Digital Threads and Twins In Theory and In Practice: Benchmarked Industry Use Cases

A Complimentary CIMdata Educational Webinar with James Roche, Vice President, Aerospace & Defense Practice, CIMdata and Janie Gurley, Director, Data Governance Practice, CIMdata

9 April 2026
11:00 EDT | 08:00 PST | 16:00 CET

Do these common industry pain points resonate with you?

False Starts: Attempts to implement a digital thread or digital twin often lead to a series of frustrating efforts.
The Complexity Wall: A DT-DT strategy seems doable at first, but then stalls out as unforeseen complexities arise and uncertainty sets in.
The Missing Roadmap: Digital transformations are frequently derailed by the lack of a roadmap that links multiple product representations across disciplines and creates virtual geometric and behavioral replicas.
Analysis Paralysis: The range of DT-DT possibilities is so expansive that it is difficult to know where to start.
Risk Management: The vision appears sophisticated and complex, making it hard to assess risk without evidence of where success has been achieved.

Digital threads and digital twins (DT-DT) do not simply create more product data; they serve as essential frameworks for interrelating and combining lifecycle data. When executed correctly, these frameworks reveal high-value information about how a product is produced, operated, and serviced.

This webinar cuts through the complexity to provide a clear roadmap for your digital transformation by focusing on three core pillars:

The “What”: The scope of data to be interrelated as a digital thread or combined as a digital twin.
The “Why”: The value to be realized from these interrelationships and combinations of data.
The “How”: The set of architectural principles for designing the structure of views to enable collaboration between data creators and consumers along the product lifecycle.

Bridging the Gap: What is Achievable Today?

The possibilities are limitless, and that is both the challenge and the opportunity. To determine which strategies are practical to implement with current tools, the CIMdata-administered Aerospace & Defense PLM Action Group (AD PAG) engaged with seven DT-DT solution providers to assess the capabilities of commercially available software and service solutions. This was achieved through a series of rigorous demonstrations of supported industry use cases.

In this webinar, we will review 7 of the 28 demonstrated use cases that span all lifecycle stages and all technical domains, from initial development and production to the utilization and support of complex systems.

Attending this webinar will help you to:

Understand the core concepts of digital thread and digital twin.
Identify the different product representations relevant to creators and consumers along the lifecycle.
Learn the basic guidelines for designing the structure and content of digital threads and twins.
Gain Insight into how solution providers implement DT-DT frameworks.
Understand the level of performance and value achieved from a range of DT-DT use cases.

Who should attend?

This session is designed for anyone responsible for or interested in product program integration, systems engineering, PLM program planning, or digital transformation. Specific roles would include:

Program Leadership: Product & PLM Program Managers/Planners.
Technical Architects: Systems Engineers, PLM & Digitalization Architects.
Strategic Leads: Digital Transformation & Digitalization Strategists.
Business Partners: PLM Business Analysts.

During the webinar, you’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions about the topics discussed.