The Digital Thread in Industry 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0, the new wave of Smart Manufacturing in Europe and globally, relies on a Digital Thread to connect the data and processes for smarter products, smarter production, and smarter integrated ecosystems. But what is the Digital Thread? We discuss a few key questions about modelling, the nature of models and the use of models that arose from the experience in the first two years of Confirm, the Irish Centre for Smart Manufacturing. We also provide an example of how the new model-powered and integrated thinking can disrupt the status quo, empower a better understanding, and deliver a more automatic management of the many cross-dimensional issues that future connected software and systems will depend upon.