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Blog | Anark
EPD 2026: What We Learned About the Future of Digital Engineering
Engineering Process Days 2026 made one thing clear: digital engineering is no longer a narrow engineering process conversation.
What We Learned at DMC 2026: Speed, Digital Standards, and the Future of Technical Data
The Defense Manufacturing Conference 2026 brought together leaders from across the defense industrial base to address a shared challenge: how to deliver capability to the warfighter faster without...
Machine-Readable vs. Human-Readable Data in Digital Engineering
The Need for Machine-Readable, Machine-Interpretable, and Human-Readable Data in Digital Engineering Collaboration Digital engineering is reshaping how product data moves across systems, workflows,...
3D CIC 2026 Recap: The Front Lines of Model-Based Engineering
What happens when model-based engineering moves from theory to real implementation? That question was everywhere at 3D CIC 2026. And it drove the conversations that have evolved greatly over the last...
Digital Engineering Data Distribution: Which Mode is Right for You?
In our previous post, we explored the Data Distribution Dilemma.
The Future of Technical Data Packages: Solving the Data Distribution Dilemma
Summary: Modern Technical Data Packages (TDP) must support multiple delivery needs. Programs require MIL-STD-compliant 3D PDFs, secure web collaboration, and portable HTML for offline access. The...
Why the Army Is Moving from 2D Drawings to 3D Technical Data Packages
What the Broader Defense Industry Can Learn From This Shift
Digital Engineering Collaboration: From Models to Execution
Turning Digital Engineering from strategy into day-to-day execution Digital Engineering promises a future where authoritative digital models drive decisions across the product lifecycle. In most...
What Is Digital Engineering? Definition, Operating Model and Execution
From authoritative models to executable outcomes across the product lifecycle Digital Engineering is widely discussed but rarely defined the same way twice. Across government programs, systems...
Defining Model-based Collaboration Across the Product Lifecycle
What it really means for product manufacturers As product manufacturers accelerate digital engineering and model-based definition (MBD) initiatives, a critical gap has emerged. While 3D models now...
Nordic MBE Forum 2025 Recap | Advancing the Digital Thread Together
The first ever Nordic MBE Forumbrought together experts, practitioners, and innovators to share progress and challenges on the journey toward a truly model-based enterprise (MBE). Across two days of...
Realize Live 2025 Recap: The Power of the Digital Thread Realized
Realize LIVE 2025 brought together over 3,000 innovators, manufacturers, and digital engineering leaders to explore the latest advancements in digital transformation for manufacturers. The conference...
Anark Completes Groundbreaking Modernization Project for OSD ManTech
Anark Corporation Successfully Completes Groundbreaking OIB Modernization Project with MxD, Picatinny Arsenal, and Rock Island Arsenal
MBE & QIF Summit 2025 Recap: Unlocking Digital Engineering Value
Chicago, IL - April 2025 - The MBE (Model-Based Enterprise) & QIF (Quality Information Framework) Summit 2025 brought together industry leaders, engineers, and innovators, all united by a common...
COExperience 2025 Recap: Extending the 3DEXPERIENCE Digital Thread
Reno, Nevada – April 2025
4 Big Takeaways from PTC/USER Global Summit 2025
PTC/USER Global Summit 2025 brought together our customers, partners, and some of the best insights on the future of product innovation for discrete manufacturers. In this post, I’ll recap what I...
Bridging the Digital Divide Across the DoD with Anark
In the journey toward a fully digitized defense ecosystem, connecting people to the digital thread is as critical as the technology itself. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) operates across a vast...
Reduce Time-to-Market with Efficient New Product Data Management
Moving new products to market can often feel like a careful game of coordination. As engineers review new data and designs, they must ensure any changes get passed on to manufacturing, operations ,...
The Future of New Product Information Management in Manufacturing
Once upon a time, many companies could get away with developing new products in a linear fashion. Designers would come up with their product conception, then send this to engineering to be built out....
How Anark Supports Lean Manufacturing Principles
Lean manufacturing is a philosophy that emphasizes the importance of creating value for the customer by eliminating waste and continuously improving processes. Originating from the Toyota Production...
Assembly Instructions Software for Complex Manufacturing Processes
In the world of manufacturing, there is a stark difference between high-volume, low-complexity production and low-volume, high-complexity production. The latter often involves intricate parts and...
How Decentralized Manufacturing is Shaping the Future of Production
The manufacturing landscape is undergoing a significant transformation as companies increasingly adopt decentralized production models. This shift from centralized, large-scale manufacturing to a...
The Impact of Digital Transformation on Manufacturing
All manufacturers want to reduce costs while continuing to improve quality, efficiency, safety and sustainability. It’s the ticket to success, and it’s the promise and impact of digital...
Navigating the Road to Paperless Manufacturing
Many manufacturers today know the benefits of going digital, but haven’t yet taken the steps to make it happen. Understandably so, as it can feel intimidating to know where to start.
How Model Based Enterprise Transforms Product Lifecycle Management
In today’s competitive manufacturing landscape, efficiency, accuracy, and collaboration are crucial for success. The integration of a Model Based Enterprise (MBE) approach into Product Lifecycle...
Best Practices for Nailing Your Collaborative Supply Chain Strategy
For many businesses, success is closely tied to how well-oiled your supply chain is. Managing that complex web of suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, and customers? Not exactly a walk in the...
Work Instructions Example: Integrating Visuals into Work Instructions
For decades, manufacturers across industries have used work instructions that relied too heavily on text, making them dense and convoluted. But today, in our incredibly visual modern world, including...
Choosing the Right Product Development Software for Your Business
Let's be real – in today's fast-paced business world, having the right product development software can make or break your success. Developing winning products is crucial for staying ahead of the...
Demystifying MIL-STD-31000B for Defense Contractors
Working in the defense industry comes with its fair share of challenges. With all those stringent regulations and standards, it's easy to get lost in the weeds. But one standard that defense...
Breaking Down Barriers to Seamless Supply Chain Integration
In our interconnected world, the success of a company often hinges on the efficiency of its supply chain. That's why achieving top-notch supply chain integration – aligning and synchronizing all the...
Unlock the Power of Model Based Enterprise
In today's fast-paced manufacturing world, efficiency and quality are key to staying ahead of the competition. That's where the "Model Based Enterprise" approach comes in, offering a game-changing...
SOP vs Work Instructions: Understanding the Key Differences
What’s more important in the manufacturing world than clarity? Knowing exactly what needs to get done, understanding how best to get it done, and having full context into why it needs doing in the...
How Digital Work Instructions Are Transforming Manufacturing
Digital work instructions may not be talked about as much as AI, machine learning, or some of the other flashy technologies currently making headlines, but they could arguably be said to be...
The Evolution of the Digital Supply Chain: What's Next?
The past few years have seen some exciting developments in the increasing digitization and modernization of the supply chain. Once just a loose network of different technologies that augmented and...
Electronic Work Instructions: Revolutionizing Complex Assembly Processes
In today's manufacturing landscape, complexity is the new normal. Sophisticated products with complex components and stringent quality standards have raised the bar for assembly operations. To meet...
Anark Takeaways from Siemens Realize Live 2024
This year marked the 3rd and final year of Siemens Realize Live's residency in Las Vegas. For team Anark, it was 3 years of meeting with great people and industry visionaries to discuss strategic...
Unleashing the Power of Visual Work Instructions
In our mission to redefine manufacturing processes, Anark has bridged the gap between conventional practices and future methodologies through visual work instructions. This integration proves crucial...
Revolutionizing Manufacturing with Digital Work Instructions
At Anark, we've dedicated ourselves to transforming the manufacturing landscape through the power of digital work instructions. Our software solutions are designed to move manufacturers away from the...
How to Streamline VA/VE Processes
Any manufacturer who’s ever faced the challenge of reducing costs while maintaining or even increasing quality will be familiar with VA/VE. Short for Value Analysis/Value Engineering, the VA/VE...
How Peer-to-Peer Collaboration Is Changing the Game
Smart manufacturers know that breaking down the walls between their suppliers and customers can help them access more streamlined and innovative production methods. But collaboration isn’t only...
Key Takeaways from the MBE Summit 2024
Anark was fortunate enough to sponsor and attend the recent MBE & QIF Summit Presentations that were held at MxD in Chicago April 2024. The in-person version of the MBE (model-based enterprise) event...
Implementing Digital Collaboration in Your Organization
The need for comprehensive digital collaboration has never been more clear within the manufacturing industry. Satisfied for years with basic communication tools, like chat and email, for their...
3D CIC 2024 Wrap-up: Bridging Interoperability & Collaboration Gaps
The 3D Collaboration & Interoperability Congress (3D CIC) brought leaders together from across the industry to discuss the latest technologies and best practices for collaborating on 3D projects and...
Leveraging Technical Data Packages for Competitive Advantage
If there’s one pattern we see repeating itself over and over again these days, it’s how the most successful manufacturing organizations are increasingly prioritizing the seamless, connected, and...
Our Favorite Slices of Pi ... Day
Pi Day is the annual celebration of that infinitely ongoing number that starts with 3.14159. Also a fantastic opportunities for pun jokes of all shapes and sizes. People have competed with one...
The Link Between Supplier Collaboration & Customer Satisfaction
Whether you’re talking about collaboration on the supplier side or customer side, its importance is nothing new. Modern manufacturers have long measured themselves by how closely they can promote...
Embracing the Future of Engineering with Anark
In case you missed it, Digital Engineering recently released the results of its annual Technology Outlook survey. There were a few big stories to come up this year. One of the most notable (and least...
3 Takeaways from DMC 2023
Back in December, Anark was fortunate enough to sponsor and be a co-presenter at the 2023 Defense Manufacturing Conference (DMC) held in Nashville, Tennessee. DMC has always been a great way to end...
Four New Year's Resolutions for Manufacturing Collaboration
By Andrew Crowley
Upcoming and Recent Events for Anark
As the year winds down, we're looking forward to engaging our digital transformation community at a series of upcoming events including: DMC, PTC/USER and 3D CIC. We also made our recent popular...
Avoiding the PLM Collaboration Gap
Manufacturing has long been the backbone of industrial progress, driving economies and innovation worldwide. In the 21st century, however, the digital landscape of manufacturing is changing rapidly....
Collaborative Technical Data Portals, The New TDP
Editors Note: This blog post comes from Anark’s presentation at GPDIS 2023. In the opening keynote of the GPDIS 2023 event, Adam Marshall of Boeing stated the importance of focusing on the people and...
Anark Solves the Puzzle
By Andrew Crowley
From Anark - Adobe 32 vs. 64-Bit Support of 3D PDF July 2023 Update
If you use 3D PDF and have installed either 32-bit (Acrobat/Reader) or 64-bit Adobe Acrobat to open the rich and interactive documents from Anark, you may have seen recent changes as part of the...
The New Innovation Centers in Manufacturing
By Andrew Crowley
4 Big Takeaways from Realize Live 2023
Another great event to keep the Anark 2023 tour rolling along. This week we were in Las Vegas for Realize Live 2023. Highlights included presentations and discussions about digital thread, supplier...
Collaboration Insights from 200 Manufacturing Companies - Part III
The Goal Have you ever heard the phrase “meet them where they are”? Sure, you have! But have you ever heard of a collaboration platform that successfully does it for everyone across your...
4 Takeaways from PTC Liveworx 2023
What a week at Liveworx 2023! Customer discussions, partnership opportunities, Boston's seaport district, a Dierks Bentley concert, and a brilliant closing keynote with Alex Honnold and Jimmy Chin....
Collaboration Insights from 200 Manufacturing Companies - Part II
The Goal Have you ever heard the phrase “meet them where they are”? Sure, you have! But have you ever heard of a collaboration platform that successfully does it for everyone across your...
Collaboration Insights from 200 Manufacturing Companies - Part I
The Goal Have you ever heard the phrase “meet them where they are”? Sure, you have! But have you ever heard of a collaboration platform that successfully does it for everyone across your...
Prediction: Technical Content Collaboration Will Transform Manufacturing
Technical content collaboration will transform manufacturing over the next few years. But what is it? And how exactly will manufacturers benefit from it? In short, manufacturers who take advantage of...
5 Must Haves for a Supplier Collaboration Portal for PTC Windchill
For manufacturers using a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system like PTC Windchill, an integrated supplier portal has been a long sought after key to extending the value of their PLM system into...
3 Reasons why Anark Collaborate Means Faster Innovation for Manufacturers
Whether you’re looking to sustain your innovative edge to create better-performing products, or disrupt the market with a breakthrough innovation, it’s all about increasing speed without sacrificing...
64-bit OS Impact on Adobe Support of 3D PDF
If you use 3D PDF on a 64-bit operating system and have noticed issues, this is the post for you. In this post you'll find a brief history of 3D PDF to set context, a breakdown of the 64-bit 3D PDF...
Back to School –The ABC’s of Anark
By Andrew Crowley
What Is a Technical Data Package (TDP) and Why Is It Useful?
By Andrew Crowley
Contextual Collaboration - Easier Than Fixing Your Sink and More Valuable
By Patrick Dunfey If you have ever tried to do something yourself (change your car’s oil, home repairs/renovations, tuning your bike, sell your house, sizing a new market for product launch) you know...
Technical Data Collaboration Keeps Pace with the Automotive Industry
By Doug Halliday Imagine yourself in an industry where once vital tribal knowledge of how products are envisioned, designed, engineered, and manufactured is changing so fast you wonder if you can...
10 Barriers to Supply Chain Collaboration
Do your people excel at making technical files and data accessible and usable to all parties across the value chain?
Are Your Competitors Quietly Moving Toward Supply Chain Collaboration?
Are your competitors aiming to plug the gaps in their value chain and work more strategically with partners? You bet they are.
3 Common Barriers to Managing and Sharing Data
Inside discrete manufacturers, a complex mix of disconnected files and data need to be made accessible, usable, and maintained for internal and external users across the value chain.
3 Things I Learned at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium
Now, before I get to the 3 Things, I must confess, this post is looking at the supply chain world through the lens of the discrete manufacturing industry. While it is a half a trillion-dollar...
The Five Levels of Technical Data Collaboration: A Maturity Model
The Technical Data Collaboration Maturity Model shows the progression from file-centric to data-centric collaboration, and the business and people benefits that accrue as you move from technical data...
Why Hasn’t the Work Instructions Problem Been Solved?
There’s a fundamental problem with work instructions today. For too many manufacturers, the process can be a disconnected mix of documents, screenshots, slides, data, paper, and emails that form a...
3 Easy Steps to Creating and Using Work Instructions on the Shop Floor
For most manufacturers, “easy” isn’t a word often used to describe the process of creating and sharing work instructions. Mostly, engineers and project planners spend an inordinate amount of time...
Five Requirements to Connect Your Supply Chain to Your Digital Thread
The ultimate goal of a digital thread strategy is to provide access to traditionally difficult to share technical and knowledge-based data. However, because it is a strategy or framework, not a...
The Secret to Unlocking Digital Thread Value – Technical Data Packages (TDP)
The goal of a digital thread is to connect everyone across the enterprise to the full array of technical data that is traditionally difficult to share or access. When done well, this transforms...
Model-Based Enterprise (MBE) Promised ROI. What Am I Missing?
Your manufacturing enterprise has been through the agony, pain and fatigue of implementing CAD, ERP, PLM and other systems. Your teams are now aligned and you think that everything is working but you...
MBD and Engineering Data Collaboration for the Next Generation
From 3D PDF to web-based content delivery: The next generation of engineering data collaboration has arrived
Gaining Competitive Advantage with Digital Work Instructions
Digital Work Instructions and effective collaboration have long been known to offer advantages to manufacturers, but how do you get started? In a manufacturing workflow, only the latest information...
How Technical Data Packages Support Digital Thread Initiatives
How Technical Data Packages Support Digital Thread Initiatives By: Scott Collins The goal of business transformation for manufacturing companies is not about winning a technology acquisition race,...
Supply Chain IP Security Best Practices
Cybercrime in manufacturing is very real and becoming increasingly common. How can you secure your design IP while sharing it throughout your supply chain? By: Scott Collins According to Sikich, a...
Supply Chain Collaboration: Top Five Strategies
It’s time to stop doing the same things, in the same way, with supply chain collaboration. You and your suppliers need to be more agile, resilient, and responsive. But how can you make that happen...
Your People are the Key to Digital Transformation in Manufacturing
Prepare for your workforce of the future by enabling your workforce of ‘Now’ As a manufacturer you are currently navigating your way to a new level of digital agility within your operations, and...
