Imagine you are a technician called out to fix a system with a recently replaced instrument panel.
The panel reports a fault code, so you get out the documentation to troubleshoot it.
The illustrations and the troubleshooting steps do not account for the fault code given by the new panel. Suddenly, you are unable to do your job or get the system back online.
The physical system configuration recently changed, but the documentation is updated by a separate department, process, and schedule. Someone has to manually associate the updated service content including the new fault code with the existing end product.
If the digital thread was leveraged, the panel and its associated service content could have been included in a combined end product update at the same time, to be ready for the technician.
With the digital thread, the initial engineering bill of material (EBOM) for the physical product, the service bill of materials (SBOM) for support equipment, and consumables to the service and training content are all tied together.