The manufacturing industry faces a significant challenge in integrating data across the design-to-sustainment lifecycle. To address this, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have teamed up to develop a standards-based solution that enables seamless data exchange. A key enabler of this solution is the implementation of Persistent IDs (P-IDs), which are digital identifiers for part geometry and product manufacturing information (PMI).

P-IDs can provide a digital thread that supports data exchange across the design, manufacturing, inspection, and sustainment ecosystem by leveraging neutral standards such as STEP AP242, MTConnect, and QIF.

A recent project with Georgia Tech, Purdue, and RPI demonstrated the feasibility of using P-IDs to create a digital thread across the lifecycle, connecting data from CAD systems, CAM systems, CNC controllers, and CMM inspection systems to QIF reports. The demonstration produced 25 assemblies and showed a real ‘standards based’ digital thread across design, manufacturing, and test data for all machined parts of the assemblies. The project also explored the use of P-IDs  with automated part matching algorithms to aid in efficient assembly.

Building on the success of this project, this presentation aims to engage the audience in a discussion on the development and adoption of P-IDs in industry, and will include an anonymized assessment of major CAx vendors’ capabilities in supporting standards-based P-IDs to inform the discussion.