Digital Thread
Lifecycle federation across design, item, operations and twin
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
3 bundles · 3 layers · 5 findings · 10 questions
Thread scope What the thread connects.
Subject and lifecycle span
The product or asset and the lifecycle stages covered.
Thread subject
The product, item or fleet the thread is about.
- Which product type, serial item or fleet does the thread cover?
- Which lifecycle stages from requirements to disposal are linked?
Authoritative sources
The systems of record for each stage.
- Which system is authoritative for each lifecycle stage?
- Who owns each linked source?
Links and configuration How records are connected and kept consistent.
Trace links
Links between requirements, design, build and operation records.
Link integrity
Whether links point to the right versions.
- Does each link point to a specific version of the target record?
- Which links are broken or point to superseded versions?
Configuration baseline
The as-designed, as-built and as-maintained baselines.
- Which as-designed baseline does the as-built item correspond to?
- Which changes after delivery are reflected in the as-maintained configuration?
Access and use Who may follow the thread and for what.
Access rights
Access across organizational boundaries.
Cross-party access
What suppliers, operators and authorities may see.
- Which parties may follow which links, under which agreement?
- Which linked data is export-controlled or confidential?
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- World Models
- Category
- Information and virtual systems
- Entry kind
- pattern
- Navigation path
- NAV.INF.VRT.THR
- Domain
- INF.VRT.THR
- Industry
- Cross-industry
- Tags
- digitalthreadinf.vrt.thr
What it is Filled
A digital thread is the set of authoritative links that connect the records of one product or asset across its lifecycle, from requirements and design through manufacturing and the as-built item to operation, maintenance and its digital twin. The individual records it links, and the digital twin as a live model of one asset, are separate subjects.
Why it exists Filled
Lifecycle federation across design, item, operations and twin
Distinguishing features Filled
- A federation of links across lifecycle records, not a single model or database.
- Spans organizations and systems, from design tools to maintenance records.
- Supports a digital twin but is not the live model of an asset.
- Its value depends on links to specific versions, not just to documents.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Change records in a source system through the thread without that system's authority.
- Expose export-controlled or confidential design data to parties without access.
- Fill gaps in traceability with assumed links presented as recorded.
- Remove links needed for safety or airworthiness evidence.
Only with a human decision
- Accepting a configuration baseline for certification or delivery.
- Granting a new party access to the thread.
May
- Follow thread links to trace a requirement to design, build and maintenance records.
- Report broken links and version mismatches.
- Assemble the configuration of a serial item from linked records.
- Answer impact questions about a proposed change from the linked records.
Moral aspects Filled
- Broken traceability can hide safety-critical deviations in products people rely on.
- Sharing threads across companies exposes intellectual property and controlled technology.
- Operational data linked to people, such as maintenance staff, needs protection.
Who is affected
- Users and operators of the product
- Manufacturers and suppliers
- Maintenance organizations
- Safety regulators
Owners Filled
Steward
The product owner or prime manufacturer that governs links across the lifecycle systems.
Master systems
- Product lifecycle management system
- Manufacturing execution system
- Maintenance management system
- Requirements management system
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- WM-VRT-001
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Identified by the product or serial item identifier it threads, together with the owning organization.
- Each link is identified by the identifiers and versions of the two records it connects.
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
Not applicable
The subject is an information or institutional record, not a physical object, so it has no physical properties to measure.
Recognition optional Filled
- Recognized as a navigable set of version-specific links across lifecycle records of one subject.
- Often confused with a digital twin, a product lifecycle management database or a document archive.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Supports traceability from requirement to as-built and as-maintained item.
- Supports change impact analysis across lifecycle stages.
- Feeds digital twins with authoritative configuration data.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Unsafe products from broken or wrong traceability.
- Leaks of controlled technology across organizations.
- Decisions based on superseded versions.
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- ISO 10303 STEP, including AP242, for product data exchange.
- OASIS OSLC for lifecycle tool integration.
- ISO 23247 digital twin framework for manufacturing.
Context of use required Filled
- Used in aerospace, defence, automotive and complex manufacturing.
- Configuration management duties come from certification and contract requirements.
Sources Filled
- ISO 10303-242 Industrial automation systems and integration - Product data representation and exchange, ISO
- Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC), OASIS
Open questions
- Planned model: boundary questions, research and every section remain to be written.
Machine files
Provenance
planned (registry candidate) · todo
Built from: models/runtime-index.json, ver-cy/world-models/card-supplements/wm-vrt-013-digital-thread.json
Planned entry, hidden from the catalogue until researched.