The Key to Digital Engineering? An Open System Modular 3D Model-Based Definition

There’s a lot of news today around companies “Going Digital.”

The Department of Defense (DoD) has issued several guidelines on this, including the Digital Engineering Strategy, released seven years ago and most recently in 2023, DoD Instruction 5000.97 on Digital Engineering. Two buzzwords describe the foundation of a Digital Engineering ecosystem:

• Digitization -  the process of turning paper-based information into digital form
• Digitalization - transforming manual processes for use in a digital environment

This is important to know from both a technical and business perspective. The technical workforce puts pressure on keeping up with technology. Engineers want better tools like simulations, design information visualization, and rapid prototyping that allow them to work faster from a desktop. Business leaders are focused on getting products to market faster and at a lower cost. Technical improvements depend on digitization, while business improvements depend on digitalization.

The idea behind the Digital Engineering Strategy is that technology can make these things happen through increased automation, better communication, and expanding the availability of machines that can reduce the level of human intervention necessary to analyze, diagnose, and solve problems. As exciting as this is, each of these relies on and creates large amounts of data not well suited for downstream application – it needs to be managed properly to work effectively.

Here’s the challenge: without a proper 3D Model-Based Definition that defines characteristics, behaviors, environment, and emerging technologies like advanced manufacturing, augmented reality, and Condition Based Maintenance, a digital engineering ecosystem simply won’t work. Right now, we are not dedicating enough resources to organize this data.

With so much attention being given to improving automation, it’s become clear that humans can’t be left out of the loop. Our long-term vision is to create systems where 3D models of products are fully digital and every attribute about how parts fit, form, and function, is linked together. This should also include making sure the workforce has the resources to interact as quickly and effectively in real time as the machines do. Ideally, the software is as flexible as possible and can work with standards-based neutral data.

The technology we need to establish standards-based modular open system digital threads has been developed, prototyped, and tested in the past for Navy ships and ship systems. With today’s advances in technology, it can be adapted to our current environment to meet the needs of the DoD. There is no technical reason why we can’t build the agile digital system the DoD envisions within this generation.

Success will require cooperation and compromise across the technical enterprise, commitment from executives to establish and enforce policy, a willingness of acquisition professionals to forcefully protect rights in technical data, and an appropriate carrot and stick for software providers to provide high-quality agile translators.