🔒CT manufacturers urged to embrace all-digital future, or risk being ‘run over’

“I’m going to apologize in advance — there are a lot of acronyms in this space,” said James Brino, addressing a classroom of manufacturing executives and engineers at the Connecticut Center for Advanced Technology in East Hartford.

And Brino, a technical trainer and curriculum manager at CCAT’s Digital Thread Lab, is not kidding. He was overseeing a lesson about MBD — model-based definition, which is the basis of a digital revolution that some manufacturers are beginning to embrace — with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

Complex feats of engineering, like building a jet engine, obviously use lots of digital tools. Parts are initially visualized using computer-aided design or CAD programs. They’re often then physically created on advanced machine tools like CNC (computer numerical control) machines, or via additive manufacturing on so-called 3D printers.

But in between all these digital processes, there’s still a lot of paper.

The engineer at an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) like East Hartford jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney may design a part in a CAD program, but they’ll then send a 2D drawing of the part to the machine shops in their supply chain. The experienced machinists there must use those 2D renderings to figure out how to program the machine tool that will make the part.

It can take many hours to translate what’s on the page into commands for the machine tool, and it also can occasionally require clarification.

When Brino asks the assembled engineers in the classroom if they’ve ever had to request additional information on a drawing, or queried an error, a lot of hands shoot up.

In a digital thread world, the CAD program would render the newly designed part in a fully digital file. This MBD representation allows the manufacturing technician to rotate the drawing in 3D space to understand and visualize the part, and, crucially, also fully encodes all the measurements and other data associated with the design.

Because all of this information can be read from the model file by the machine tools, it can fully automate the programming — cutting the preparation time from hours to minutes.

No more painstaking manual data entry from a 2D drawing.

“We’re going from everything being paper based — from 2D prints of objects and parts — to this 3D representation and models,” said Amy Thompson, CCAT’s chief talent and training officer. “Once you have that model, you can really leave the paper behind. It’s very powerful because you can now use that information to automate a lot of your processes downstream.”

Leadership buy in

Reducing errors, cutting costs and saving time. These are the key issues that the new paradigm of digital thread is supposed to solve, by keeping the process fully in the digital world from start to finish.

The heaviest push to get legacy machine shops in Connecticut and around the country to adopt this digital paradigm is coming from the government itself. Every branch of the military has been embracing digital thread in its acquisition programs, and urging its contractors to get on board.

And this is why class is now in session at CCAT. For the past year, the center has been implementing a $7.1-million grant from the Department of Defense that has allowed it to build out its Digital Thread Lab and evangelize to companies across the Northeast for this new way of doing business.

The lab consists not just of classroom learning, but of technical spaces where engineers can try out the new processes on demonstration machines. The idea is to upskill the defense industrial base to the new, digital standard, and the lab has national application and aspirations.

“This is the first lab I know of this kind in the country,” said Thompson. “It’s a prototype to really see, can we train, engage and get these small and midsized manufacturers to adopt these new technologies?”

At first, the Digital Thread Lab folks thought they’d be mostly engaging with engineers and focusing on purely technical education. But in the early months, they weren’t getting traction.

“What we learned is that those folks don’t control whether they come in or not,” Thompson said. “Their leadership does. So yes, we have this really exciting program, people want to come, but if we don’t reach the leadership of the organization, it’s not going to happen.”

They built out more curriculum that focused on the business case for digital thread and hired Michelle Scerbin to implement company outreach.

“It is really amazing once you get the senior leader in,” Scerbin said. “They go, ‘whoa, we need to be doing this.’”

The current goal is to put at least 500 people through the full training by the end of 2025. CCAT is also applying for a second round of DOD funding to further expand the program.

The other insight that’s become apparent over the first year of operation is that although the lab was initially aimed at small and midsize businesses, the OEMs and their supply chain companies need to be engaged simultaneously.

“To have these folks, with the resources that they have, be the change agents first for the defense industry — that’s a heavy lift,” said Scerbin, referring to smaller manufacturers. “… What we decided is that everyone has to come together.”

“I would say, for the most part, all of the OEMs have been working on it. They’re all aware,” Thompson said.

She points to Pratt & Whitney as one company that’s particularly engaged in the process. Pratt regularly sends selected engineers and managers to attend Digital Thread Lab classes.

“They’re someone who’s fully embraced this, wants to do it internally, move the needle,” she said. “They want to help and engage their suppliers.”

Training and funding may be the biggest barriers for those smaller suppliers. Many are already running software platforms that can be adapted to the model-based definition standards, and the state has grant funding available if companies need to invest in new, advanced machinery through its Manufacturing Innovation Fund.

But releasing critical workers to complete the full three-week training has been challenging for some.

“It takes a few people to get the momentum, that tipping point,” Scerbin said.

Forward planning

The business case for digital thread extends well beyond the design and manufacture of individual parts, into yet another acronym — PLM, or product lifecycle management.

In a fully digital world, thousands of data points about an individual part can be captured as it is manufactured, creating what’s known as a digital twin. That digital representation can identify potential design flaws that can be fed back to refine the design process, and it can also follow the part throughout its life.

“You could know all sorts of things about the quality of the part,” said Thompson. “Now when you go into operation, you have those records to help you do things like say, maintenance, so you can actually have smart diagnostics.”

The representatives from smaller companies attending this initial digital thread session at CCAT seem intrigued.

“With the ever-changing evolution of technology within the industry, we’re really just trying to stay ahead and prepare,” said Brett Kasper, vice president of finance and procurement at BNL Industries. “What do our next five years look like?”

The 50-person shop based in Vernon manufactures valves for applications at Electric Boat and nuclear power plants.

Right now, his company deals a lot with 2D prints, but Kasper says he sees value in 3D models making it easier for his machinists “to really understand what they’re making. You would be surprised by the amount of delays it causes when you don’t understand a drawing.”

He also sees it as a way to encode institutional knowledge as his veteran machinists retire, and he experiences more churn in the younger workforce.

“With this type of technology, if a part is being machined and you have sensors in there that are giving you all this detailed information, you can capture that process and record it digitally for all of time,” he said.

The thing that concerns him most however, is the length of time it may take to get his staff trained up on a new system.

“My next steps are probably understanding what the specific options are for software within model-based definition, and then really come up with a long-term implementation plan,” Kasper said.

That kind of forward planning is music to the ears of Brino, the CCAT technical trainer.

“As harsh as it may sound,” Brino said, “companies need to get on board, or they’re going to be run over.”