Key takeaways

- ubloquity and PING Group have built and demonstrated an asset level digital twin capability for aerospace and defence supply chains, validated inside a live logistics operation.

- The work ran through the UK Digital Twin Centre's Digital Twin Adoption Accelerator, delivered by Digital Catapult, with Thompson Aero Seating as third party contributor and AWS as infrastructure partner.

- Seven months from early concept to validated proof of concept, against an estimated two years at self funded pace.

- The architecture is reusable and now underpins ubloquity's commercial product offering.

Aerospace and defence supply chains are being asked to prove things they cannot currently see. A single business class seat can carry hundreds of components sourced across multiple countries, passing through suppliers, manufacturers and logistics providers before it reaches an aircraft. The evidence that proves where those parts came from, who held them and whether they comply sits scattered across disconnected systems and paper trails. Deloitte's research puts it plainly: fewer than one in ten organisations can see beyond their immediate tier one suppliers.

That gap is about to become expensive. The EU Digital Product Passport, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism all arrive with traceability obligations attached, and OEMs are already cascading their own requirements down through the chain. Manual auditing and document verification cannot carry that load.

What we built

Through the Digital Twin Adoption Accelerator, ubloquity worked alongside PING Group to assign verified digital identities to aerospace components and track them through custody transitions, capturing location, condition and compliance information as the asset moved. Thompson Aero Seating, which manufactures premium aircraft seating and works with around 200 suppliers worldwide, kept the project grounded in real manufacturing requirements. AWS provided the underlying infrastructure.

The solution rests on four capabilities. Digital twin creation gives each asset a verified digital identity anchored to sensor and operational data. A single pane of glass pulls a unified operational view across multiple systems and stakeholders. AI powered automation handles compliance checks, anomaly detection and workflow. Compliance by design embeds auditability and alignment with Digital Product Passport, CSRD and CBAM into the operational process rather than bolting it on afterwards.

Together these combine digital twins, IoT enabled data capture, distributed ledger technology, AI automation and integration with ERP and MRO systems. The result is a trusted digital representation of each physical asset that carries its provenance, custody history and compliance evidence through its whole lifecycle.

What the programme changed

"The expertise made more difference than the funding," said Kieran Kelly, Chief Executive and Founder of ubloquity. "The UK Digital Twin Centre team was instrumental in aligning our approach with standard digital twin frameworks, and that changed our architecture and our product, not just our pitch. The support enabled through Innovate UK and Belfast Region City Deal let us take on that work at a pace we could not have funded from revenue: seven months from early concept to a validated, showcased proof of concept, against the two years it would otherwise have taken."

One lesson stood out. The technology is mature enough. Data quality is not. Securing consistent, standardised data from multiple supply chain partners proved harder than implementing the digital twin itself, and that finding now shapes how we scope every engagement.

Outcomes

The project demonstrated live tracking of aerospace components through custody transitions, created verified digital identities capable of supporting trusted provenance, validated integration with ERP and MRO systems, and showed automated compliance workflows aligned to aerospace audit requirements. Crucially, it established a reusable architecture rather than a one off build, accelerating ubloquity's move from bespoke project delivery towards a scalable subscription product.

Within the proof of concept, ubloquity modelled potential customer benefits using synthetic data calibrated to PING Group's operational throughput. The modelling indicated a potential 35 percent reduction in operational risk, 25 percent reduction in costs and 40 percent improvement in operational efficiency. These figures are modelled projections based on synthetic data, not measured results, and will be validated through production deployments.

"We came into the programme at early concept stage and left with a digital twin capability deployed in a working logistics operation, a compliance framework aligned to aerospace audit standards, and three aerospace and defence customers in active conversation," said Kelly.

Dr Katrina Thompson, Director of the UK Digital Twin Centre, said the collaboration "demonstrates the power of bringing together technology innovators, operational partners and manufacturers to address real industry challenges."

What comes next

ubloquity and PING Group are extending the capability into maintenance, repair and overhaul, defence asset management and Digital Product Passport compliance services, and will validate the proof of concept performance metrics in live production deployments. We are also advancing our go to market through strategic partnerships and cloud based delivery channels.

If you are carrying traceability obligations you cannot currently evidence, talk to us.

Read the full [Digital Catapult case study](https://www.digicatapult.org.uk/case-studies/study/ubloquity-and-ping-group-transform-aerospace-supply-chain-traceability-through-digital-twin-technology/).