Next-Generation Completeness and Consistency Management in the Digital Thread of the Future
0 likes•96 views
The document discusses challenges in maintaining consistency, completeness, and correctness (3C) across disconnected engineering data silos. It proposes using links and transformations to connect models between systems engineering and electrical design tools. Validation rules can then check that connections and components are properly mapped between the silos. The IncQuery Validator was used to import a model from E3.GENESYS into its knowledge graph and generate a validation report checking for 3C issues. Tracking link management and validation results over time provides visibility into the progress of the "digital thread" across the engineering lifecycle.
Next-Generation Completeness and Consistency Management in the Digital Thread of the Future
- 1. Next-Generation Completeness and Consistency Management in the Digital Thread of the Future Ákos Horváth PhD, CTO IncQuery Labs cPlc.
- 2. The IncQuery Group is an international team of engineering experts with a strong research and development background. We support systems engineers in several industries to create tailormade solutions. Automotive professionals, aircraft engineers, space engineers all trust us to make their systems work exceptionally, safer, faster, and more reliable. Who We Are
- 3. Global Partner Network Demonstrated history of successful collaboration with leading international organizations
- 5. Digital Thread More and more systems design scenarios comprise a high number of domains, also displaying a remarkable diversity in their nature Digital Threads • Siloed multi-domain engineering data • Digital tools and toolchains • Lifecycle management • Connections that bridge data across silos Promises • Increasing systems quality • Reducing risks and chances of errors • Reducing overall production costs
- 6. The impact of disconnected silos Various isolated disciplines Systems Engineering, Mechanical, Electrical, ALM/PLM, … As disconnected silos, what is the interface between architecture and disciplines? - It is often a document produced from a discipline specific tool - Consequence: data reentry and/or copy-paste - No guarantee of completeness, correctness and consistency A lot of time and money is wasted! No global consistency Difficult customization Data lock-in Vendor lock-in
- 7. The 3C challenge completeness, correctness, consistency
- 8. Example: transition to detailed design Transition to Detailed Design
- 9. The silo problem of “transition to detailed design”
- 10. The 3C Challenge Completeness • Make sure all my components and functions exist both in SE and ECAD Correctness • If component A has is of type “PCB” (in SE) → it should be mapped to a PCB device (in ECAD) Consistency • If a connection transfers an item between components A and B (in SE) → there is a wire carrying the corresponding signal between devices A and B (in ECAD) Cable/Harness Video Drone Model What causes 3C problems? • Input error • Forgetting/missing something • Copy/paste error • Incorrect mappings • Roundtripping gone bad • Change
- 11. Prerequisites to solve the 3C challenge
- 12. Queries Technology Landscape Link Link Link Silo Silo Systems Engineering ECAD Links Queries Transformations Transformation
- 13. First-class citizen What can links connect? • Full documents • Repositories/Large set of data • Low-level elements/objects Link Link Link document document E.g. linking between a serialized version of the video drone and cable/harness models as files. E.g. linking between given version of the video drone and cable/harness models stored in the silos. E.g. linking between components in a video drone model and wires in a cable/harness model.
- 14. Linking between Silos • Multiplicity • 1-to-1, 1-to-many, many-to-many Link Link Link E.g. different links for each component and wire, item and signal. E.g. one link for all wires related to a component. E.g. for each component pairs and connections between them, there is a link to the relevant devices and wires between them.
- 15. Linking between Silos • Multiplicity • 1-to-1, 1-to-many, many-to-many • Recognize broken links • Automated (Immediate/Scheduled), Manual Link Link Link E.g. a component is deleted which had a related wire.
- 16. Linking between Silos • Multiplicity • 1-to-1, 1-to-many, many-to-many • Recognize broken links • Automated (Immediate/Scheduled), Manual • Managing Versions • Supporting all versions, Supporting only published versions, Only latest revision Link Link’ Link’’ Device Device' Component Component' E.g. for each change a new link is created.
- 17. Linking between Silos • Multiplicity • 1-to-1, 1-to-many, many-to-many • Recognize broken links • Automated (Immediate/Scheduled), Manual • Managing Versions • Supporting all versions, Supporting only published versions, Only latest revision Link Link’’ Manually publish new version Device Device' Component Component' E.g. links are created when it is triggered by a publish. E.g. for each change a new link is created.
- 18. Linking between Silos • Multiplicity • 1-to-1, 1-to-many, many-to-many • Recognize broken links • Automated (Immediate/Scheduled), Manual • Managing Versions • Supporting all versions, Supporting only published versions, Only latest revision Link’’ Device' Component' E.g. no version information is available. E.g. links are created when it is triggered by a publish. E.g. for each change a new link is created.
- 19. Managing links with data between Silos View data & links - Data and links are presented for end- users in a table/tree/diagram format - Custom representation or existing tools - Data and links are navigable Querying data & links - Simple/Complex filtering - Relation/Graph based querying - Full/text search - Hybrid
- 20. Data visible from the Silos No data replication from Silos A wrapper is used for accessing the data inside Silos Full data replication of data from Silos in native format Data is stored in a native format (object blobs, files etc.) Data Warehousing, Data Lake Full data replication from Silos All data is extracted from the Silos to provide a full access to the data Publishing a state of the data from Silos Usually requires a manual step to publish the data All data of a given snapshot of the data is accessible Wrapper blob, files, etc… Access Request Manually publish new version
- 21. Mapping between Silos: Rule based Precondition (in SE): there is connection that transfers an item between components A and B Action (in ECAD): create a wire carrying the corresponding signal between devices A and B Silo Silo Systems Engineering ECAD Transformation
- 22. Automated creation of links Handover automation: Bridges capable of moving data, metadata, and documents between tools automatically. It helps in replacing redundant and error-prone data re-entry with automated import-export steps. Requires customized transformation capabilities: - Model to model, Model to text, Text to model - Possibility to create custom rule definitions - Diagram-based editor - Text-based editor
- 24. Comparison Table* Tool Linking Querying Transformation Data Storage Syndeia™ - Intercax Generic links with tool-specific endpoints Gremlin Rule-based synchronization No replication (links only) Smartfacts OSLC linking support Traceability coverage queries ? (no information) No replication SBE Vision Generic links with tool-specific endpoints “Semantic search” (elastic search) ? (no information) Full replication (ontology based) The Reuse company– Eningeering Studio OSLC KM, Interface modelling Rule-based validation Rule-based transformation framework Hybrid Replication (latest version) IncQuery Cloud Generic links based on URLs Elastic search, SPARQL, VQL Tool-specific bridges Full replication (multiple) *Based on data accessible from the websites of the given tools as of 2023 / 04 / 12
- 25. Addressing the 3C Analysis case study with Zuken E3.GENESYS and IncQuery
- 26. Our take • Our take Discipline-specific, automated bridge tools that create the digital thread Overlaid layer of digital thread analytics that can expose parts of the digital thread depending on the need/use-case Vendor-neutral federated tool integration • Single source of truth is NOT a single model ➔ it is the ”model of models” • Digital thread analytics can • look at links AND look into models • Semantically analyze both • Holistic → adaptable to all tools in the toolchain
- 28. Video demonstration of the E3.GENESYS Connector
- 29. A new platform for digital engineering automation. • Creates a unified, searchable, and analyzable representation of your complete digital thread: the knowledge graph • Automated Quality Gates: detailed validation reports and analysis dashboards that integrate seamlessly with modern, web-based tools • Handover Automation: light-weight bridge tools that eliminate copy-paste and date re-entry • Powered by digital thread analytics: queries and mapping rules that can seamlessly cross tool (silo) boundaries IncQuery Suite DESKTOP VALIDATOR CLOUD
- 30. Main features - Works with popular tools like Enterprise Architect and MagicDraw/Cameo out of the box. - Runs as a standalone application or as part of a DevOps pipeline - Provides a convenient extension framework to define custom validation rules for models, which we rely on for the GENESYS adaptation → - Supports centrally-shared / version-managed projects, by integrating with Teamwork Cloud, or file-based VCSs such as Git/SVN. Devops-ready automated quality gate, providing detailed model quality reports, based on standard and custom rules. - Helps Systems Engineers to assess key quality-related metrics of their work, independently of what authoring environment they work in. - Helps downstream stakeholders (e.g. QA Engineers, Software Architects, Electrical Engineers, …) to automatically assess the quality of an inbound systems architecture model, based on rules such as the library provided by the SAIC Digital Engineering Validation Tool, or 3C analysis. IncQuery Validator
- 31. The “DEOps” Pipeline 31 INCQUERY VALIDATOR SE EE E3.GENESYS Connector
- 32. Validation report for 3C Analysis • Results after initial import performed with GENESYS.E3 Connector • Partially complete (Subsystem mapping is disabled by default) • Inconsistent signal allocations → “If a connection transfers an item between components A and B (in SE) ➔ there is a wire carrying the corresponding signal between devices A and B (in ECAD)”
- 33. Adding missing wiring and signal allocation
- 34. Validation Report for 3C Analysis • Re-run the validation • Result: Allocation problems resolved
- 35. Progress tracking • Historical analytics as the “progress bar” of a complex engineering process • Model Integrator / Reviewer can follow the “Transition to Detailed Design” process on a version control dashboard • Track progress via KPIs as the mapping completeness is improved • Identify and fix correctness issues quickly 35
- 36. Takeaway • Creating the Digital thread requires a lot of underlying methodologies and technologies to work in harmony • There is no single golden solution • Define your requirements carefully • Consistency, completeness, consistency analysis • Version control • Link management • Handover automation • Access control • Model validation • Etc. Be open to share your successes and failures
- 37. [email protected] +36204157393 CTO Thanks for your attention! Ákos Horváth, PhD