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How can a true digital thread be achieved across design, manufacturing, inspection, and lifecycle support? PDES, Inc.’s Persistent ID (PID) Project is addressing this issue by advancing STEP AP242 as the authoritative carrier of Persistent IDs in enabling seamless traceability across engineering domains. A robust digital thread requires that every feature, tolerance, datum, and operational element introduced in design retain its identity as it moves through manufacturing, inspection, and in-service support. When that identity survives every translation and round-trip, organizations gain faster time-to-market, less rework on the production floor, and the ability to perform forensic analysis when in-service failures occur.

The PID Project is working closely with the CAx Interoperability Forum (CAx-IF) to test and deploy PIDs. Successive rounds of joint testing have steadily matured this capability, with vendor implementations improving over time. Bidirectional traceability between STEP and Quality Information Framework (QIF) is now demonstrated for the first time.

These findings are published in “Sewing the Digital Thread Together via Standards” in the prostep ivip ProductData Journal. Read the full article to see how standards-based interoperability is helping connect the digital thread and deliver measurable business value across industries.

About PDES, Inc.: An industry consortium dedicated to advancing the Digital Enterprise through the development, implementation, and testing of product data standards and best practices, PDES, Inc. works with manufacturers, software vendors, government agencies, and academia to improve interoperability across the product lifecycle.

About CAx-IF: A collaborative testing forum jointly hosted by PDES, Inc., AFNeT, and the prostep ivip association since 1999, the CAx Interoperability Forum (CAx-IF) is dedicated to advancing the quality of STEP translators and decreasing their time-to-market across design, manufacturing, and inspection domains.

As Americans celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding on July 4, 2026, we reflect on the principles that have guided the United States for two and a half centuries.

The United States celebrates its birth not on the date peace was secured through the Treaty of Paris, but on the signing of the Declaration of Independence. More than a declaration of separation from Great Britain, it established a shared vision of what the new nation aspired to become. It articulated enduring principles of liberty, equality, and natural rights that would later be reflected in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Together, these founding documents created a framework that has guided generations of Americans while allowing the nation to grow, adapt, and innovate.

At PDES, Inc., we appreciate the importance of strong frameworks. Just as our America’s founders understood the value of establishing common principles, we recognize that modern manufacturing depends on standards that provide a common foundation for collaboration and innovation.

The success of both our nation and our manufacturing community demonstrates an enduring truth: lasting progress depends upon shared principles and trusted frameworks. They create stability while encouraging innovation, enabling people and organizations to work together toward common goals.

From all of us at PDES, Inc., we wish you a safe and happy Independence Day as we commemorate 250 years of American ingenuity, collaboration, and progress.

As part of the EN/NAS9300 series of standards, the LOTAR Basic and Common Parts Working Group are developing a new recommended practices document concerning metadata requirements for a LOTAR archival package, which will be published as Part 021 of the EN/NAS 9300 series of standards.

The LOTAR standards are developed from the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model (ISO 14721), which provides a conceptual framework for Archive systems. Using the OAIS reference model and the LOTAR basic and common Parts (EN/NAS 9300-001, 002, 003, 005, 007, …) as a process guideline, Part 021 establishes a minimum set of metadata for an archive in support of business and regulatory requirements for long-term archiving of digital product data. In particular it establishes the metadata requirements common to all domains (3D Mechanical CAD and PMI, Composites, MBSE, Electrical Harness, PLM) and establishes the framework for a common approach in the individual domain parts (100, 200, etc.).

OAIS defines certain minimum classes of metadata that should be held in an archive which support the trust in, the access to, the context of and the relationships between the elements of the content information (model data).

The new Part 021 has been developed by the Basic and Common Parts Working Group led by Jeff Klein (Boeing), together with Torben Lindeman (Airbus), Jochen Boy (PROSTEP) and Stephen Mackey (Penwern), an archiving and digital preservation consultant.

Part 021 is currently in external ballot with ASD-STAN and AIA and it is anticipated that it will be published in the second half of 2026.