Each organisation develops in their own historical context. This means that tailored ways of creating and interpreting engineering information develop to suit their unique structures. When acting alone, this can work well. But in increasingly interconnected and global supply chains, it can mean a lack of quick action and limited coordination, with suppliers often forced to react to the last levels of demand rather than the next.

What challenges was this project trying to overcome?

• Transparency in the supply chain and the associated collaboration culture

• Engineering data communication and addressing the problem of non-universal understanding of standards around model-based definition and supply chain collaboration. 

• Software agnostic data communication and how this can be overcome.

The Connected MBEE flagship is designed to help cross the data translation divide, mapping the information on which many of the world’s biggest manufacturers base their decisions. This data was used to create a new, general standard for engineering information, helping to standardise and therefore connect live data right from material producers to OEMs across supply chains. This will help to unleash the power of our manufacturing base, slashing waste in materials, time, and money that results from manufacturers acting on outdated or incomplete information.

The project set up two test bed nodes at the NCC and AMRC and ran mock supply chain scenarios using the novel techniques being developed in the project to demonstrate supply chain process efficiency improvements through the deployment of digital tools.

Join the Circle to hear all the updates about the CMBEE project and learn about the collaboration standards created.