Introduction
In the complex world of modern manufacturing, engineers often spend more time managing tools, setting up environments, and navigating “red tape” than actually designing products. Platform Engineering is the discipline of designing and building workflows and toolchains that enable self-service capabilities for engineering teams.
Think of it as building a “Product for the Engineers.” In a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) context, Platform Engineering provides the digital infrastructure—the “Internal Developer Platform” (IDP)—that allows teams to deploy code, simulate hardware, and manage data without needing to be experts in the underlying IT or DevOps architecture.
The Pillars of Platform Engineering
Platform engineering aims to reduce the “cognitive load” on individual engineers through four main pillars:
1. Self-Service Capabilities
Engineers should be able to provision the resources they need (e.g., a cloud environment for a simulation or a new database for sensor data) through an automated portal, rather than filing a ticket and waiting for days.
2. Standardized Toolchains
Instead of every team using different tools, the platform team provides a “Golden Path”—a set of pre-approved, integrated tools that are known to work well and comply with security standards.
3. Automated Workflows (CI/CD)
Automating the path from design to production. Whether it is a software update for a smart car or a new CAD revision for a factory robot, the platform ensures the transition is seamless and tested.
4. Governance and Security by Design
Policies, compliance checks, and security protocols are baked into the platform. When an engineer uses the platform, they are “compliant by default.”
Why Platform Engineering Matters in Manufacturing
As products become “Cyber-Physical” (combining hardware, software, and connectivity), the complexity of the development environment explodes.
| The Problem | The Platform Engineering Solution |
| Tool Fragmentation | A unified platform that connects ECAD, MCAD, and Software ALM. |
| Manual Handoffs | Automated “Digital Threads” that move data between departments instantly. |
| Bottlenecks | Self-service access to high-performance computing (HPC) for simulations. |
| Shadow IT | Providing a platform so good that engineers don’t feel the need to use unapproved tools. |
The Synergy: Platform Engineering & the Digital Twin
Platform Engineering provides the “pipes” through which the Digital Twin data flows. It ensures that the data coming from a smart machine on the shop floor can be instantly accessed by a design engineer in their PLM environment. Without a robust platform, the Digital Twin remains a siloed experiment; with it, it becomes a real-time operational tool.
How Visure Solutions Integrates into the Platform Strategy
Visure Requirements ALM Platform is a cornerstone of a modern engineering platform. It provides the “Requirement Infrastructure” that other tools plug into:
- API-First Connectivity: Visure’s open architecture allows platform engineers to integrate requirement data into automated CI/CD pipelines and dashboards.
- Standardized Templates: Create “Golden Paths” for compliance. The platform can provide pre-configured Visure projects that already include the necessary workflows for ISO 26262 or FDA standards.
- Unified Traceability: Visure acts as the glue in the platform, ensuring that even if software and hardware teams use different tools, their requirements are traced in a single, centralized platform.
- Scalability: As the organization grows, Visure’s enterprise-grade infrastructure ensures that thousands of engineers can access critical data without performance lag.
Conclusion
Platform Engineering is the secret weapon of the most innovative companies in the world. By treating the engineering experience as a product in itself, organizations can strip away friction, reduce errors, and allow their brightest minds to focus on what they do best: creating the next generation of great products.
With Visure at the heart of your engineering platform, you don’t just provide tools; you provide a governed, compliant, and high-performance environment where innovation can scale without limits.
Check out the 14-day free trial at Visure and experience how AI-driven change control can help you manage changes faster, safer, and with full audit readiness.
