How to Create a Unified Digital Thread - In 7-Steps from As-Is to To-Be
- Christopher J. Garcia
- Jan 6
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 12
We used to dread "Process Mapping" workshops.
Where we would lock our most talented Subject Matter Experts in a conference room for days, armed with nothing but sticky notes, a facilitator and coffee…
· “Trying to manually map our "As-Is" and “To-Be” Digital Transformation states in a meaningful way.”
It was tedious, expensive, and often resulted in only a "Happy Path" map that looked great on paper but failed to capture current or future realities.
We often missed the invisible cracks like:
· The "Phantom Parts" created in ERP before Engineering is ready.
· The shop floor redlines that never make it back to the PLM.
· The validation gaps between CAD design and Manufacturing execution.
We realized there had to be a better way.
· “What if we could use AI to not just help us draw the maps, but to stress-test them as well against best practices captured in published industry “ontologies”.
In this article, we break down exactly how we combined LLMs (like Gemini) and Knowledge Graphs (like Neo4j) to automate this heavy lifting.
We walk through a step-by-step case study of a Hybrid-Electric Aircraft startup company moving from a disconnected "As-Is" state to a fully closed-loop "To-Be" Digital Thread.
Inside, we share the exact 7 Steps and 12 Prompts used to:
1. Generate the initial Business Process Map (CAD → PLM → ERP → MES).
2. Create a Knowledge Graph to identify systemic failures (like the "Open-Loop Redline").
3. Automatically iterate the “To-Be” business process map (from v1.0 to v4.0) until the Digital Thread is truly unified.
Hopefully this article will allow you to avoid wasting more time and resources manually mapping the Happy Path and allow you and your teams to quickly move towards engineering a resilient Unified Digital Thread.
Read the full guide here: (1) How to Create a Unified Digital Thread In 7-Steps from As-Is to To-Be Using LLM & Knowledge Graph Automation | LinkedIn
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