Over the last couple of days, I have been reading articles about the pros and cons of growing a PLM company through mergers and acquisitions. M&A activities often target the capabilities of PLM vendors to deliver Digital Transformation through Digital Twin and Digital Thread. Some voices in the discussion mention the hard work post-M&A to actually achieve the desired integration and the promised outcome. The integration looks easy with rebranding software, but the devil, as always, is in the details.
More than 10 years ago, PLCS/STEP AP 239 version 1 was approved. Have a look at the picture to see the business problem PLCS “Inc.” set out to solve. It was not called the Digital Thread then. It did not start with the issue of integrating different SW applications; it was about users defining an information model standard for through-life product/system management. They did this based on experience and on future needs, without being constrained by the fact that the world (by some) has been divided into ERP, PLM, MRO, etc. Even though needs in aerospace and defence drove it, it has also turned out to be highly relevant to automotive, machinery, AEC, plants, and supporting the circular economy.
By designing an application such as ShareAspace on the PLCS standard, the Digital Thread integrated information model is there as a default. Check out a short paper here if you have time to read about how well PLCS supports the Digital Thread and Twin.
Håkan Kårdén