SAE AIR7161

The scope of this document is to provide an overview and guidance to enable and monitor the use of Digital Thread data standards and the quantification of digital tread efficacy with the Digital Thread Qualitative Index. This document does not standardize the process. However, it does provide a methodology to determine efficiencies and inefficiencies of Digital Thread utilization across various phases of the product lifecycle. Organizations are struggling to implement industry specific Digital Thread data standards across various phases of the product lifecycle. These challenges include overlap of data standards and an increased requirement to monitor the level of data standards being implemented across various industries. The lack of Digital Thread data standards results in data interoperability challenges, cost overruns, increased overall flow time impacting product time-to-market, and the suboptimal utilization of organizational information resources. The core objective of the proposed Digital Thread Framework and Index is to enable the Digital Thread standards monitoring and measurement for the effective implementation of Digital Thread data standards. The Digital Thread Framework essentially helps to define and understand Digital Thread objects, segments, and relationships by using visual “n” dimensional data objects to establish the organization and behavior of Digital Threads. Graph models can be used to notionally characterize the nature of Digital Thread objects and Digital Thread segments. Digital Thread objects are assessed based on qualitative attributes such as data standards, retention of data integrity, accuracy of the data, timeliness of data interface/interaction, and Digital Thread segment association. Based on these attributes, the Digital Thread Index is defined as an aggregation of various factors such as standardization, efficiency, data quality, elasticity, and complexity of Digital Thread objects and its segments. Standardization factor represents percent (%) adherence of data standard for each object/segment, whereas efficiency factor determines the efficiency of data objects/segment transfer either from one lifecycle phase to another (or) object to object interaction. Elasticity factor signifies the architectural scalability of Digital Thread, whereas the complexity factor embodies the number of Digital Thread objects (objects and segments). This proposed technical paper identifies and defines each of these factors and how an aggregate Digital Thread Index can be quantified using real-world examples. This methodology is intended to determine efficiencies as well as inefficiencies across various phases of a product lifecycle. As this approach is continuously being evolved and matured, this presentation introduces and highlights the concept of Digital Mesh, which is an interwoven series of multiple Digital Threads.