What is a Digital Thread?
A digital thread is the next great leap forward in digitally transforming your company to make it even more competitive. The keystones behind the concept are system interconnections and data democratisation.
OK, what does digital thread actually mean?
Will Hastings explains it all in his article ‘What Is a Digital Thread?’ published in ptc.com, ‘Digital threads seek to create homogeneity and simple universal access to data. They follow a single set of related data as it weaves in and out of business processes and functions to create continuity and accessibility.’
And he goes on to say: ‘A digital thread creates a closed circuit between the digital and physical worlds, transforming the way in which we design, manufacture and repair products.’
If we go beyond the concept and focus on company digitalisation, what really stands out is that a digital thread establishes a communication framework based on collecting, structuring and homogenising data that connect previously isolated elements in manufacturing processes (design, supply, production, maintenance, marketing, etc.) and offer a global vision of the entire production process throughout the value chain.
Automated communication shared between all the departments, softwares and machines involved in the manufacturing cycle leads to better control over traceability, and optimises resources and processes, which in turn increases productivity at different levels.
– The link between digital threads and the digitalisation of industry –
Synchronising data in real time and democratising them (i.e., where all the professionals involved in a given project can access and understand the data, as long as they are authorised to do so) facilitates process optimisation in a wide range of industrial contexts, creating a new milestone in business digitalisation.
From the engineering to the sales phases, including production quality management and logistics… every department’s productivity goes up thanks to the digital thread.
The key factors in this system are compiling, analysing and interpreting data; and so a range of digitalisation-related technologies are used, such as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Big Data, Machine Learning , Artificial Intelligence and Business Intelligence; even Augmented Reality has a role.
The digital thread’s capacity to provide a data flow that interconnects each and every production system and process offers a tremendous competitive edge with a direct impact on productivity.
Here’s an example: obtaining data in all the tiers of the ISA-95* enables you to work with Machine Learning, Big Data and AI technologies, and that’s the basis for deploying predictive maintenance systems.
*The ISA-95 specification is a standard that provides a detailed definition of the information exchange between manufacturing control and other company functions.
-What’s predictive maintenance and how does it work?-
Detecting an anomaly before it happens and by doing so prevent an incident that can cause an unscheduled stoppage is not a fantasy any more.
To make it a reality, the IT system feeds off data from different process tiers, starting with the sensors, then the devices, lines, machinery, etc. And all this data, along with reviews of the incident log and the other data that the system gathered before and during the incidents are used to anticipate potential breakdowns.
So now, with all this data, the system can detect a pattern that’s similar to the one that happened before a system failure, and trigger an alarm, warning, etc., to implement a maintenance process that prevents the incident from happening again.
The greater the deployment of the digital thread (i.e., the greater the interconnection of systems and amounts of data), the more you’ll be able to identify parameters that show values outside the preset ones and so enable you to anticipate potential failures, and with that you’ll be increasing productivity and cutting costs.
Benefits of predictive maintenance
- Greater productivity
- Increased revenue
- Reduced costs
- Time savings
- Increased quality
- Edge over your competitors. Or a loss of that essential edge if you don’t give it a try.
But predictive maintenance is just one of the many competitive advantages that digital threads and digital twins can offer in Industry 4.0. Systems interconnection in a unique data stream that can be understood by everyone and everything in the production process opens up an infinite range of applications and offers clear benefits to any kind of industry.
Types of industries where digital threads can be applied
Any industry will encounter benefits from applying systems based on digital thread concepts. The automotive, food, pharmaceutical, and logistics sectors are just some examples of how any specific process or service industry can benefit from digital threads.
Digital threads have been an essential part of the aeronautics and aerospace industries for some time now. Connecting CAD (computer aided design) systems, Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and advanced analytical systems makes for a clear competitive edge.
And if you don’t make use of this edge, your competitors surely will. So don’t get left behind.
And all the more so when you can also integrate systems based on the digital twin concept, which lets you know how a line of robots (or an entire factory) is going to work before you set it up. Or prevent processes that lead to breakdowns before they actually happen.
So you’re probably wondering what a digital twin is…
Digital threads and digital twins
In Industry 4.0, a digital twin is a real-time digital replica of a physical system.
For example, a manufacturing company could create a digital twin of a machine to study how it behaves under different conditions, and use this information to make improvements to the real machine. A digital twin can help to reduce maintenance costs, increase a product’s useful life, improve process efficiency and reduce down-times.
– What’s the difference between a digital thread and a digital twin?-
A digital thread gathers real time data and democratises them, while a digital twin also offers the option of testing modification on a digital replica in any system. The data from these tests makes precise and fast decision making that much easier.
The idea behind the digital thread and a digital twin is that digital data is gathered from IIoT-linked technologies and then interpreted.
Key factors (or tiers ) in the digital thread
The key factor behind the digital thread is extracting understandable data from many sources with different coding languages and democratising them, so that authorised members of a project team can understand them.
The data is obtained from all the tiers that play a role in the value chain. So, what are the tiers?
- Automation and control elements. These may be sensors, actuators and controllers.
- Machine management software.
- Plant software. By this we mean the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), which controls the functions in the plant, the raw materials, supply, production orders, etc.
- Company software. The ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)) is the topmost tier.
-Thingworx, the IIoT platform that connects it all-
Interconnecting systems that ‘speak’ different languages (machines and sensors are just two examples) might make you think of the old ‘drivers’ that had to be installed just to make a PC and printer understand each other.
If you play with that idea, then you’ll come face to face with Thingworx, the IIoT platform developed by PTC that amplifies connectivity between different softwares and breaks down communication barriers to make businesses more competitive.
Integrating the digital thread concept into industry
It’s true that the digital thread is a concept and not a system, but we can show that platforms like Thingworx make a decisive contribution to integrating the digital thread into industry.
However, a strict methodology is needed to guide the digital thread concept towards specific results and offer a return on the investment in a particular project or as part of a company’s modernisation process.
Such a methodology would be GAMP5, (Good Automated Manufacturing Processes). This process-validation method is already in its fifth version and establishes the guidelines to be followed to ensure that the software and the project itself meet your expectations.
-Digital thread integration phases-
The kick-off point is a consultation phase, which enables us to identify specific use cases and align them with key strategic commercial initiatives.
We then go onto a solutions proposal phase that includes a functional specifications document that includes the calculated returns on investment.
The next phase consists of a ‘turnkey’ or ‘end to end’ project that includes a global and specific solution to cover all your company’s needs: hardware design, software integration, testing, start up and monitoring.
And the entire process to boost project competitiveness can be developed in just one year, depending on how complex the project is.
As you can see, industrial competitiveness is hanging from a thread… and it’s a digital one.
