The problem in one sentence
PLM holds the product structure. ERP holds procurement and cost. MES holds manufacturing process records. cMRO holds maintenance and repair history. EAM holds asset lifecycle data.
Each is excellent at what it was built for.
PLM + ERP + MES + cMRO + EAM ≠ digital thread
No combination of these five systems holds the reasoning that produced their records: what decision was made, what options were evaluated, what constraints applied, what the approval authority decided, and why. That reasoning lives in email threads, meeting minutes, and the institutional memory of engineers who have since rotated off the programme.
“Your tools manage artefacts. Nobody manages the reasoning between them.”
Clarity is the structured layer above all five. Not replacing them — sitting above them. The decision record that connects their outputs and holds the reasoning between them.
That is not a gap that existing vendors will fill. It is a structural absence that requires a purpose-built layer above the existing stack.
What your existing tools do — and what they cannot do
Your PLM vendor will tell you that their platform manages configuration. They are right about what it does. This is what it does not do:
| Tool | What it manages | What it cannot hold |
|---|---|---|
| PLM (Teamcenter, Windchill, DOORS) | Engineering BOM, product structure, requirements documents | The decision that selected this configuration over alternatives; the evidence that informed it; a connected model across all BOM views |
| ERP (SAP, Oracle, Infor) | Procurement BOM, cost, logistics | The design rationale that governs whether a through-life modification is feasible and what it will cost |
| MES | Manufacturing BOM, process records, quality records | The engineering constraints that governed how the product was designed to be built |
| cMRO (IFS, Ramco, Trax) | Maintenance and repair records, task cards, serviceable life | The design decisions that constrain what a repair authority can and cannot modify |
| EAM (Maximo, SAP PM) | Asset register, maintenance schedules, lifecycle cost | The configuration baseline the asset was delivered against and the decisions that have since changed it |
| Document management (SharePoint, Confluence) | Files and version history | The structured meaning within those files — what was decided, by whom, on what evidence |
| Requirements tools (DOORS, Jama) | Requirements text and links | The options that were rejected and the reasoning that governed the selection |
The BOM reconciliation problem is concrete: PLM manages the engineering BOM, ERP manages the procurement BOM, cMRO manages the maintenance BOM, and EAM manages the asset register. Each is a separate tree. Each is manually reconciled — quarterly, if at all. Clarity manages one connected configuration model; every BOM view is a query over the same source of truth. The as-built cannot diverge from the design baseline without an auditable record. This is not a configuration management feature — it is a structural property that no PLM, ERP, cMRO, or EAM can provide.
Clarity holds the layer above all of them: the decision record. Every commitment made by a design authority, with its evidence chain, its options considered, its approval, and its connection to the requirements that drove it and the baselines that froze it.
Your existing tools do not need to be replaced. PLM, ERP, MES, cMRO, and EAM each continue running. Clarity connects to them and holds the layer above — the decision record and connected configuration model that none of them were built to provide.
“Knowledge management stores information. Clarity structures reasoning.”
The objective is not finding documents. It is understanding how a decision was reached and whether it remains defensible.
What Clarity does
1. Structures your existing programme documents into a connected product model.
Upload your Concept of Operations, your requirements pack, your design briefs, your supplier BOMs. Clarity reads them and extracts the structured entities — requirements, constraints, options, decisions, configuration items — with traceable links back to the source document. You do not migrate data. You do not restructure your files. Your documents stay where they are; the structured understanding layer is built on top.
2. Records every design decision with its evidence chain.
Every formal decision in a Clarity programme — a design authority approval, a baseline commitment, a trade study conclusion — carries a complete record: what options were evaluated, what evidence existed at the time, what the approval authority decided, and why. That record is not a document. It is a structured entry in the programme model, linked bidirectionally to the requirements it resolves and the baselines it freezes.
When the question arrives in 2040, the answer is a navigation — not a reconstruction.
3. Validates supplier configuration claims before they reach your baseline.
When a supplier delivers a BOM update, an interface control document, or a design modification, Clarity validates it against your design baseline before it is promoted to your source of truth. Contested claims surface to the responsible engineer. Configuration drift is visible before it becomes a certification problem.
4. Runs in your AWS account with your encryption keys.
Clarity is deployed in your AWS environment, encrypted with keys you control, in the AWS region you specify. Clarity has zero access to your programme data. Air-gap capable for classified programmes. Your data — every entity, every decision, every configuration record — stays in your environment, in open structured format, remaining accessible and auditable across the full platform life.
5. Connects to your existing tools without replacing them.
Clarity sits above your PLM, ERP, and requirements management tools via policy-governed connectors. Your Teamcenter continues running. Your SAP continues running. Clarity reads their outputs, structures them into the understanding layer, and builds the decision record above them.
Deployment options
| Option | Where it runs | Who it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Your AWS account | Your chosen AWS region | Enterprises, regulated Tier 1/2 programmes |
| ATO partner | Your AWS via cleared partner | Government, classified programmes |
| Air-gapped | Air-gapped AWS regions | Defence, intelligence, Five Eyes |
Same platform, same data model, same evidence chain across all deployment options.