Model based engineering • Digital thread integration
From requirements to inspection, one digital thread based on open standards for engineering and production continuity.
APN connects model based engineering to planning, production, quality, and field evidence through a secure platform foundation based on open standards. Zero trust controls govern how engineering and operational technology data is accessed, validated, and shared across organizations, factories, and deployed environments.
Zero trust secure fabric in productionIntegrated platform in active R&D
Digital thread / reference path Model continuity
- 01 / IntentRequirementsSysML v2
- 02 / DefinitionDesignSTEP AP242
- 03 / ProcessPlanningSTEP-NC · AP238
- 04 / OperationExecutionMTConnect · OPC UA
- 05 / EvidenceInspectionQIF · AS9102
The supply chain challenge
Digital modernization requirements are reaching every tier.
Government programs and major manufacturers increasingly expect suppliers to exchange structured technical data, maintain traceability from requirements through inspection, demonstrate standards compliance, and deliver digital evidence with the product. These expectations often arrive from several customers at once, each with its own systems, formats, and contract language.
APN provides a practical path forward through focused engineering projects built on a secure digital thread platform foundation, with OT zero trust as a first class design principle. Identity, least privilege, policy, provenance, and continuous verification govern access by people, applications, machines, gateways, and edge systems. The platform keeps evidence tied to the correct product or system configuration, validates required standards, and supports reuse across programs. In OT environments, these controls account for production safety, availability, latency, legacy equipment, and intermittent connectivity. Suppliers can modernize one meaningful workflow at a time while building toward a broader digital capability.
APN helps suppliers and programs:
- Turn customer digital requirements into a phased implementation plan.
- Maintain traceability from requirements through production and inspection.
- Produce machine usable evidence for acceptance and digital certification.
- Exchange technical data securely while protecting supplier intellectual property.
- Apply identity based, least privilege access across users, applications, machines, gateways, and data exchanges.
- Validate that shared information conforms to required standards.
- Reuse a common digital thread foundation across customers and programs.
- Feed production and field results back into engineering decisions.
FoundationBuilt for systems at scale
Manufacturing leadership26 Lucent manufacturing locations
Systems at scaleBell Labs systems heritage
Protected innovation36 U.S. + 24 international patents
The connected lifecycle
The digital thread connects the evidence. The digital twin puts it to work.
A useful digital twin provides a configured, secure operational view that preserves provenance across requirements, design and analysis, process definition, production state, inspection, acceptance, and deployed operation.
From model to operating realityTraceability runs both ways.
Authoritative engineering intent
Configured handoff →
Connected operational viewDigital twin
← Evidence & feedbackConfiguration · provenance · state · validation
Production & deployed evidence
Secure exchange & validationIdentity & authorizationProvenance & change controlSchema & semantic validation
What the connected thread enablesFaster transitionLower supplier integration riskAcceptance supported by evidence
Open and adaptable. Architect around open information models while accounting for the systems already in place.
Built to evolve. Separate durable engineering intent from interfaces and standards that continue to change.
Start with a useful thread. Demonstrate value around a bounded use case before committing to enterprise change at scale.
Secure digital engineering platform
A zero trust control plane for the digital thread.
APN is maturing a platform based on open standards that applies identity, least privilege, policy, provenance, and continuous verification to engineering and operational evidence across organizational and OT boundaries.
CAD, CAM, CMM, MES, and MBSE tools remain authoritative. APN governs access, disclosure, automated conformance verification, traceability, and audit for the evidence they produce.
Requirements · product definition · process plans · telemetry · inspection
APN platform control planeIntegrated platform / active R&D
Govern evidence while authoritative tools retain control.
IdentityLeast privilegePolicyConformanceProvenanceAudit
OEM · supplier · certifier · sustainer · field operator
Evidence based on open standards
Carry evidence in SysML v2, STEP AP242/AP238, MTConnect, OPC UA, and QIF. Each standard remains the authoritative representation throughout the thread.
OT zero trust enforcement
Apply identity, least privilege, and context aware policy to people, applications, machines, gateways, and edge systems while protecting supplier process IP and mission context.
Persistent identity & provenance
Maintain a traceable identity from requirement through design, execution, inspection, acceptance, and change driven by field evidence.
Resilient exchange from enterprise to edge
Apply local policy enforcement, audit, and resilient data movement from production environments to deployed operations, including intermittent connectivity.
Capability maturityClear readiness. Focused R&D objectives.
Architecture, integration, and bounded demonstrators built on zero trust secure fabric capabilities proven in production.
Thread governance, twin composition tailored by role, conformance validation, and qualification intelligence.
Advance reusable components through reference implementations and engineering programs focused on transition.
Engineering & R&D services
A practical path from fragmented to connected.
Structured to move capabilities beyond demonstration and into repeatable production and fielded operation. Deliverables can include standards mappings, reference architectures, demonstrators, implementation playbooks, governed data services, and evidence ready for audit.
Assess
Map workflows, models, systems, documents, and the places where engineering continuity breaks.
Readiness assessment · priority use caseArchitect
Define a zero trust digital thread architecture based on open standards, with awareness of existing vendors and a phased path forward.
Reference architecture · integration roadmapDemonstrate
Build a bounded reference implementation around a meaningful manufacturing or mission thread.
Prototype · evaluation criteriaTransition
Turn evaluation results into reusable integration capabilities and next steps ready for production.
Transition plan · reusable componentsHow we engageApplied R&D now. Reusable platform capabilities by design.
- 01 / Available nowEngineering & applied R&DAssessments, architectures, standards mappings, demonstrators, and transition engineering
- 02 / Program configuredZero trust integration foundationSecure fabric components proven in production, governed connectors, and mappings
- 03 / Active R&DIntegrated platformDigital thread governance, twin composition, conformance validation, and licensable capabilities
Where we focus
One engineering foundation across factory and field.
Smart manufacturing and mission systems share the same core challenge: preserving trusted engineering intent across distributed tools, organizations, and operating conditions.
Primary focus / 01
Smart manufacturing
Continuity based on open standards with OT zero trust controls across engineering intent, design and simulation, process planning, production data, and acceptance evidence.
- Model based quality & digital certification. Connect configuration, analysis results, process data, and inspection evidence into traceable acceptance packages that support automated verification.
- OT zero trust and secure technical data exchange. Govern identity, least privilege access, disclosure, and change across organizational boundaries while validating schema, semantics, integrity, and provenance.
- Closed loop manufacturing integration. Connect design and simulation with process planning, machine and in situ data, inspection, and engineering feedback across additive and other advanced processes.
Engineering intentOperational evidence
ModelDefinePlanProduceVerify
Move from paper, spreadsheets, and tribal knowledge toward connected, traceable operations through phased adoption that preserves useful systems already in place.
Extended domain / 02
Mission systems & the tactical edge
The same zero trust control plane connects production with field operations through resilient IT/OT bridges governed by policy. It supports authorized data exchange, local policy enforcement, auditability, and synchronization across contested, degraded, or intermittently connected environments.
- Deployed zero trust IT/OT bridge architectures and bounded demonstrators
- Local policy enforcement, configuration context, filtering, and store and forward synchronization under intermittent connectivity
- Relate measures of performance and effectiveness to authoritative models and governed engineering and manufacturing change
Field and factory digital thread
Authoritative modelRequirements + configuration
Deployed IT/OT bridgeZero trust policy + resilient exchange
Operational evidencePerformance + effectiveness
Governed return pathValidated findings → requirements & manufacturing change
Why APN
Built by a team with deep experience in standards, distributed systems, manufacturing operations, and critical mission environments.
Manufacturing leadership, experience with Bell Labs systems at scale, model based engineering, complex standards, resilient communications, and disciplined commercialization span APN's leadership and advisors.
JB
CEO
Jim Brewington
Stanford · MS, Management · Sloan FellowFormer president of Lucent Technologies' Wireless & Mobility Systems and Product Realization organizations. He led product architecture, development, manufacturing, marketing, and sales; oversaw 26 Lucent manufacturing locations worldwide and 50,000 employees; and helped scale the wireless business from $200 million to $5 billion annually. He brings leadership in global markets, technology commercialization, and manufacturing to APN's work strengthening U.S. industrial capability.
HR
Chief Scientist
Dr. Harvey Rubin
Columbia · EngScD & MSEE, Electrical EngineeringBell Labs Fellow and architect of large scale distributed systems whose work spans MLT-2, Datakit, operations support systems for telecommunications, and wireless base station and core networks. He led Bell Labs and Bellcore architecture organizations and became the first technical leader of TINA-C, coordinating architects from roughly 20 telecommunications companies worldwide. His record includes widely deployed systems, international standards leadership, and more than 75 patents.
AR
Chief Product and Technology Officer
Antonio Ransom
Northwestern · MS, Electrical Engineering & Computer ScienceSystems architect with more than 20 years of experience in distributed systems that provide high availability and real time operation across AMPS, CDMA, EVDO, and UMTS networks. He held senior roles in the Bell Labs technical career system, including Distinguished Member of Technical Staff and Consulting Member of Technical Staff. He leads APN's work connecting secure networking and MBSE with a manufacturing thread based on open standards, spanning SysML, STEP AP242, manufacturing planning, MTConnect and OPC UA telemetry, and QIF inspection evidence. He holds U.S. patents in fault tolerance, load balancing, and stable call preservation.
RE
CFO
Robert Erwin
Finance · Strategy · Global commercial operationsFinance and strategy executive with broad experience in accounting, internal audit, M&A, forecasting, business planning, business development, and proposals. His international experience includes living and working in Brazil and China and negotiating contracts across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. He brings financial discipline, analytical rigor, and global commercial perspective to APN.
Strategic advisors
Experience that extends the operating context.
Guidance grounded in aerospace and government contracting, edge communications, global operations, and the transition of complex technologies into commercial systems.
MS
Advisor
Mike Stacy
Aerospace and electronics executive with more than 40 years of experience, including extensive work in government contracting. In senior positions at Strategic Marketing Innovations and Burdeshaw Associates, he led strategies that secured contracts supporting Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, BAE Systems, and Raytheon. At Bombardier, he led marketing, strategic planning, and business development.
AB
Advisor
Alfred Boschulte
Executive who has served as CEO six times. His leadership roles include chairman and CEO of NYNEX Mobile, now part of Verizon Wireless, and chairman and CEO of IWO, a Sprint PCS affiliate. His experience spans secure IoT technology, private LTE networks, edge integration, and the commercialization of advanced communications capabilities.
DP
APN Cofounder & Advisor
David Poticny
Telecommunications and wireless executive with more than 30 years of experience. His leadership roles include president of Lucent Technologies Europe and leadership in product management and business development at Blue Danube Systems. He oversaw annual sales exceeding $1 billion, supported business development in more than 30 countries, and helped establish networks, joint ventures, manufacturing operations, and customer support centers worldwide.
JH
Advisor
Jim Herbert
Telecommunications executive and strategic advisor with experience leading independent operators and technology companies. He founded and led DETECON USA, the U.S. operation of Deutsche Telekom's telecommunications consulting company, and served as president of Advanced Technology Services, developing operations support and billing systems for wireless operators. He advises domestic and multinational technology companies on strategy, operations, and growth.
Standards in motionWe know how to engineer while the landscape is still changing.
APN’s leaders have worked in standards ecosystems where specifications, implementations, commercial systems, and deployment realities evolve simultaneously. This experience spans 3GPP and today’s rapidly changing manufacturing interoperability stack.
Start with a bounded question
Define a thread worth evaluating.
Bring us the workflow, model boundary, interoperability problem, or mission use case. We’ll help shape a practical technical collaboration.
Discuss an evaluation