to-Engineering Feedback

    Close the loop from asset experience to product improvement.

  • Digital Twins: Factory & Field Asset

    Plant OEE and capacity, and fleet health, alarms and usage, flow both ways with the Thread and are routed to Service and Engineering.

Capability is demonstrated end-to-end on the digital thread, traceable from a single part to the full value chain.

Where-Used / Referenced across Value Chain

Digital Thread Linkages · Where-Used across Value Chain

Five business questions here. Five working answers. And Several More...

Each row shows the platform answering a real value-chain question — with the operational evidence that produced it. No slideware. Numbers below are illustrative.

Question 01 · Change

What if we change this part?

Release ECN-1004 (Track Chain hardness revision) and it immediately shows everything touched — the governing requirement, the EBOM part, the affected work order WO-3002, the open purchase order PO-5004, the supplier SUP-006, and BHP's open MT700 order. Three transition scenarios are priced side by side.

1 requirement 1 EBOM part 1 work order 1 PO · 1 supplier 1 customer order 1 fleet
Before you release a change, see every requirement, work order, purchase order, customer order and serialized asset it touches — and compare transition scenarios side by side to pick the least disruptive path.
Impact & What-if · ECN-1004 · Track Chain Hardness Revision
Digital Thread Impact Path
ChangeECN-1004
→
RequirementEXC-200-401-003
→
EBOMTrack Chain
→
MBOM / MPMUndercarriage
→
Work OrderWO-3002
→
POPO-5004
→
CustomerBHP · MT700
What-if Scenarios
Implement Now
$8.6M
Highest disruption
Consume Inventory
$3.4M
Recommended · moderate impact
New Production Only
$1.2M
Lowest disruption
Question 02 · Value

What is the thread actually worth?

Operational signal in the thread is valued — ECN exposure, NCR rework, supplier risk, open complaints, energy — and rolled up into a single executive view: potential, addressable, realized, and value at risk. Every dollar traces back to the record that produced it.

Growth · 58% win rate Cost · $1.3M rework Speed · 75% on-time WC · $5.2M Sustainability · 3.0% scrap
Turn thread connectivity into board-ready numbers — and trace every one of them back to the operational record that produced it. No BI extract, no reconciliation, no second source of truth.
Value Cockpit · Construction Equipment
Potential
$17.9M
Gross opportunity pool
Addressable
$12.9M
72% of potential
Realized
$6.2M
48% of addressable
At Risk
$4.2M
Signals to address
Where value is leaking
🔧 Engineering changes → inventory exposure $5.7M
🏭 Quality → manufacturing rework $1.3M
📦 Supplier risk → delivery exposure $1.8M
🚜 Field issues → warranty / service $4.7M
Question 03 · Closed Loop

How does the field change the next design?

A field complaint on an SSL250 becomes a manufacturing NCR, which becomes an engineering change, which becomes a next-production and fleet update. The thread carries the signal across all four — and hands the Product Manager an AI Advisor summary with the exact recommendation to act on.

SC-005 · field signal NCR-001 · root cause ECN · software Next production + fleet
Close the loop. Every deployed asset becomes a design input — not a spreadsheet entry. It turns field experience into engineering action, and engineering action back into fleet update.
Field → Engineering · SSL250 high-flow response
Signal travels back to design
🚜
SC-005
SSL250 · field signal
High-flow delay
→
🔧
NCR-001
High-flow attachment
kit non-conformance
→
📝
ECN · Software
Hydraulic response
software update
→
✨
Next Gen
Future production
+ existing fleet
↻ Loop closes · field learning feeds the next design and the deployed fleet
🧠 AI Advisor · Product Manager
Accelerate SSL250 high-flow software rollout to 14 serialized assets across 11 countries.
Prioritize dual-sourcing for the high-flow attachment kit to prevent recurrence.
Question 04 · Intelligence

Who in my organization uses this — and what do they see?

The same thread reshapes itself per role. The COO sees value-chain health and bottlenecks. The CCB sees change impact, obsolescence and compliance. The Product Manager sees AI recommendations grounded in real field signal. No IT dashboard, no configuration exercise — the thread already knows who each person is and what they own.

COO · bottleneck + risk CCB · change + compliance Product Mgr. · ideas + NPI MFG · OEE + yield SCM · OTD + risk
One thread. Many roles. Every role gets its own evidence-backed answer — not a dashboard configured by IT, and not a report that takes a week to produce.
AI Advisor · Role-based intelligence from the same thread
Same data · three different views
🏢 COO
68%
Value-Chain Health · Caution
3 bottlenecks · 2 high-risk
📈 CCB
4 ranked
Changes · 2 immediate
1 non-compliant part
📦 Product Mgr.
2 AI recs
Field-grounded
next-gen priorities
🧠 AI Advisor · current recommendations
Accelerate SSL250 high-flow software rollout to 14 serialized assets across 11 countries.
Prioritize dual-sourcing for high-flow attachment kit to prevent recurrence.
Question 05 · Compliance

Can we prove compliance — for every requirement, every machine?

Pick any governed requirement and the thread shows the entire proof chain in one view: the control domain it belongs to, the requirement text, the EBOM part that implements it, the MPM operation that builds it, the V&V or Quality evidence that verifies it, and every serialized asset that carries it in the field.

6 control domains 30 controlled requirements evidence-backed fleet-wide passport
Compliance isn't a report — it's the thread itself. Every claim traces to a requirement, a part, a process, a test, and a serial number. No separate audit database, no reconciliation, no auditor's checklist.
Governance · Compliance trace for EXC-200-401-003
One requirement · six-link proof chain
Control
Machine Safety
GOV-01
→
Requirement
EXC-200-401-003
Track chain life ≥6,000 hrs
→
EBOM
Track Chain
600 mm shoes
→
MPM
OP-030
Undercarriage assembly
→
Evidence
Pass
WO-3001 · OP-080
→
Field Asset
EMX220-24011
SW 4.2.1 · FW 3.8.0
Governance KPIs (live)
Controlled
30
Compliant
26
At Risk
3
Gaps
1
Assets
14

Experience the Digital Thread

Watch a short guided walkthrough, or dive into a live interactive teaser — or request access to the sandbox and try it yourself. See how Digital Thread for Product Development works in a seamless manner with data populated from underlying Enterprise systems like PPM, PLM, ERP, MES, IIOT, etc.

Built for coursework and research. Get hands-on with the same digital thread framework used in industry — trace requirements, explore BOM structures, and see how field data feeds back into design. No installation, no setup, works in your browser.

Digital Thread · Guided Walkthrough 3:06

What you'll see

Five moments that show the digital thread end-to-end

What's inside the sandbox

Everything runs in your browser — no installation required
Pre-loaded dataset

A realistic construction equipment product with its full value chain already threaded.

360 Degree Linkages

Parts & Assembly links (Where-Used/ Referenced) to other data entities

Impact & What-if engine

Release a change and price the downstream effect across variants and the fleet.

Field signal simulator

Inject a field complaint and watch it travel back to design as an NCR and ECN.

AI Advisor console

See the recommendations a role-based advisor surfaces from the same thread.

Value Cockpit

Quantify potential, addressable, realized, and at-risk value across the thread.

In 2 HRS, you'll have:

  • Traced a requirement end-to-end across the value chain
  • Reviewed a change and visualized its impact
  • Reviewed a field signal and closed the engineering loop

Request Academia Trial Access

Fill in your details and we'll get in touch with you to get you setup.

  • Sandbox access for limited duration based on objective provided in Request Form
  • Pre-loaded dataset & guided scenarios
  • No installation — runs in your browser
What happens next
  1. We review your submission and reach out to you.
  2. You receive a personalized trial link and a brief starter guide.
  3. You explore at your own pace — reach out any time for clarifications.

Request Trial Access for Educational Institutes

Thank you! We'll send your trial access details shortly.
Please use your official institutional email — not a personal ID.

By submitting, you agree to our privacy policy. We'll never share your data.

Prefer to read? Open the guided tour transcript

This guided walkthrough begins with a single product record — the Earthmover — and shows how its information is fragmented across five systems before the platform threads them into one view. From there, the tour traces the value chain end-to-end: from the original idea through requirements, engineering and manufacturing BOMs, work orders, and into the field. It then visualizes an engineering change and shows every requirement, purchase order, customer order, and serialized asset the change touches — with three transition scenarios priced side by side. Next, a field complaint is carried back through an NCR and an ECN, closing the loop into the next production and the deployed fleet. Finally, the tour opens the sandbox — the same environment you'll receive when your trial request is approved.

See how a Factory Twin and the Digital Thread exchange plans and measured results, so dates are committed on real capacity.

Factory Twin · Guided Walkthrough 1:32

What you'll see

The plant and the Thread, in step

What you'll see

From a machine in the field back to the design

Shown with an earthmoving reference plant and a simulated fleet; plant and fleet data are simulated.

Try it — a Quick guided walkthrough

Click through five connected views of a real Digital Thread. Only a few nodes are interactive — the rest of the platform stays locked.

Construction Equipment · Digital Thread Earthmoving & Building
Guided tour · start by expanding Medium Excavators 5 of 24 modules unlocked
Knowledge Hub · Explore · Learn · Experiment

Turn Digital Thread knowledge into product value chain intelligence.

Explore practical frameworks, interactive tools, industry domains and learning labs that connect product data to better engineering decisions, measurable value and closed-loop improvement.

Start with your goal

One hub. Three ways to engage.

Use the same Digital Thread foundation from different perspectives — learning the concepts, applying them at work, or exploring research questions.

Manufacturing Co. Professional/ Practitioner

Assess readiness, prioritize use cases, quantify value and explore how connected product information supports real decisions.

Educator / Student

Build Digital Thread literacy through guided walkthroughs, hands-on product structures, labs, assignments and industry challenges.

Researcher

Explore reference models, research questions, datasets and experiments spanning AI, sustainability, Digital Twins and lifecycle feedback.

A connected experience

From insight to experiment — and back to knowledge.

Every resource should guide the visitor to a next step, not leave them at a standalone article or calculator.

01 · ASSESS

Understand readiness

Establish a baseline and surface capability gaps.

02 · LEARN

Explore a framework

Read the concept most relevant to the gap.

03 · SEE

View an industry story

Ground the idea in a real product lifecycle.

04 · EXPERIMENT

Try the sandbox

Trace objects, simulate change or close a loop.

05 · QUANTIFY

Build the value case

Connect the opportunity to measurable outcomes.

06 · APPLY

Plan next steps

Identify a pilot, research question or learning lab.

Interactive, self-serve utilities to size the opportunity, shape the business case and move the digital thread conversation from concept to numbers. Work them in order — each one sharpens the next.

Digital Thread Readiness Assessment

Twenty-five questions across ten dimensions. Establish where your organisation actually stands today — and which foundational gaps to close before anything else is built on top.

Diagnostic

Digital Thread Use Cases Prioritization

Score and rank candidate use cases against business value, data readiness, feasibility and time-to-value — so the shortlist is defensible in front of a steering committee, not argued about in one.

Prioritisation

ROI Calculator for Digital Thread

Build a 5-year business case for your digital thread program — turnover-scaled value capture, users by functional area, investments across five cost heads, and the resulting ROI, NPV, IRR and breakeven year.

Business Case
Proposed toolkit architecture

The current assessment, prioritization and ROI tools are live. Additional tools — Use Case Explorer, Reference Architecture Builder, Information Model Explorer, Digital Thread Sandbox, Change Impact Simulator, Carbon & Sustainability Decisions, and Engineering AI Use-Case Explorer — are introduced in phases aligned with the Industry Labs roadmap.

Knowledge library

Explore the ideas shaping Product Value Chain Intelligence.

Organize resources by the questions they help answer — from foundational architecture to sustainability and measurable business value.

Foundation

Digital Thread Architecture & Data Foundation

Reference architectures, lifecycle objects, relationships, semantic models, system-of-record boundaries, traceability and governance.

Intelligence

Engineering Intelligence & AI

Why AI needs product context: connect evidence, reasoning and traceability to explainable engineering decisions and actions.

Digital Twins

Digital Twin & Closed-Loop Engineering

Connect design, manufacturing, operations and service feedback so field learning informs the next product decision.

Sustainability

Design for Sustainability

Move beyond reporting to engineering trade-offs across product carbon footprint, materials, performance, reliability and manufacturability.

Decision intelligence

Engineering Change & Impact Intelligence

Answer "what happens if?" across requirements, EBOM, MBOM, work orders, suppliers, customers, installed assets and compliance.

Value

Product Value & Value Leakage

Connect engineering and operational signals to inventory, productivity, scrap, rework, warranty, working capital and realized benefits.

Industry playbooks

Industry Digital Thread Playbooks

See how the same lifecycle principles adapt to Earthmoving, Automotive, Power Generation, Industrial Engines, Consumer Products and Beverages.

Learning

Field-to-Design Loop

Connect field performance, service events, and customer feedback directly into engineering design decisions—closing the lifecycle loop from deployment back to concept.

Foundation

PPM, PLM, ERP, MES, Supply Chain, Services & IIOT

Understand the systems of record across the value chain — what each owns, how they connect, and where the data foundation for a Digital Thread begins.

Governance

Trust, Traceability & Compliance

Trace control, requirement, product structure, manufacturing process, evidence and serialized field asset in one connected thread.

Industry Digital Threads are the living laboratories.

Use working concepts to make abstract frameworks tangible. Start with Earthmoving as the flagship demonstration, add the Factory and Field Asset Digital Twins, then extend the pattern to adjacent industries.

Digital Twins

One Digital Thread with a Factory Twin and a Field Asset Twin: plant results and field alarms, condition and usage come back, and are routed to Service and Engineering.

Factory TwinField Asset TwinService & Engineering inboxes Fleet map
Earthmoving Equipment

Trace a machine from requirements and engineering structures through manufacturing, supply chain, service and field feedback.

360° LinkagesImpact & What-ifGovernance Value CockpitField feedback
Automotive & SDV

Explore product, software and system relationships across change, configuration, manufacturing and vehicle lifecycle decisions.

EBOM / SBOMSoftware contextChange impact
Power Generation

Connect turbine and generation assets to engineering, manufacturing, operational signals, compliance and lifecycle value.

Asset lifecycleGovernanceDigital Twins
Experience Digital Thread

Learn by following the thread

Explore Digital Thread through six complementary learning modes — starting with a real challenge, moving through the lifecycle and roles, and finishing with a comprehensive program you can adopt.

A progressive journey from guided learning to independent exploration
  • Start with a challenge — experience why connected information matters.
  • Follow the lifecycle — understand how information travels from idea to field.
  • Choose your role — see the same Digital Thread from different perspectives.
  • Use advanced capabilities — investigate, analyse impact and make decisions.
  • Explore freely — create your own questions and discover the thread.
  • Adopt the programme — take the whole thing into a Course Learning Pack.
01 PRIMARY LEARNING MODEL

Scenario / Challenge Based

Learn Digital Thread by solving a real manufacturing problem.

1.1

Engineering Change

A component changes — what is affected?

Experience: Should we implement this change?
1.2

Field Issue → Engineering

Follow a field problem through service, root cause and engineering change.

Experience: How does the field change the product?
1.3

New Product Introduction

Trace market need, requirements, engineering, manufacturing and launch.

Experience: Can we launch this product on time?
1.4

Product Cost Challenge

Connect material, supplier, manufacturing and change decisions to cost.

Experience: Where is the cost coming from?
1.5

Sustainability Challenge

Explore carbon, material and manufacturing trade-offs.

Experience: Which design gives the better outcome?
1.6

Compliance Challenge

Trace requirements, evidence, validation and configuration.

Experience: Can we prove compliance?
1.7

Supply Chain Disruption

Assess supplier, inventory, production and customer exposure.

Experience: What happens if supply fails?
1.8

Installed Base / Service

Connect asset configuration, service history and field exposure.

Experience: Which machines are affected?
1.9

Signals & Triage

Turn raw field faults into explained, routed findings.

Experience: What is the field really telling us?
1.10

Configure to Order

Configure a machine and see price, lead time and feasibility live.

Experience: Can we build and deliver this variant?
1.11

Factory Twin

Explore the plant map and line-level OEE.

Experience: How is the factory really performing?
1.12

Serial Effectivity

Find which serials carry Rev A versus Rev B.

Experience: Which machines carry which revision?
1.13

Warranty Loop

Follow warranty terms, claims, supplier recovery and aftermarket demand.

Experience: What does a failure really cost us?
1.14

Recall / Safety Campaign

From a confirmed failure to the exact machines, supplier lots, repair stock and closure.

Experience: Which machines must we fix, and how fast?
05 FINAL STAGE

Free Exploration

Now explore the Digital Thread without a prescribed path.

Digital Thread Learning Programme

Three levels. One thread. Built for the semester.

A structured, semester-ready way to teach and learn Digital Thread — with a faculty guide, guided labs, a realistic industrial dataset and an assessment rubric already written.

L1
Foundation

Understand the thread

Learn what a Digital Thread is, how a product record is structured, and how to read the lifecycle end to end.

  • Define Digital Thread and distinguish it from an integration project.
  • Navigate Requirement, EBOM, MBOM, Asset and ECN records.
  • Trace a product from an idea to a deployed asset.
L3
Advanced

Design and defend

Design a thread for a new product and defend it in front of a review board.

  • Design a governance and compliance traceability model.
  • Quantify Digital Thread business value with documented assumptions.
  • Deliver a capstone thread definition for a chosen product.
Research & collaboration

Turn industry questions into researchable problems.

Make the hub useful for academic collaboration as well as practitioner adoption, with clearly framed problems and tangible artifacts.

Research themes

Core domains where Digital Thread capabilities create new engineering questions.

  • Context-grounded AI for engineering
  • Dynamic product carbon footprint
  • Digital Twin lifecycle feedback
  • Change impact and decision intelligence

Research questions & datasets

Help students and researchers move from broad interests to testable questions.

  • How should lifecycle evidence be linked?
  • What makes an AI recommendation explainable?
  • How can design choices update PCF estimates?
  • What synthetic / industry data is needed?

Thesis & industry challenges

Connect academic work to demonstrable outputs and industry-relevant outcomes.

  • Predict downstream change impact
  • Close field-to-engineering feedback
  • Optimize cost, carbon and performance
  • Quantify Digital Thread business value
Your next step

Start with a question. Leave with a path to action.

Assess your readiness, explore an industry scenario, or use the learning and research pathways to frame your next Digital Thread initiative.