Defining requirements for integrating information between design, manufacturing, and inspection

Industry desires a digital thread of information that aligns as-designed, as-planned, as-executed, and as-inspected viewpoints. An experiment was conducted to test selected open data standards' ability to integrate the lifecycle stages of engineering design, manufacturing, and quality assurance through a thorough implementation of a small-scale model-based enterprise. The research team set out to answer: from design, through production, and final inspections, what are the hurdles that a manufacturer would face during the development of a fully linked and integrated information chain? The research team was not able to fully link all the required information, but value for the industry was still identified. This paper presents the results of the experiment, provides guidance on how to overcome or mitigate identified challenges, and discusses the benefits or incentives to be gained from tracing or linking information through multiple stages a product lifecycle.