In the first in a series of blogs, senior theme lead for digital, Gavin Hill, explains why 2025 for him is all about the digital thread, and what the AMRC is doing in this space to support the digital transformation of manufacturing and engineering.

Right now in manufacturing, particularly in digital manufacturing, one of the hottest topics is ‘digital thread’.

This is a really exciting development because of the potential for positive change that it poses to all those working in this space. The biggest problem? None of us seem to know what it really means. Even for those who are considered experts and well educated in the space, the difference of opinion over details is vast. Experience tells me that it is particularly hard to bring real positive change from a technology when you are selling an enigma.

So what are we going to do?

We could wait for some fairy godmother of manufacturing to fill in the gaps for everyone, or we could throw the potential of digital thread in the pile of other broken buzzword toys. On the other hand, we could try to make a difference, and stick our head above the parapet. We could take a shot at helping everyone move forward on this journey, starting from the very beginning and trying our best to solve issues as we see them. That is the option the AMRC is going to try to go with.

This series of blogs is just one of the ways we’re going to do this, taking us right up to MACH 2026 where we’ll be showing what we’ve learned about the digital thread since the introduction of the concept at MACH 2024.

We don’t want to simply show up on the day and try to throw as much information at you as we can in the limited time we have - that would miss out on the value in the journey. It would ignore the fact that people need help now, and every day, not just when there is an end product or a big event where we can show off what we’ve learned. We all need processing time to gain the most from the opportunities made available to us, and this blog is an effort to support that. 

The exact content of each piece between now and April 2026 will flex to be the most useful information it can be at the time of delivery. However, to give you a flavour for it, I am hoping to explain what the digital thread is, why you should care, explore some of the work that is happening at both the AMRC and the wider High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC), and give some context and use cases.

I’ll try to look at the key technology players in the space, explore some of the biggest challenges that are affecting adoption, and throw in a few examples of the longer term research that is just starting to emerge right now.

Hopefully, you will get an understanding of what is happening today, why it matters, and what it could mean to you in the future.

You can find out more about the digital thread here.