PeopleTec – An Industry Leader in Digital Engineering
As our military and the Department of Defense (DoD) increase focus on digital engineering, PeopleTec is developing technical expertise and making significant investments to support the Warfighter. Digital Engineering uses software tools that support system development, modeling, and validation testing—thereby eliminating the need for early physical infrastructures until a valid digital design has been achieved. Digital Engineering supports the rapid development of emerging technologies and the modernization and sustainment of existing systems. In December 2023, the DoD approved instruction 5000.97 which emphasizes the use of digital engineering methodologies, technologies, and practices across the life cycle of defense acquisition programs. PeopleTec facilitates digital acquisition through the deployment of engineering tools and strategies as DoD modernization programs increasingly rely on digital environments to manage models and system requirements. Digital Engineering aims to accelerate the development of complex systems or subsystems by naturally extending traditional engineering disciplines and supporting validation throughout the lifecycle. This approach, along with PeopleTec’s Systems Engineering expertise, refines and accelerates the development process to create a more flexible, consistent, and detailed approach. While adopting Digital Engineering is progressive and anticipated to realize efficiencies for the DoD, many organizations face challenges when introducing this approach to their workforce and existing processes. Challenges transitioning from traditional linear engineering processes include software tool selection, integration, and, most of all, training the workforce. PeopleTec supports organizational change management that manages the possible disruptive changes associated with digital transformation, encompassing alterations to business processes, technology, culture, and workforce.
The DoD further aims to transition away from two-dimensional and document-based design to an all-digital environment, enabling the creation of virtual prototypes before significant investments in physical demonstrators. Acquisition programs leveraging Digital Engineering principles are already experiencing positive outcomes, such as the US Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). Digital Engineering can be inserted virtually anywhere into a product lifecycle for a more agile response to market demands. The DoD strategy and widespread adoption of Digital Engineering “promotes the use of digital representations of systems and components” and the use of digital artifacts to design and sustain our Nation’s critical defense systems. The DoD’s five strategic goals for Digital Engineering are:
- Formalize the development, integration, and use of models to inform enterprise and program decision-making.
- Provide an enduring, authoritative single source of truth.
- Incorporate technological innovation to improve the engineering practice.
- Establish a supporting infrastructure and environment to perform activities, collaborate, and quickly communicate with stakeholders.
- Transform the culture and workforce to adopt and support digital engineering across the lifecycle.
PeopleTec, as an industry leader in Digital Engineering, provides various value-added services to the DoD. Our Digital Engineering Ecosystems are designed using Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and their deployment accelerates design cycles and reduces acquisition costs. PeopleTec is committed to MBSE and how it supports digital design; we established a Community of Practice for consistency and collaboration of best practices, providing practitioners with training. PeopleTec’s Digital Engineering Ecosystems emphasize the importance of an authoritative source of truth and leverage artificial intelligence for enhanced development times in a secure cloud architecture.
Immediate Customer Benefits
Our customers realize immediate benefits from Digital Engineering, including a more cost-effective design process, rapid access to engineering and product data, automation for reducing revisions, and enduring digital twin sources of truth. PeopleTec's Digital Engineering approach, developed through collaboration with our DoD customers, is in use and continually evolving to meet mission needs and customer objectives. We quickly create a robust MBSE environment using digital threads for easy data access by all stakeholders. PeopleTec’s teamwork with academia resulted in a successful and repeatable test and evaluation Digital Engineering approach that provides system-wide traceability and quick access to verification results.
Digital Engineering: DoD and Beyond
Through Digital Engineering, PeopleTec leads our customers to advance their mission-essential technologies, enabling data-driven decisions without the loss of operational readiness. As Digital Engineering becomes integral to the DoD engineering fabric, PeopleTec is ready to support other government agencies in realizing its valuable and transformational benefits. PeopleTec’s Digital Engineering team is positioned to collaborate with new customers as they incorporate Digital Engineering and evolve their existing capabilities.
