Accelerate Decisions by Strengthening the Digital Thread

Ensure Simulation Data is Captured, Enriched, and Traceable with Rescale

Consider a critical product decision where engineers must find and analyze a broad set of simulation outputs across dozens of design variants. Instead of quick insights, they waste hours digging through file servers for the right results, re-running simulations that already exist, or manually stitching together reports from different tools. Rescale eliminates these inefficiencies by capturing data at the point of generation, unifying it with existing systems of record, and making information contextualized and traceable so teams can make faster, more reliable decisions.

The Digital Thread Defined

At its core, a digital thread is a unified data architecture that integrates engineering and business systems, making data consistently accessible, trustworthy, and actionable across tools and teams. When implemented effectively, a digital thread ensures that all relevant data and information remains accessible, trustworthy, and actionable across tools and teams, providing traceability, reproducibility, and a foundation for AI-driven optimization.

While often framed as a strategy, in practice a digital thread takes shape through the many business and engineering systems by which enterprise data flows, including Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) for CAD, High Performance Computing (HPC) environments for simulation, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for supply chain and manufacturing. Rescale extends the digital thread into simulation and modeling, further capturing and enriching knowledge where traditional solutions have had limited reach.

A digital thread is most effective when automated, and the business case for digitization of engineering workflows is reinforced by recent industry research. According to Global Growth Insights, over 62% of large manufacturers have already realized operational efficiencies from digital thread integration, while 41% highlight faster time-to-market. Companies pursuing digital thread initiatives should prioritize technologies that are open, flexible, and easy to support over time, enabling lasting value even as needs evolve.

Engineering’s Data Dilemma

The amount of simulation and modeling data being generated is exploding, coming from an ever-wider range of solvers, models, and compute environments. For engineering and R&D professionals, this creates a constant challenge: critical results are distributed across disconnected systems and storage locations. And beyond simulation, product decisions increasingly rely on data from manufacturing and PLM systems, sensor and field feedback, and even enterprise sources like ERP or supply chain platforms. Without a strong digital thread unifying information, valuable insights are fragmented, slow to find, and difficult to trust.

This is the dilemma: data is both the greatest opportunity and the greatest obstacle. The same simulation results that could accelerate AI adoption, capture institutional knowledge, and shorten design cycles are instead locked away in silos driving rework, wasted compute, and missed opportunities. Underutilized engineering data is more than just numerical values; simulation and modeling metadata captures the methodologies and approaches that embody years of engineering know-how—from configurations to solver settings—and without effective knowledge sharing, that expertise is not leveraged.

Meanwhile, IT and HPC leaders are under pressure to support the rising demand for compute- and data-intensive engineering workloads with fewer resources. According to Gartner, 91% of CIOs see legacy systems as a bottleneck to speed and agility. Together, tighter budgets and outdated systems create even greater strain in simulation-heavy environments, where complex software portfolios and compute resources are already difficult to manage.

Key challenges Engineering, IT and HPC leaders face today include:

• Data fragmentation: Slows engineering decisions and leaves IT supporting costly, disconnected systems.
• Poor reproducibility: Duplicate simulations waste compute, expand storage costs, and increase compliance risk.
• Limited traceability: Weak data lineage makes it difficult to reconstruct past decisions and context, slowing audits, compliance, and design reviews.
• AI readiness gaps: AI initiatives are failing without trustworthy, structured data, leaving teams with little return.

Delaying transformation means delaying the creation of a connected digital thread, widening the gap with competitors who have already taken the steps to unify their data and make it accessible to accelerate innovation.

Digital Engineering: A Proven Path to ROI

The real power of investing in digital engineering solutions that enrich the digital thread lies in strengthening what you already have, unlocking more value without adding cost or complexity. Rescale’s unique, modern approach unifies multidisciplinary simulation and modeling data, capturing it at the source, enriching it automatically, and making it reusable across the enterprise. The result is faster, more reliable decisions and a scalable foundation for AI adoption, turning the digital thread into an ongoing source of business value.

Customers are realizing measurable ROI simply by better leveraging the engineering data they’ve already invested heavily to create. Daikin Applied, for example, reported a 50% reduction in time spent on manual work, enabling engineers to focus on innovation. As Alex Kachkovsky, Virtual Engineering Manager, explained: “Rescale Data allows us to capture, contextualize, and access vast amounts of data across various components and scenarios, driving innovation, enhancing manufacturing efficiency, and bringing products to market faster while meeting the highest energy efficiency standards.”

Engineering is the right place to begin because it generates the most valuable intellectual property: the designs, models, and simulations that shape every downstream process from manufacturing to customer service. Further, because so many downstream functions depend on engineering data and design decisions, digitizing these workflows first is the logical step for IT leaders to lay the foundation of a stronger digital thread that drives transformation across the company.

Strengthening Engineering’s Link in the Digital Thread

Engineering data is fundamentally different from business data—instead of structured records that fit neatly into databases, simulation data comes in a variety of formats from models, meshes, logs, and solver configurations. Meeting this challenge requires a new approach: a flexible, customizable automation framework that can capture and contextualize results so data is standardized, traceable, and actionable across the enterprise. Leaders evaluating digital engineering solutions should prioritize capabilities that improve data quality, accelerate decision-making, and simplify integration and long-term support.

Purpose-built for engineering data, Rescale offers:

Data Integration
With Rescale’s APIs and connectors, siloed simulation data across PLM, SPDM, and enterprise storage systems can be unified into a single architecture for engineering and AI workflows. As a digital engineering platform with unmatched global scale supporting 180+ high-performance computing architectures, Rescale uniquely integrates data and streamlines AI-model training in the cloud.

Data Capture & Enrichment
Rescale automatically captures simulation and modeling data and metadata on-platform — before, during, or after job execution — reducing manual effort. Simulation data refers to the inputs and outputs of solvers. Metadata refers to the information that enriches that work with meaning, such as who ran it, when and why, the solver version, hardware configuration, software settings, and the resulting outcomes or error logs. Only Rescale ensures all this information is consistently organized, accessible, and enriched with the right context for downstream workflows. Because engineering data is often sensitive IP, Rescale provides strong security and traceability, enabling admins to enforce standards and better support compliance work.

AI-Assisted Analysis
The measure of a strong digital thread is its ability to help teams quickly find and share information to turn data into action. The Rescale AI Assistant delivers immediate value with no changes to existing HPC workflows, making massive solver logs, complex inputs/outputs, and high-fidelity engineering data instantly searchable and usable. By combining domain-specific AI with secure handling of proprietary engineering IP, Rescale surfaces new insights, automates complex analysis, and accelerates better decisions.

Workflow Automation
Rescale provides a flexible automation framework that supports Python or any preferred scripting language to streamline repetitive engineering tasks. Automations can capture metadata, manage files, or send notifications automatically, feeding information into the digital thread. Shareable and reusable across teams, these automations enforce consistency, reduce errors, and provide leaders with a scalable way to standardize workflows across teams.

Data Traceability
Rescale provides full traceability of simulation activities through Projects and Job History, making it easy to see who ran what, when, and with which parameters. Teams can also apply customizable tags and metadata, with admins able to enforce enterprise-wide policies that reflect their organization’s unique processes and needs. This visibility allows teams to securely manage engineering IP, simplify compliance audits, and reproduce past results with confidence.

Building a Stronger Digital Thread with Rescale

Every organization’s environment is different, with its own systems, simulation practices, and strategic goals. Rescale is uniquely equipped to help IT and R&D leaders translate their vision of a digital thread into reality—combining elastic HPC orchestration, enterprise-grade automation, and deep expertise in engineering workflows.

For Hankook Tire’s SVP of R&D Innovation, Wonhyuk Lee, Rescale’s digital engineering platform connects simulation data into their broader digital thread: “With this collaboration with Rescale, Hankook Tire’s digital transformation has grown one step further at an incredible pace. We look forward to driving the industry forward.”
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With purpose-built capabilities to capture complex engineering data, proven enterprise integrations, and flexible automation, Rescale simplifies implementation and accelerates adoption. From secure data capture and enrichment to AI-assisted insights, Rescale gives leaders the confidence that their digital thread will deliver measurable value and lasting impact.

Moving from Vision to Value

Strong data foundations are essential today; without them, enterprises cannot fully leverage their tools and people to accelerate decisions, share knowledge effectively, or compete on time-to-market. The path forward starts with identifying the engineering workflows where contextualized, unified data will have the biggest impact—that means asking how cross-functional and global teams exchange information, make decisions, and collaborate on complex product designs.

From here, Rescale experts will help you build on your existing workflows by adding automation and connecting to your systems of record, so you can start benefiting from AI-assisted insights without disrupting how your teams work.

Request a Demo today to see how Rescale can strengthen your digital thread.