Watch the recording! - https://youtu.be/KN6S4oQ0gI0 Outsourcing often gets blamed for things that actually have a deeper cause. Sometimes, outsourcing leads to reduced content quality and project failure. Often this is due to failures in planning, implementing, and managing outsourcing.  The process of selecting a vendor is critical to outsourcing success. Typically, companies choose vendors based on proposals or quotations. This is not always optimal. The vendor candidate that is best at responding to your proposal request may not be the best at delivering what you need. In this webinar, we’ll explore how staging a pilot can help you identify the vendors that can deliver the best results over the entire duration of your needs. We’ll delve into the key success factors for staging an effective pilot.

1. WHAT IS THE DIGITAL
THREAD AND WHY IS IT
IMPORTANT TO ME?
Scott Thompson
Application Engineer
11 October 2019

2. 2
DEFINITION
The Digital Thread
“Unleashing a seamless flow of data across the value chain that will
link every phase of the product life cycle.”
– McKinsey

3. 3
• Digital threads:
– seek to create homogeneity and simple universal access to data.
– Follow a single set of related data as it weaves in and out of business processes and functions to
create continuity and accessibility.
• Thoughts:
– Access for everyone
– Everything is linked or associative
– Not contained to one system or process
– Unite disconnected systems or roles
DEFINITION EXPANDED

4. DIGITAL THREAD FOR EVERYONE
Manufacturing
Purchasing
Partner
Quality
ENGINEER
CAD
Service
SYSTEMDIGI
DIGITAL
THREAD

5. 5
EXAMPLE DIGITAL THREAD
Product inception
Engineering Bill of
Materials
3D Model
Manufacturing Bill of
Materials
Manufacturing Process
Plan
Plant and Material
Management
Suppliers
Service Bill of Materials
Replacement and
Alternate Parts
Parts Catalog
DocumentationPhysical Product
Language Translation

6. 6
• Do not desire
– Recreation of content
– Disconnection
• Digital Thread Goals
– Graphic to be linked to CAD data
– Table derived from service BOM
• service BOM linked to engineering BOM
– Give the illustrator access and control over the
graphic
– Want to be notified of changes
– Control over update process
PARTS CATALOG PAGE DIGITAL THREAD

7. 7
TRANSFORM ENGINEERING DATA INTO SERVICE CONTENT
Content Delivery
Step 1:
Restructure eBOM into
associative service BOM
(sBOM)
Step 3:
Use engineering CAD or
legacy graphics to create
part illustrations;
automatically generate
callouts and hotspots in 3D
illustrations
Step 4:
Change management to identify impact of
eBOM changes;
incorporate updates into sBOMs, parts lists,
and Illustrations for up-to-date service
content delivery
Impact Analysis and update
eBOM
Step 2:
Automate generation of parts
list items and 3D and 2D
illustration association for
technical information

8. 8
• The entire digital thread capability spans multiple roles
• Look at a piece of the thread and the role that might support
– CAD author
– Manufacturing engineer
– Technical writer
• These access points require linked and controllable sources
– Notification of upstream change
– Review of change
– Acceptance and pass through to next part of the digital thread
• Example
– Illustration is built off of the CAD model
– CAD model changes
– Illustrator is notified and reviews and accepts the changes
– Updated illustration is referenced in the documentation
ACCESS AND CONTROL POINTS

9. 9
COMPONENT BASED AUTHORING
Safety ReportManual Service Center
Traditional
Authored
Content
Reusable
Components
X

10. 10
• Inherently reusable document
components
• Output is controlled through stylesheets
– Multiple formats from the same source
– Authoring in not concerned with formatting
• Links to graphic objects
• Metadata within content
XML AUTHORING BENEFITS

11. 11
• Content management
– Security
– Check-in / check-out
– Access Control
• Product lifecycle management
– Full object history
– Release Management
• Where used
– Inherent knowledge of the digital thread
– What does my change affect?
• Workflows
– Change requests
– Content Reviews
• Access and control points
– Role specific
– Manage links along the thread
HELPFUL DIGITAL THREAD TOOLS

12. 12
DIGITAL THREAD AND YOU