Connecting Siloed Data Models with Digital Threads: The Key to Unified Product Development

Achieving a single source of truth across the product lifecycle

This is the third article in Michael Finocchiaro’s Digital Threads and Aras Innovator® series. The first post, Working Concurrently and Collaborating Seamlessly with Digital Threads, focused on the ways in which digital threads enable collaboration between teams in real-time, improving cross functional efficiency. The second, Enabling Bidirectional Traceability with Digital Threads: Safeguarding Quality and Compliance, explored the critical role of bidirectional traceability to ensure compliance, manage risk, and improve product quality. Today’s post discusses how digital threads integrate disparate data models across various systems to provide a single source of truth.

In many industrial organizations, data is scattered across different systems—engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and service—each operating in silos with limited visibility into other departments. This fragmentation not only hinders collaboration but also slows down the entire product development process, as teams cannot access real-time, accurate data when they need it most. The lack of connectivity across data models reduces agility and makes it difficult for companies to respond to market changes or customer demands efficiently.

Digital threads address these challenges by creating a unified data flow that breaks down silos and ensures that all departments work from the same, up-to-date information. By connecting disparate systems and linking data across the product lifecycle including process flow details, digital threads offer a single source of truth. This holistic view allows companies to innovate more effectively and accelerate product development cycles.

As Marc Halpern, vice president of research, engineering, and PLM at Gartner, notes, “Organizations are recognizing that data silos must be broken down to provide a single source of truth. By connecting data across disciplines, digital threads unlock the full potential of PLM, providing businesses with the visibility needed to innovate and respond to market changes.”

In this article, we will explore how Aras Innovator leverages digital threads to connect siloed data models and process flows, streamlining decision-making and reducing errors. Through real-world examples, we will highlight how unified data models lead to faster product iterations, improved collaboration, and more agile product development processes.

The challenge of siloed data models in modern enterprises

According to the Boston Consulting Group, about 70% of digital transformation projects fail to meet their objectives, often due to issues with legacy systems and data silos. This highlights the importance of adopting a digital thread to break down silos and enable smoother transitions and integrations.

Data and process silos are pervasive in many industries, and stem from the use of different systems across departments. Engineering teams may work with CAD tools, manufacturing might rely on MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems), and the supply chain could be managed through an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. Each of these tools generates valuable data, but without integration, they operate in isolation, creating several challenges:

1. Lack of Real-Time Visibility: Teams cannot access the most current data from other departments, leading to outdated information and misinformed decisions. For instance, if a design change is made in the engineering phase, the manufacturing team may not receive the updated specifications in time, resulting in production delays.
2. Inconsistent Data: With data residing in different systems, inconsistencies and errors are common. Discrepancies between design, production, and service data can result in quality issues, rework, and increased costs.
3. Slow Decision-Making: The lack of a unified data model means decision-makers must manually gather data from various sources, slowing down critical processes. In industries like aerospace or automotive, where time-to-market is a key competitive advantage, this can be a significant barrier to success.
4. Limited Collaboration: When data is siloed, cross-functional collaboration becomes difficult. Teams lack a holistic view of the product, making it harder to innovate and respond to market changes.

One of the key benefits of Aras Innovator is its ability to maintain and evolve traceability throughout the product lifecycle. Any changes made to the design or manufacturing processes are captured and made visible across all systems, ensuring that everyone is working with the latest version of the data. This reduces the risk of rework and enhances product quality.

In heavy equipment manufacturing, for example, design teams might create a new machine model, but without real-time data from the supply chain, they may not realize that a key component has a long lead time, resulting in delays that could have been avoided.

The key to overcoming these challenges lies in connecting siloed data models and processes, which is where digital threads come into play.

How Aras’ digital thread enables data traceability across systems

“The digital thread is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s a foundational technology for driving innovation. By enabling real-time collaboration across engineering, production, and service, organizations can break down silos and accelerate their time to market.”
— Paul Miller, vice president and principal analyst, Forrester

A digital thread is a connected framework that weaves together data from various departments and systems, providing a unified view of the product lifecycle and the related processes. With a digital thread, every piece of information and process step—from initial concept design to production and service—is accessible to all stakeholders, creating a seamless flow of data that enhances decision-making and collaboration.

Aras Innovator is a PLM platform that excels in connecting siloed data models across systems like ERP, CAD, and MES. Here’s how it works:

1. Low-code API Management: Aras Innovator integrates data from disparate systems using an advanced low-code interface, providing a single access point for product information accessible by all teams. This ensures that every department, whether it’s engineering, manufacturing, or after-sales service and maintenance, is working with the most up-to-date data, eliminating discrepancies and reducing errors.
2. Data Traceability and Version Control: One of the key benefits of Aras Innovator is its ability to maintain and evolve traceability throughout the product lifecycle. Any changes made to the design or manufacturing processes are captured and made visible across all systems, ensuring that everyone is working with the latest version of the data. This reduces the risk of rework and enhances product quality.
3. Collaboration Across Functions: By providing a single source of truth of data and process, Aras Innovator fosters collaboration in-context between cross-functional teams. For example, if an engineer updates a product design, the manufacturing and supply chain teams can immediately see how that change affects their operations and provide feedback in real time. This level of visibility and communication allows for faster decision-making and problem-solving.
4. Cross-Disciplinary Impact Assessment: Aras Innovator’s digital thread allows for comprehensive impact analysis. Before implementing changes, teams can assess how a design modification affects not only manufacturing but also the supply chain, customer service, and long-term maintenance of all related product variants. This holistic view ensures that all departments are aligned and can proactively address potential issues.

For companies in industries like high-tech and electronics—where products are highly complex and involve both mechanical and electronic components as well as outsourced PCBs and chips—this level of integration is essential to maintain efficiency, compliance, and quality.

Connecting siloed data models at Murata Manufacturing with Aras Innovator

Murata Manufacturing, a global leader in electronic components and solutions, faced significant challenges as it expanded through acquisitions and organic growth. With multiple design and manufacturing facilities worldwide, the company struggled with siloed data models and an inflexible legacy PLM system that could not support complex product configurations and diverse workflows across locations. This lack of traceability made collaboration slow and error-prone, hindering Murata’s ability to innovate quickly and efficiently.

Challenges: Fragmented operations

Murata’s design and manufacturing teams worked in silos across locations, making it difficult to share information and manage product configurations. This slowed response times to customer demands in fast-changing markets.

1. Ineffective Collaboration: The existing PLM system lacked the flexibility to manage Murata’s global teams’ diverse workflows, particularly after acquiring new business units. This created bottlenecks in integrating new companies.
2. Manual Processes: Product configuration management and BOM (Bill of Materials) updates were manual and prone to errors. As a result, managing thousands of parts and relationships became increasingly time-consuming.

How Murata solved these challenges with Aras Innovator

Murata selected Aras Innovator to overcome the limitations of their legacy PLM system. The digital thread created by Aras Innovator unified data models and enhanced collaboration between global teams.

1. Unified Collaboration: Aras Innovator provided a centralized platform for product data, enabling real-time collaboration between design and manufacturing teams at six global locations. This improved efficiency and reduced manual data reconciliation.
2. Seamless Integration of Acquisitions: After acquiring Sony’s battery business, Murata used Aras Innovator to integrate the new team’s workflows quickly. Aras’s flexibility allowed engineers at the new business unit to maintain their processes while collaborating with the broader Murata team, enabling a smoother transition and faster time to market.
3. Enhanced Product Configuration Control: Aras Innovator’s version control and BOM management capabilities helped Murata track complex product and variants relationships, ensuring accurate, up-to-date information. This was critical for managing products across diverse sectors like automotive, energy, and healthcare.

Business Success Reached

By implementing Aras Innovator, Murata realized significant improvements:

1. Improved Efficiency: Murata achieved faster collaboration across six global locations, reducing the time required to update and share product data. This centralized system now supports 500 users managing 4,500 products, 80,000 parts, and 230,000 documents.
2. Faster Acquisition Integration: Murata rapidly integrated newly acquired business units, including Sony’s battery division, into its global operations. The flexible system ensured a seamless transition, reducing the time it took to onboard new teams.
3. Enhanced Product Quality: With better configuration management, Murata minimized errors and improved product quality, enabling more efficient responses to customer needs. This led to increased business, especially in custom manufacturing.
4. Reduced Manual Workload: Automating the management of product configurations and BOMs reduced errors and eliminated manual, labor-intensive processes, saving valuable time across global teams.

Takeaways

“The power of the digital thread lies in its ability to connect disparate data sources, enabling manufacturers to eliminate silos and create a unified, integrated view of product data. This single source of truth improves decision-making and accelerates innovation.”
— Jeff Hojlo, program director, Product Innovation Strategies, IDC

By connecting siloed data models and process flows, Aras Innovator’s digital thread empowers organizations to break down barriers between departments and achieve a single source of truth across the entire product lifecycle. This unified data traceability streamlines decision-making, accelerates product development, and improves overall efficiency. As demonstrated by Murata Manufacturing’s success story, Aras Innovator provides a powerful solution for organizations seeking to harness the full potential of their data and drive innovation.

To learn more about how Aras Innovator can transform your organization, check out Transform Your Product Lifecycle with a Unified Digital Thread: A Demo.