This is the core illustration from the recently published Department of Defense Directive 5000.97 on Digital Engineering. The directive describes the DoD concepts behind the Digital Engineering Ecosystem that includes digital engineering and the technical activities including manufacturing and quality.
Digital Engineering Ecosystem: Theinfrastructure and architecture (hardware, software, networks, tools, workforce) necessary to support digital approaches for all phases of the system development life cycle.
Digital Model: A computer (0 and 1 digits) representation of an object, phenomenon, process, or system. May include form, attributes, and functions and may be depicted visually or as a mathematical or logical expression.
Digital Twin: A virtual representation of a product, system, or process that uses data to mirror and predict system activities and performance of its physical twin.
Digital Artifacts: Digital products and views from the digital ecosystem.
Digital artifacts are digital products and views that can be dynamically generated directly from digital models. These artifacts are created from standards, rules, tools, and infrastructure with a digital engineering system. Some common examples of digital artifacts include. But are not limited to :
| Design specifications. | Work breakdown structure. |
| Technical drawings. | Production or machining instructions. |
| Interface management documents. | Test planning and cases. |
| Analytical results. | Schedules. |
| Bills of material. | Product support strategy. |
| Software source code. | Data flow diagrams. |
The specific areas of interest for CSI include the data and artifacts used or created in the production environment within the enterprise or across the value chain. The usual process is for product design and manufacturing data to be generated within the enterprise engineering function and released to suppliers and in-house production facilities. The product digital thread is a key element of the ecosystem that connects authoritative data resources and orchestrates (distributes and collects) digital information across the manufacturing steps.
This is the DOD view of the Digital Ecosystem and is the basis for their acquisition programs. We can see this concept being developed in many compliance driven industries including automotive, electronics, medical devices, pharmaceutical, aerospace and defense.
Michael McClellan