This presentation provides an overview of Digital Twins in Production environments, compares the status quo to potential alternatives using Digital Twins, and describes how to approach Digital Transformation using these technologies. While the presentation is specific to Aerospace and Defense, the solutions are generally applicable to any complicated or complex project or program.

1. 1 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
Modernizing A&D Production Systems
Graph Based Solutions and Breakthrough Improvement
Authored by: David Prestin
2022 Dependency Structure Modeling Annual Conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands

2. 2 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
What You’ll Hear
 Why Aerospace and Defense is so complex
 A Tale of Two Worlds – Analogue Manufacturing and Digital Manufacturing
 How Graph Based Solutions: DSMs, Network Insights, and Intelligent
Scheduling help

3. 3 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
Disclaimers
 The following stories are entirely fictional and any resemblance to an existing situation is purely
coincidental
 The situations depicted here are on the extremes but we’ve experienced some flavor of what
each describe
 The situations and personas depicted are for illustrative purposes only

4. 4 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
Number
of
Parallel
Paths
Number of Dependencies per Task
Hamburger Networks
• Thick with lots of ingredients
• Many integration/touch points
• Messy and Complicated
• Lots of variations
• Graph based solutions
necessary to simplify this
complexity BEFORE other
solutions applied
Hotdog Networks
• Long and narrow
• Fewer parallel paths
• Straight forward and orderly
• Relatively few
integration/interdependencies
• Lean, Six Sigma, and “Best Practice”
methods work wonders
Why is A&D so Complex? Time, Space, and Scale!!!

5. 5 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
A Tale of Two Worlds
Analogue Manufacturing Digital Manufacturing

6. 6 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
What is Business as Usual for Stan at Analogue Manufacturing?
What’s his day like? VUCA Reigns
 Volatile: every day is a fire fight
 Uncertain: not sure which fire to put out first,
second, third…
 Complex: lots of undocumented
interdependencies across process, product,
people, place
 Ambiguous: difficult to track down root causes
and they seem to always change
Why is it this way?
 Trapped: legacy factory layouts and monolithic
processes/tools/mindsets
 Simplistic: methods and mindsets stuck in what only
works in a much more orderly world
 Disempowered: digitized processes of old methods
and mindsets resulting in more to answer to and not
enough answers to prevent and manage disruption
 Disconnected: people, processes, product, and
technology not designed and managed holistically
Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results

7. 7 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
What is Business as Usual for Heather at Digital Manufacturing?
What’s her day like? Slaying VUCA Dragons
 Variable: impacts are smaller scale and more
easily managed
 Reliable: she and her peers know what’s
expected, when, by whom and it’s repeatable
 Frictionless: she can quickly navigate to what’s
relevant to her and upstream/downstream
 Transparent: less guess work in her day and
relationships are clear to everyone
Why is it this way?
 Digital Models: enable rapid reprioritization
 Buffers: strategic margins of safety limit ripple
effects of disruption
 Simplified: Complexity is reduced as far as
possible during the production design stage
 Connected: Process, product, people are
connected via graph-based technologies so system
states are clear and communication happens fluidly
Planning Network
Configurable Schedules
Resourcing and Priorities
Partitioned DSM
w/ Historical Data Partitioned Arc Diagram

8. 8 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
Digital Manufacturing Powered by Graph Based Solutions
DSM’s and Network Insights
Job 1 Job 2 Job 3 Job 4
Job 1 - X X
Job 2 - X
Job 3 - X
Job 4 -
Supercharged Insights, Factory
Modeling, and Intelligent Scheduling
Global Factory Attributes
Work
Calendars
Material
Delivery
Control Points
Resource
Capacities
Learning
Curves
Other Attributes of Interest
Originating
Organizations
Current Condition
of Assembly
Historical
Manufacturing
Data
Aircraft and
Factory Systems
Classifications
Value
Increases
Over Time
All Models Are Wrong, Some Are Useful
George Box

9. 9 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
How to Start Right: Factory and Process Design
Design in Resiliency and Remove Improvement Curve Waste from the Start
DSMs
 Rapid Data Collection
 Factory Layout Design
 Constraints Analysis
Network Visualizations and Analytics
 Multiple Perspectives
 Complexity Analytics
AI Powered Intelligent Scheduling
 Capacity Planning
 Economic Profit Optimization
 Workforce Planning

10. 10 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
How to Stay Right: Production Management and Breakthrough Improvement
Production Management
 Optimize for minimum flow time, maximum resource utilization,
and strategic margins of safety
 Adaptable and Actionable Priorities = Rapid Resolution
 DSM’s and Intelligent Scheduling allow for rapid replanning,
scenario analysis, long range strategic planning, and more
Breakthrough Improvement
 Root cause analysis  scale up/down in factory, process, and
product hierarchies for holistic points of view
 Identify “As Performed” bottlenecks and alternative solutions
 Partition across Multi-Domain Matrix to assign high leverage
improvement focus areas and ensure proper accountabilities
Historical
Performance Data
Partitions and
Hierarchies
Position for Adaptation and the End of Incremental Improvements
Planning Network
Configurable Schedules
Resourcing and Priorities

11. 11 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
Our point of view on the industry
Evolving
20%
Status Quo
80%
A&D INDUSTRY GRAPH BASED
METHODS MATURITY
• In A&D, outsized benefits make the
difference between growth and decline
• How to get Analogue transformed to
Digitals world?
• Strategy, Strategy, Strategy
• Great Product Management
• Great Program Management
• Customer and User Empathy
• Proven Results in Variety of Manufacturing
Environments

12. 12 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
Key Takeaways Anyone Can Use
 Graph Based Solutions solve General Problems
 Domain Expertise coupled with Graph Based Solutions makes for a powerful combination
 No technology or method fits all cases, be flexible and general to be successful
 Model from simplicity to sophistication and deliver value along the way

13. 13 Copyright 2023 Prestin Group LLC
THANK YOU
linkedin.com/in/davidprestin
theprestingroup@gmail.com
www.daveprestin.me