Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering
Welcome to 'Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering,' the ultimate podcast for all things digital in the manufacturing industry by Razorleaf. Join us as we take a deep dive into the multifaceted world of digital transformation, exploring topics such as the digital thread, digital twins, IDEs, model-based strategies and delving into the frontiers of cutting-edge technologies like PLM, MES, Integration, and more. Our expert hosts, Jonathan Scott, Jen Ferello, Juliann Grant, and Eric Doubell, will be your guides, providing valuable insights, captivating interviews, and the latest industry updates to ensure you remain at the forefront of the ever-evolving digital landscape...
#159: Is PLM Dead? 20 Million Seats Say No.
Is PLM dead, or is it simply reaching maturity after 40 years? In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering with Razorleaf, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with PLM veteran Andreas Lindenthal of PLMadvisors. With over 25 years of international experience advising companies from Apple to Boeing, Andreas shares his perspective on why PLM is far from dead, how AI will transform user interaction, and why product memory is a process challenge rather than a technology gap.
Key Takeaways:
PLM is alive and well...#158: AI Broke Out of the Sandbox. Now What?
Every new engineer who starts at a company receives limited access, supervision, and earns trust over time, but AI agents often receive none of that. In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering with Razorleaf, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott are joined by Nick Link, co-founder of Bitoda to discuss what happens when AI agents break out of their test environments. They unpack recent high-profile incidents involving OpenAI and Anthropic, define key concepts like safety, security, and deterministic guardrails, and explain why treating AI agents like new hires is...
#157: Digital Product Series: Geminus AI
In Episode 157 of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering with Razorleaf, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome back Prithvi Singh Chauhan, Machine Learning Engineer at Geminus AI, for a closer look at the company, its computational autonomy platform, and the future of AI-driven engineering decisions.
Geminus AI takes a different approach to industrial AI. Rather than replacing the physics-based simulators engineering teams already trust, its platform adds a decision layer that helps turn complex simulations into faster, actionable operational recommendations. By connecting existing models, operational data, and multiple physical assets, Geminus aims to help organizations...
#156: Digital Product Series: Razorleaf
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering with Razorleaf, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott turn the spotlight on Razorleaf. Joined by CEO and founder Eric Doubell, the discussion provides an overview of Razorleaf, exploring its history, core values, services, products, and role in the digital engineering and manufacturing landscape.
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Key Takeaways:
Discover how Razorleaf acts as the glue connecting products, processes, and data across the digital enterprise.Learn about Razorleaf's boutique, vendor-agnostic approach to solving complex technical problems.Understand the core services offered across PLM, MES, integration, and data m...#155: The Future Platform for Hardware Engineering: The Report Explained
Is PLM dying, or has the engineering world simply outgrown it? Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome back industry veteran Doug Macdonald for round two to unpack his report, The Future of Product Lifecycle Management: After Forty Years, Where Are We and What's Next? Doug makes the case for FPHE (Future Platform of Hardware Engineering), a new category designed to replace legacy PLM systems that no longer fit the complex, multi-disciplinary nature of modern hardware development.
Key Takeaways
The Complexity Gap: Products have evolved...#154: Operational Digital Twins: Closing the Speed Gap
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott are joined by Prithvi Singh Chauhan, Machine Learning Engineer at Geminus AI. They explore the practical application of AI and machine learning to operational digital twins across oil and gas, manufacturing, and energy systems. The discussion covers why traditional physics models fall short in real-time operations and how combining physics-native engineering with fast machine learning solves speed, staleness, and domain silos.
Key Takeaways
Traditional physics-based digital twins are built for design...#153: Zero Downtime, No Disruptions: Honeywell's MES Upgrade Story
Halfway through a live database migration, Honeywell’s team lost their server connection. With no way to tell whether the scripts were running or failing, all they could do was wait. In this episode of Stay Sharp with Razorleaf, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with Ryan Sims (Senior IT Engineer at Honeywell) and Brian Neff (MES Technical Team Lead at Razorleaf) to discuss how Honeywell Aerospace successfully upgraded its Solumina MES with zero shop floor disruptions.
Key takeaways from th...
#152: OpenBOM's New AI Agents Solving the Problems Everyone Ignores
Digital engineering is moving fast, but the fundamental challenge remains: how do you get your mechanical, electrical, and procurement data to "talk" to each other? In this episode, we dive deep into the "Product Memory Flywheel" with Oleg Shilovitsky, co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM. We explore how OpenBOM is using AI agents to solve the industry's most persistent, "boring" problems—like CAD file management and Bill of Materials (BOM) errors—and why fixing these unglamorous issues is the key to true digital transformation.
Key Takeaways
â—ŹÂ The Product Memory Flywhee...
#151: The Untold Origins of PLM, with Doug Macdonald
How did we get from CAD and PDM to the PLM systems we use today? And have we really moved beyond PDM?
In Stay Sharp Episode 151, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with Doug Macdonald, a longtime PLM industry veteran and self-described “lifelong innovation enthusiast and recovering advocate for PLM,” to explore the history of product lifecycle management—and how the technology evolved alongside the products and businesses it was designed to support.
Doug has been part of the industry since the early days of CAD/CAM and PD...
#150: 150 Episodes In - What We Got Right (and Wrong) in Digital Engineering
150 Episodes of Digital Engineering Conversations—and Counting
It’s a milestone worth celebrating: Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering has reached 150 episodes!
In this special episode, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott take a break from the usual guest format to look back at nearly three years of Stay Sharp. Together, they revisit the topics, trends, guests, and conversations that have shaped the podcast—and consider what’s still left to explore.
From the beginning, the podcast has focused on the rapidly changing world of digital engineering, manufacturing, and prod...
#149: Product Memory: The Context Layer Behind Every Product Decision
In this episode, we sit down with Oleg Shilovitsky, industry expert, author of Beyond PLM, and CEO of OpenBOM, to explore a transformative concept he calls "product memory." If you’ve ever looked back at a product design decision two years later and wondered, "Why did we make that choice?", you aren't alone. Oleg explains why product memory is the missing context layer that connects decisions to data, filling the gaps that traditional PLM, PDM, and ERP systems often miss. We discuss the "three parents" of product memory—including the critical role...
#148: The Question Every Digital Thread Has to Answer
What if you could answer a complex engineering change request in minutes instead of days? In this episode of Stay Sharp: In Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome back Chris Finlay, former Vice President of Engineering Innovation at SAIC and current Digital Systems Engineering Director at Raytheon, to explore the tangible, practical benefits of the digital thread. We move past the buzzwords to discuss how to break down engineering silos, improve traceability, and implement a digital strategy that actually delivers value.
Key Takeaways
The...#147: Data Fiefdoms and Cheese: An Analyst's View of the Industry's Blind Spots
Beyond the Hype: Christine Longwell on AI, PLM, and the Future of Digital Engineering
The digital engineering industry is experiencing one of its most significant periods of transformation in decades—but separating meaningful innovation from marketing hype has never been more challenging.
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome industry analyst Christine Longwell, founder of PLM Insights. Drawing on a career that spans mechanical engineering, software implementation, competitive analysis, market research, and consulting, Christine shares a un...
#146: CMMC Paused, Not Cancelled: Why Contractors Shouldn't Stop Now
Did the Department of Defense just put CMMC on hold? Not exactly.
The Department of Defense recently announced a pause on one of the most significant upcoming requirements of the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program, creating confusion across the defense industrial base. Does this mean contractors can slow down their cybersecurity efforts—or does it simply change how compliance will be evaluated?
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome back Steve Nichols, Razorleaf's government solutions ex...
#145: Why Nobody Can Predict Their Software Costs Anymore
Software licensing used to be one of the most predictable parts of an engineering organization's technology budget. You bought licenses, planned annual maintenance, and forecasted costs years in advance. But as AI assistants, cloud platforms, token-based licensing, and API-driven workflows become the norm, that predictability is disappearing.
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome back Paul Empringham, VP of CAD, Simulation, and PLM at NYBS Consulting, to explore how software licensing is evolving—and why engineering leaders need to start th...
#144: The Hidden Costs of Digital Engineering Systems
What if the most expensive part of your digital engineering environment isn’t the software license? In this episode, we sit down with Eric Smith, VP of Services at Razorleaf, to peel back the curtain on the "hidden" costs of running complex systems like PLM, MES, and CAD. We move beyond the initial project setup to explore the "sustainment" phase—where time, money, and productivity often drain away unnoticed. Whether you are in engineering, IT, or manufacturing leadership, this conversation provides a new framework for understanding why your environment is becoming increasingly complex and how to m...
#143: Build vs. Buy in the Age of AI-Assisted Coding
Artificial intelligence has dramatically lowered the barrier to software development, making it easier than ever for manufacturers, engineering organizations, and startups to build custom applications. But just because you can build your own software doesn't always mean you should.
In Episode 143 of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, co-hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome back Jonathan Girroir, Technical Evangelist at Tech Soft 3D, for a forward-looking discussion about how AI-assisted coding is reshaping engineering software development. Together they explore the growing "build versus buy" dilemma, why software components are becoming more valuable than ever, and...
#142: What Leaders Need to Know About Software Licensing
Software licensing may not be the first thing engineers want to discuss, but it can have a massive impact on budgets, productivity, and digital transformation success.
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott are joined by Paul Empringham, VP of CAD, Simulation & PLM at NYBS Consulting, to unpack the increasingly complex world of engineering software licensing. Drawing on decades of experience working with organizations including Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Red Bull Racing, JCB, and Sunseeker, Paul explains why many companies are unknowingly overspending on CAD, PLM...
#141: Finlay's Five Firsts - A Field Guide to Digital Engineering Adoption
Getting New Methodologies Off the Ground: Lessons from Digital Engineering Transformation with Chris Finlay
Implementing a new engineering methodology sounds straightforward on paper. In reality, it often means navigating organizational resistance, changing long-standing habits, proving value quickly, and building momentum one success at a time.
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with Chris Finlay, Vice President of Engineering Innovation at SAIC, to discuss his journey helping organizations adopt Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), digital engineering, digital thread...
140: Share PLM Summit 2026 Recap
Human-Centered PLM, Practical AI, and the Future of Digital Engineering
What happens when you take a traditional PLM conference out of a corporate convention center and place it inside a Spanish bodega with a dirt floor? According to the attendees of the Share PLM Summit 2026, you create an environment where people—not technology—become the focus of the conversation.
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome Razorleaf International team members Ashish Kulkarni and Luc Van Helm...
#139: Digital Product Series - Tech Soft 3D
The Company Behind the Software You Use Every DayÂ
If you've worked with CAD, PLM, simulation, or digital engineering software, chances are you've relied on Tech Soft 3D technology—even if you've never heard of the company. In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with Jonathan Girroir, Technical Evangelist at Tech Soft 3D, to explore the foundational technologies that power hundreds of engineering applications across the industry.Â
Jonathan Girroir explains how Tech Soft 3D pr...
#138: How SMBs Can Break Into The Defense Industrial Base
Is your manufacturing business leaving defense contracts on the table?
In this episode of Stay Sharp: Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with two returning experts to break down one of the most misunderstood opportunities in manufacturing: the Defense Industrial Base. Whether you're running a five-person shop or a 500-person operation, there is a lane for you in the DIB, and today's guests explain exactly how to find it.
Guests:
Steve Nichols heads the public sector...
#137: CIMdata PLM/PDT Road Map Wrap Up
What happens when you lock hundreds of PLM practitioners, digital engineering leaders, and top aerospace and defense minds in a room to talk about AI? You get a reality check. In this episode, Juliann Grant, Jonathan Scott, and Andrew Halley sit down to recap the packed two-day CIMdata PLM/PDT Roadmap 2026 Conference held just outside Washington, D.C.
Forget the polished vendor slides and standard generative AI hype—this is a look into the "messy data" reality that engineering teams face behind closed doors. The team breaks do...
#136: What is Master Data Management and Who Owns It?
Master Data Management Explained: Why Clean Data Matters More Than Ever
Data fuels every digital initiative — but who’s actually managing it?
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, Jonathan Scott and Juliann Grant sit down with Razorleaf’s Ann Garcia to unpack the fundamentals of Master Data Management (MDM) and why it plays a critical role in modern digital engineering environments.
With more than 30 years of experience across medical device, consumer packaged goods, and manufacturing industries, Ann brings a practical perspe...
#135: iBase-t Excelerate 2026 Wrap Up
What’s driving the future of manufacturing execution, MRO, and digital operations in aerospace and defense?Â
In this special on-site episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, the Razorleaf team recaps their experience at the iBase-t Excelerate 2026 conference in National Harbor.
Jonathan Scott and Juliann Grant share insights from customer presentations, emerging AI strategies, MES modernization efforts, and the growing push toward model-based manufacturing. From practical upgrade strategies to global deployment challenges, this episode explores how manufacturers are balancing innovation with operational realities.
The event hig...
#134: The Flex Factor-How Retail Rewrote the Rules of PLM
What happens when traditional Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) meets the fast-moving world of retail and apparel?
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with returning guest Brion Carroll to explore how PLM evolved beyond engineering-heavy industries into fashion, footwear, and retail.
Brion shares firsthand insights from building one of the first retail-focused PLM solutions—revealing why apparel required a completely different mindset, how FlexPLM was born, and what lessons every industry can take fr...
#133: Aras ACE 2026 - Innovation, AI, and Community
What’s next for the Aras Innovator community heading into 2026?
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, the Razorleaf team recaps insights from ACE 2026—Aras Community Event (ACE) 2026—the annual gathering for users of Aras Innovator.
Featured Hosts and Guests:
Jonathan Scott – Co-host, Razorleaf Juliann Grant – Co-host, Razorleaf Milan Obradovic – Aras Pre-Sales Architect, Razorleaf Steven Binstock – Senior Solution Architect, RazorleafÂFrom bold AI vision to the growing impact of Innovator Edge, the conversation explores how Aras is evolving beyond traditional PLM—fo...
#132: Event Wrap Up - CIMdata Market and Industry Conference 2026
Is AI coming for PLM or saving it?Â
This week on Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott are joined by special guest Ashish Kulkarni, Senior PLM Leader at Razorleaf International (Netherlands), for a dual-continent recap of CIMdata's Annual Market and Industry Conference — held simultaneously in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Paris, France.
Between them, the three cover the global PLM market data, the AI conversation dominating the industry, vendor vs. buyer disconnects, and what it all means if you work in digital engineering, PLM...
#131: The AI Reality Gap: What You Need to Know Before Building at Scale
Build, Buy or Wait, Navigating the AI Implementation Stack
 Is your company ready to build its own AI solution?Â
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott welcome back Dr. Diego Tamburini — executive consultant and AI practice lead at CIMdata — for a deep dive into what it actually takes to move from AI experimentation to production-ready deployment in manufacturing and engineering organizations.
Diego brings 25+ years of experience across PLM, CAD/CAM, digital manufacturing, and AI strategy, with past roles at Microsoft, Autodesk, and Si...
#130: How Product Data Management Was Born — And What It Means for AI Today
The man who helped name an industry sits down with Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering to trace the winding path from Product Data Management's humble origins to today's AI ambitions — and delivers a blunt warning: fix your data integration first, or AI will fail you.
About This Episode
Brion Carroll, CEO/Principal Consultant at Digital Solution Group, is not just a PLM practitioner — he's one of the people who built the very first PDM system and coined the category name. In this episode, Brion joins Jul...
#129: 2026 ENOVIA User Conference Wrap Up
PLM Is Changing Fast: AI, Cloud & 3DEXPERIENCE Insights from ENOVIA 2026
What’s really happening with PLM, AI, and cloud adoption right now?
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott, with their Razorleaf colleagues, François Schlub and Andrew Halley, break down the biggest takeaways from the ENOVIA User Conference 2026, hosted by Dassault Systèmes in Boston.
From AI-powered virtual twins to cloud migration strategies and digital thread integration, this conversation goes beyond the keynote hype to share what real users, engineers, and...
#128: Business Digital Twins: Modeling for Resilience and Growth
What happens when you take the digital twin concept beyond products and factories, and apply it to your entire business?
In this eye-opening episode, we sit down with John Biagioni, President of Lampin Corporation and a leader with experience ranging from machinist to a billion-dollar company executive. John joins hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott to explore how a business-level digital twin can drive smarter, more resilient decisions across finance, operations, and customer relationships.
From using value stream mapping as a foundational building block to integrating real-time IoT sensing for continuous...
#127: Boxes on the Plane: Lessons from a PDM Migration to PLM
What happens when a company does everything you can do to a private jet - except build one from scratch?
Aaron Lane has spent 25+ years at Duncan Aviation, navigating a PLM journey that went from literal paper boxes loaded onto departing aircraft, through a legacy ERP stretched beyond its limits, to SmarTeam, and finally to Aras Innovator. In this episode, he pulls back the curtain on what that transformation actually looked like - the messy parts included.
Whether you're greenfield, brownfield, or somewhere in between, this conversation is packed with hard-won, practical wisdom.<...
#126: Digital Product Series: iBase-t Solumina
Inside Solumina: The Digital Backbone for Aerospace & Defense Manufacturing
What does it take to manage manufacturing where failure simply isn’t an option?
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott continue their digital product series with Sung Kim, CTO of iBase-t, for a deep dive into the Solumina platform—a manufacturing operations management system designed specifically for complex, highly regulated industries like aerospace and defense.
Unlike traditional manufacturing systems that simply record what happened, Solumina is designed to actively guid...
#125: Strategic Patterns for Implementing AI in Manufacturing
AI is everywhere right now—but in digital engineering and manufacturing, many leaders are still asking the same question: where does it actually help?
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with Dr. Diego Tamburini of CIMdata to separate hype from implementation reality. With decades of experience spanning Microsoft, Autodesk, and Siemens Digital Industries, Diego shares how organizations are applying AI today—not in theory, but inside real engineering and manufacturing environments.
The discussion introduces five practical patt...
#124: 3DEXPERIENCE World 2026 Wrap Up
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, we break down the biggest themes and takeaways from 3DEXPERIENCE World (formerly SolidWorks World), held this year in Houston.
The message was loud and clear: AI is here — and Dassault Systèmes is betting big on it.
From the headline-making partnership with NVIDIA to live AI demos inside the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, the event showcased ambitious plans for AI-driven engineering workflows. But beyond the stage announcements, what are customers actually asking about? And what does this shift mean for...
#123: Digital Product Series: iBase-t
Digital engineering gets a lot of attention. But what happens after the design is complete?
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, we sit down with Naveen Poonian, CEO of iBase-t, to explore why execution — not just engineering — is the real battleground of digital transformation in aerospace and defense.
From Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) to Supplier Quality Management (SQM) and Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO), we unpack how digital tools connect engineering, production, service, and compliance into a true lifecycle ecosystem.
We also expl...
#Ep 122 - Product Line Engineering: MBSE for Batteries, Tools, and Beyond
AI may dominate headlines, but the real transformation in product development is happening elsewhere—in how teams manage complexity across mechanics, electronics, and software without slowing time to market.
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott continue their conversation on Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) with Eran Reinshmidt and Safae El Abkari of Dassault Systèmes. This discussion moves beyond aerospace and defense to explore how MBSE is reshaping consumer product development—from small appliances and power tools to connected products and manufacturing systems.
The conversation dives into virtu...
#121: Digital Product Series: Sigmetrix - Why Tolerance Analysis Matters in Digital Engineering
In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott continue the digital product series with a deep dive into mechanical variation management and tolerance analysis. Joined by James Stoddard, co-founder and research fellow at Sigmetrix, the conversation explores how tolerance analysis acts as a critical bridge between ideal CAD models and real-world manufactured parts.
The discussion unpacks why variation can never be eliminated, how poor tolerance decisions quietly drive cost and quality issues, and why managing variation across the <...
#125: Strategic Patterns for Implementing AI in Manufacturing
AI is everywhere right now—but in digital engineering and manufacturing, many leaders are still asking the same question: where does it actually help?
 In this episode of Stay Sharp in Digital Engineering, hosts Juliann Grant and Jonathan Scott sit down with Dr. Diego Tamburini of CIMdata to separate hype from implementation reality. With decades of experience spanning Microsoft, Autodesk, and Siemens Digital Industries, Diego shares how organizations are applying AI today—not in theory, but inside real engineering and manufacturing environments.
The discussion introduces five practical patterns of AI adoption, explains why many proof-of-concepts fail...
