NLign Names Ali Uralov Chief Financial Officer
Experienced strategic finance leader to support NLign’s next phase of growth and scale the company’s financial and operational foundation.
BLUE ASH, Ohio — September 21, 2026
NLign, a leader in Digital Twin Intelligence for mission-critical assets, today announced the appointment of Ali Uralov as Chief Financial Officer. Uralov will lead NLign’s finance organization and help guide the company’s financial strategy as it accelerates growth across aerospace and defense, expands its customer and partner ecosystem, and scales its Digital Twin–Driven Asset Intelligence platform.
Uralov brings nearly two decades of experience spanning strategic finance, financial planning and analysis, transactions, accounting, and high-growth technology companies. Most recently, he served as Director of Finance at Veza, an identity security technology company that was acquired by ServiceNow. Prior to Veza, Uralov spent more than three years at Domino Data Lab, advancing from Senior Manager to Director of Strategic Finance and supporting the company through a period of significant growth. Earlier in his career, he spent more than six years with PwC in audit and transaction services. Additionally, he has completed all three levels of the CFA Program.
“Ali joins NLign at an important point in our growth,” said Andrew Tingley, Chief Executive Officer of NLign. “As we expand our presence across aerospace and defense and build a business capable of supporting a much larger customer base, we need the financial infrastructure, discipline, and strategic insight to scale with that opportunity. Ali combines deep financial expertise with firsthand experience helping technology companies navigate growth and complex strategic transactions. He will be an important partner to me and the rest of our leadership team as we execute the next phase of NLign’s strategy.”
Uralov’s appointment comes as NLign continues to invest in scaling its business and expanding the role its technology plays across the lifecycle of mission-critical assets. Aerospace and defense organizations are under increasing pressure to accelerate production, improve fleet readiness, address workforce constraints, and generate greater value from their investments in digital engineering and enterprise systems.
“NLign has built a differentiated technology platform addressing complex and costly problems for some of the world’s most demanding industries,” said Uralov. “What attracted me to NLign is the combination of a strong product, proven customer value, and a significant opportunity to scale. I’m excited to work with Andrew and the broader team to build the financial and operational foundation that supports disciplined growth and allows us to capitalize on the opportunity ahead.”
The addition of Uralov follows the recent appointment of Andrew Tingley as CEO and further strengthens NLign’s leadership team as the company enters its next stage of growth. NLign will continue to focus on expanding adoption of its platform, deepening relationships with aerospace and defense OEMs, operators and sustainment organizations, growing its technology and channel partnerships, and investing in the capabilities required to scale the business.
“As NLign grows, finance needs to be more than a reporting function—it needs to be a strategic partner to the business,” Uralov added. “My focus will be on creating the visibility, operating discipline, and financial framework that allow us to make better decisions, invest intelligently, and scale efficiently. NLign has a compelling opportunity in front of it, and I’m excited to help turn that opportunity into durable long-term growth.”
NLign Announces Strategic Investment by The Brydon Group to Accelerate Growth in Aerospace and Defense
Investment will support product development, growth, and adoption of NLign’s Digital Twin Intelligence platform across aerospace and defense.
BLUE ASH, Ohio — September 25, 2026
NLign, whose software helps aerospace and defense organizations connect inspection, quality, engineering, manufacturing, and sustainment data to the individual mission-critical assets they build and operate, today announced a strategic investment from The Brydon Group.
Building on more than 15 years supporting aerospace and defense manufacturing and sustainment programs, including programs across the U.S. Department of War and leading aerospace manufacturers, NLign will use the investment to accelerate product development, expand its team, strengthen its go-to-market capabilities, and bring its platform to more customers and programs.
Manufacturers, operators, and sustainment organizations are increasingly being asked to increase production, improve fleet readiness, address workforce constraints, and manage more complex supply chains. At the same time, critical information about individual assets is often fragmented across engineering, manufacturing, quality, inspection, maintenance, and enterprise systems.
NLign addresses that challenge by connecting inspection results, nonconformance information, repair and maintenance history, engineering decisions, and other operational data directly to digital models of individual assets. The result is a visual system of operational truth that helps teams understand an asset’s condition and history, identify risk, and make better-informed decisions across the asset lifecycle.
“Our customers are being asked to build more, sustain more, and make decisions faster, often while working across fragmented systems and increasingly complex supply chains,” said Andrew Tingley, CEO of NLign. “Our opportunity is to give those organizations a trusted operational view of every asset—from how it was built to how it is maintained throughout its life. With The Brydon Group’s support, we have the resources and team to pursue that opportunity at a much greater scale.”
NLign addresses these challenges by extending the digital thread beyond traditional enterprise systems and connecting operational data to the asset itself. The platform complements established systems including PLM, MES, MRO, QMS, and ERP, helping organizations transform fragmented operational data into decision-ready intelligence.
“NLign has built a differentiated technology platform, an exceptional team, and trusted relationships with some of the most sophisticated aerospace and defense organizations in the world,” said Alex Mears, a Brydon managing partner and founder. “We are excited to partner with Andrew and the NLign team to build upon the company’s strong foundation, invest in continued product innovation, and bring NLign’s capabilities to more customers and programs.”
The partnership will support continued product development, expanded sales and customer success capabilities, and deeper technology and channel partnerships.
NLign will continue to focus on expanding adoption of its platform among aerospace and defense OEMs, suppliers, operators, sustainment organizations, and government programs while advancing its capabilities across manufacturing, quality, inspection, engineering, and sustainment workflows.
“NLign was built around a simple idea: complex asset data becomes far more valuable when people can understand it in the context of the physical asset,” said Tom Sharp, NLign Co-Founder and Senior Advisor. “What started as a better way to visualize inspection information has grown into a platform supporting critical manufacturing and sustainment decisions across some of the world’s most complex assets. The Brydon Group shares our belief in the potential of the technology and the importance of continuing to build on what our team and customers have created.”
About The Brydon Group
The Brydon Group is a talent-first investment firm that partners with experienced executives to acquire and operate industry-leading businesses across software, business-to-business, and government. The firm provides long-term capital and operational resources to support companies and management teams as they pursue their next phase of growth.
NLign Names Andrew Tingley Chief Executive Officer
Experienced aerospace and defense leader to guide NLign through its next phase of growth and expand the impact of its Digital Twin–Driven Asset Intelligence platform.
BLUE ASH, Ohio — September 1, 2026
NLign, a leader in Digital Twin Intelligence for mission-critical assets, today announced the appointment of Andrew Tingley as Chief Executive Officer. Tingley will lead NLign as the company accelerates its growth across the aerospace and defense markets and expands the role its technology plays in connecting manufacturing, inspection, engineering, and sustainment data across the asset lifecycle.
Tingley brings a combination of aerospace and defense industry experience, strategic leadership, and military service to NLign. Prior to joining the company, he served with McKinsey & Company, where his work included helping aerospace and defense organizations address complex operational, manufacturing, supply chain, and strategic challenges. Earlier in his career, Tingley served in the U.S. Navy, giving him firsthand perspective on the importance of readiness, reliability, and effective decision-making in mission-critical environments.
“Andrew joins NLign at an important point in our evolution,” said Tom Sharp, Senior Advisor, Co-Founder and former CEO. “Our customers are increasingly looking for ways to connect the enormous amount of data generated across manufacturing and sustainment and turn it into better, faster decisions. Andrew understands both the operational challenges facing aerospace and defense and what it takes to scale technology businesses that solve those challenges. We believe he is the right leader to take NLign into its next chapter.”
NLign provides organizations with a visual system of operational truth by connecting inspection results, conformance information, manufacturing data, maintenance history, and other operational information directly to digital models of individual assets. By bringing together traditionally disconnected data, NLign helps engineering, quality, manufacturing, and sustainment teams identify risk, accelerate decisions, reduce rework, improve traceability, and increase asset availability.
The appointment comes as aerospace and defense organizations face growing pressure to increase production, improve fleet readiness, address workforce constraints, leverage AI, and extract greater value from their digital engineering investments. NLign is positioned at the intersection of these priorities, extending the value of existing PLM, MES, MRO, ERP, and other enterprise systems by connecting operational data to the asset itself.
“NLign products can deliver tremendous benefits for our customers,” said Tingley. “We are at a time when the aerospace and defense industry needs solutions that can reduce total end-item build times and reduce costs from quality and rework, and NLign stands uniquely positioned to do that. We can bridge the gaps in our customers’ production and sustainment digital threads in a way that stands alone today. I’m excited to join this talented team and scale our value for customers across the industry.”
Tingley’s appointment builds on more than 15 years of NLign collaboration with leading aerospace and defense organizations. The company’s technology has been deployed across aircraft manufacturing and sustainment environments, helping organizations transform fragmented inspection and quality data into actionable intelligence tied directly to the physical asset.
Under Tingley’s leadership, NLign will focus on expanding adoption of its platform, deepening relationships with aerospace and defense OEMs, operators, sustainment organizations, and technology partners, and continuing to advance its Digital Twin–Driven Asset Intelligence capabilities.
“NLign’s opportunity is bigger than simply improving an individual inspection or engineering workflow,” Tingley added. “It is about creating a trusted digital thread across the lifecycle of mission-critical assets so that everyone—from the technician on the floor to the engineering authority to senior leadership—can make decisions from the same operational truth. That translates to more aircraft uptime, greater mission readiness rates, lower costs of poor quality, and faster production rates.”
Behind Every Mission: A System Built for Readiness
The mission is often the most visible part of military aviation. We see the aircraft in flight, the capability it delivers, and the outcome.
What we see less often is everything that happened before that moment.
Behind every mission is a much wider network of people, processes, information, and decisions working together to keep assets safe, available, and ready when needed.
For complex aerospace and defense programs, readiness is not created once. It is built and maintained continuously across the asset lifecycle.
Readiness is built over time
Every aircraft develops its own history.
There is the aircraft as it was designed, and then there is the aircraft across its lifecycle: how it was built, operated, inspected, repaired, maintained, and sustained.
Over time, manufacturing differences, inspection findings, engineering decisions, maintenance actions, and operating conditions all become part of that individual asset’s story. Each stage creates new information and involves decisions based on what is known about the aircraft at that point in time.
That is why readiness depends on more than understanding what an aircraft was intended to be at the design stage. Teams also need to understand what has happened to that specific asset throughout its lifecycle. That context matters.
Readiness is a collective effort
No single team is solely responsible for asset readiness.
Maintainers understand the physical reality of the aircraft. Engineers bring specialist knowledge and judgment to complex findings. Inspectors document condition and nonconformance, while logistics and program teams help ensure the right resources, information, and wider fleet context are available.
Alongside them are operators, civilians, manufacturers, sustainment organizations, and industry partners, each contributing a different part of the picture.
The strength of that system depends on how well those areas can work from a shared understanding of the asset. When teams operate across different functions, organizations, and stages of the lifecycle, the quality and clarity of the information available can directly affect how quickly and confidently decisions are made.
The challenge is not more data
Modern aircraft generate huge amounts of information throughout their lives.
The challenge is often not whether the data exists. It is whether that data is connected, understandable, and useful when decisions need to be made.
Inspection results, engineering decisions, manufacturing history, maintenance activity, and repair documentation may all live in different systems. Each of those records is valuable. When fragmented, however, teams may have to reconstruct the history of an asset before addressing the issue in front of them.
Access to data is not the same as having a clear operational picture.
Information becomes far more useful when it can be understood in context: where something happened, what came before it, what action was taken, and whether the same pattern has appeared elsewhere. That context gives teams a stronger foundation for the next decision.
Understanding what is true about the asset now
For an engineer, maintainer, inspector, or program team dealing with an asset issue, the questions are often very practical.
What is the condition of this aircraft? Where exactly has the issue occurred? Has something similar happened before? What maintenance or engineering action has already been taken? Is this isolated, or could it point to a wider pattern? What needs to happen next?
These are questions of operational truth.
NLign began with a simple operational insight: asset information becomes more useful when it is connected to the physical asset itself. What began by spatially grounding inspection data to precise locations on an aircraft has expanded to connect information across the asset lifecycle, giving teams a clearer picture of condition, context, risk, and required action.
The 3D model is the interface. The value is the operational intelligence connected to it. It is not the technology itself that matters; it is what it helps decision-makers see and understand.
Supporting the people making the decisions
The people responsible for mission-critical assets bring experience and judgment that cannot be replaced by a system or model.
Engineering judgment, maintenance expertise, inspection experience, and knowledge built through years of working with a particular platform all matter. Technology is most useful when it helps people apply that expertise with better context and stronger evidence.
When teams can understand an asset’s history, compare findings over time, and recognize recurring patterns, they are better positioned to make informed decisions without losing time rebuilding knowledge that already exists.
There is also a wider benefit. What is learned from one inspection, repair, or sustainment action can help inform decisions elsewhere across a fleet or program.
Readiness is therefore not only about the condition of an aircraft at a particular moment. It is also about how effectively organizations learn from what has happened before.
79 years of readiness
Later this month, on September 18, the United States Air Force will mark its 79th birthday.
Across those decades, aircraft, technologies, missions, and operating environments have changed significantly. The demands placed on the people responsible for maintaining and sustaining those capabilities have changed with them.
The underlying requirement has not: critical assets need to be ready when the mission requires them. That readiness depends on the Airmen and the wider community of maintainers, engineers, civilians, program teams, sustainment organizations, and industry partners working behind the mission every day.
At NLign, we are privileged to work alongside organizations responsible for sustaining mission-critical assets and supporting the decisions that keep them ready.
As the Air Force approaches its 79th birthday, we recognize the expertise, service, and commitment of everyone who contributes.
The mission is what we see. Readiness is everything that makes it possible.
Farnborough International Airshow reinforced the need for connected data to support scalable industry innovation
Farnborough International Airshow (FIA2026) is one of the few events where the full aerospace and defense ecosystem comes into view.
Across the show, you see the scale of what the industry is building toward: next-generation aircraft, advanced propulsion, digitalization, automation, sustainable aviation technology, defense manufacturing, supply chain resilience, and the future workforce required to support it all.
Those themes matter because they are not separate conversations. They all depend on the same operational foundation: the ability to understand what is true about an asset, at the point a decision needs to be made.
That is the part of aerospace innovation that is often less visible from the outside. New platforms, materials, systems and digital capabilities create momentum. But once those assets move through their lifecycle from production to operations, the question becomes more practical.
- Can the organization see what is happening across the asset lifecycle?
- Can teams trust the data they are using?
- Can engineering, manufacturing, inspection, maintenance, and sustainment teams work from the same operational picture?
- Can decisions be made quickly, safely, and with confidence?
At Farnborough, the industry’s direction was clear. Aerospace and defense are moving into a period of greater complexity and demand. However, in high-risk asset environments it is important not just to innovate, but to make innovation reliable and safe at scale.
Advancing aerospace depends on operational continuity
One of the core themes for FIA2026 was Advancing Aerospace. That theme speaks to the next era of innovation.
For NLign, this is directly connected to the environments we were built to support.
Aerospace advancement does not stop at design. It has to carry through production, inspection, maintenance, sustainment, and operational use. The asset changes over time, moving through manufacturing, service, repair, inspection, and time.
That is where operational truth becomes critical.
A digital model can show what was designed. A production record can show what was built. A maintenance record can show what was found or repaired. But if those records remain disconnected, teams are forced to interpret the asset through fragments.
In mission-critical environments, fragments are not enough. Assumptions ground missions.
Aerospace teams need data that stays connected to the asset itself. They need to understand the condition, context and required actions all at once. That clarity allows innovation to move from concept to reliable operational performance.
Defense readiness depends on trusted information
Farnborough’s defense theme reflects a rapidly evolving environment shaped by new technologies, shifting priorities, and global security demands. For organizations operating in this space, readiness is not an abstract objective. It is an operational imperative.
Readiness depends on knowing the state of the asset.
That means being able to see nonconformances, inspection findings, repair history, maintenance activity, structural conditions, and recurring issues in the context of the physical asset.
Poor visibility can slow disposition, increase rework, delay maintenance decisions and reduce confidence in the action being taken.
In defense and other high-risk asset environments, the value of operational clarity is measured in readiness, risk reduction, and decision confidence.
Advanced technology is most effective when it supports action
Another major Farnborough theme is Advanced Technology & AI. This is a critical conversation, but it is important to keep it grounded in operational reality.
The aerospace industry is not short of digital ambition. Teams are already working with digital twins, intelligent systems, automation, simulation, advanced sensors, and data-rich workflows.
The challenge is making sure those technologies create clarity, not noise. Technology should close the gap between information and action.
At NLign, we see this every day in aircraft manufacturing and sustainment environments. The data exists. The issue is that it is distributed across systems, documents, records, workflows, and teams. When that data is not connected to the asset, the burden falls on people to reconstruct the truth manually. This approach is not reliable or scalable.
Digital Twin-Driven Asset Intelligence activates the digital twin with operational reality. Helping teams see what is happening, where it is happening, and why it matters.
The 3D model is not the value on its own.
The value is the operational intelligence connected to it.
Supply chain resilience also depends on asset-level clarity
Farnborough’s supply chain theme is another important part of the discussion for NLign. Aerospace production is scaling under pressure, and that reality was clear across the show.
When information is fragmented, coordination across suppliers, OEMs, engineering teams, quality teams and sustainment organizations becomes harder.
A nonconformance in production can become a sustainment issue later. A recurring defect can reveal a deeper pattern, but only if the data is captured consistently and made visible over time. A maintenance finding can inform engineering decisions only if it remains connected to the asset and its history.
This is why traceability matters. Not traceability as a compliance exercise, but as an operational capability.
Organizations need to understand how decisions, actions, conditions, and evidence move across the lifecycle. Without that, lessons stay local. Patterns stay hidden. Teams solve the same issues repeatedly.
Operational truth creates the shared context needed for better decisions across the ecosystem.
What Farnborough reinforced
My takeaway from Farnborough is that the industry is advancing rapidly, and the need for operational clarity is becoming more urgent.
The aircraft, defense systems, and aerospace platforms being developed today involve more stakeholders, more data, and more complex lifecycles than the generation before them.
That makes trusted asset intelligence an essential foundation.
NLign’s role is to help organizations connect complex, disconnected operational data directly to the asset, creating a system of Operational Truth that supports safer decisions, stronger readiness, and greater confidence.
Farnborough demonstrated the direction aerospace and defense are moving in.
The challenge now is to ensure the operational systems behind that progress are clear enough, trusted enough, and connected enough to support what comes next.
Connected systems are not the same as decision-ready intelligence
Realize LIVE Europe brings together many of the conversations shaping the next stage of digital transformation. Across engineering, manufacturing, product lifecycle management, simulation, digital manufacturing, and operational systems, the direction of travel is clear: organizations are continuing to connect more of the systems, data, and processes that define complex products and assets.
For prime OEMs, this progress matters. These organizations operate across highly complex environments where engineering intent, manufacturing execution, quality activity, inspection records, and sustainment information all need to work together. The ambition behind the digital thread is not simply to connect these areas in theory, but to create a clearer, more reliable basis for action across the asset lifecycle.
However, connection alone is not the end goal.
The more important question is whether connected systems can support decision confidence when it matters most. In high-risk asset environments, leaders do not only need access to data. They need to know whether that data reflects the current operational reality of the asset, whether it can be trusted, and whether it points clearly to the next required action.
That distinction is important. Many digital transformation programs have made significant progress in digitizing processes, integrating platforms, and improving access to information. These are necessary foundations. But for teams responsible for complex assets, the operational challenge often begins after the data has been created.
Information can exist across systems and remain difficult to act on. Engineering, quality, manufacturing, inspection, and sustainment teams may each hold part of the picture, but the asset itself does not operate in parts. Decisions have to be made against the full context: what was designed, what was built, what has changed, what has been inspected, what risk remains, and what action is required now.
This is where the next phase of digital transformation becomes more demanding. It is not only about creating more complete digital environments. It is about making those environments decision-ready.
A digital twin becomes more valuable when it is connected to operational truth. A digital thread becomes more valuable when it helps teams understand condition, context, risk, and required action. A connected enterprise becomes more valuable when the information moving through it can support faster, safer, and more confident decisions.
From my work with OEMs, one pattern is clear: the organizations leading in this space are not just asking how to collect more data or deploy more technology. They are asking how to reduce uncertainty across complex operational workflows. They are asking how to shorten the distance between identifying an issue and acting on it. They are asking how to ensure that teams are working from the same trusted view of the asset.
That is a different conversation from digital transformation as a technology initiative alone. It is a conversation about operational accountability.
In manufacturing and sustainment environments, this accountability shows up in practical ways. It appears in the speed of disposition decisions. In the ability to understand nonconformance in context. In traceability across engineering and production records, and in the confidence that teams have when assessing risk, prioritizing action, and maintaining readiness.
These are not abstract outcomes. They are the operational conditions that determine whether digital transformation creates measurable value.
This is why Digital Twin–Driven Asset Intelligence matters. The digital twin provides an essential foundation, but the model itself is not where the full value is created. The value is when asset data is connected, contextualized, and made usable for the people responsible for making decisions. The value is in turning complex, disconnected information into intelligence that is aligned directly to the asset.
For high-risk assets, that intelligence must be precise, traceable and grounded in the actual condition and history of the asset, not just in a representation of what the asset should be. It has to support decisions across engineering, manufacturing, quality, inspection, maintenance, and sustainment without adding unnecessary process overhead.
Realize LIVE Europe is a useful moment to reflect on this because the sessions and conversations reflected where the industry is moving. The conversations around PLM, digital manufacturing, simulation, digital twin, AI, lifecycle connectivity, and operational systems all point toward a more connected future.
But the organizations responsible for complex assets will need more than connected systems. They will need connected systems that create operational clarity.
The next phase is to move from digital visibility to decision confidence.
This means ensuring that digital transformation investments do not stop at system integration or visual representation. They need to support operational truth: a clear, trusted understanding of what is happening across the asset, where risk exists, and what action is required next.
As Realize LIVE Europe brings together leaders, practitioners, and technology teams across the Siemens ecosystem, the broader direction is clear. Organizations are continuing to connect more of the lifecycle.
The next question is whether those connections can deliver the confidence needed to act.
That is where the real value will be created.
NLign announced an OEM agreement
NLign announced an OEM agreement with Siemens enhancing customers’ ability to connect engineering, manufacturing, and sustainment data.
BLUE ASH, OH, UNITED STATES, JUNE 2, 2026 EINPRESSWIRE.COM
NLign, a leader in Digital Twin–Driven Asset Intelligence for high-risk, high-value assets, today announced the successful execution of an OEM agreement with Siemens Digital Industries Software. This agreement establishes native integration of NLign’s platform within Teamcenter, enhancing customers’ ability to seamlessly connect engineering, manufacturing, and sustainment data within a unified digital thread.
“NLign’s capabilities bring a new dimension of operational intelligence to our customers.”
— Zvi Feuer, SVP of Digital Manufacturing at Siemens
Through this partnership, NLign’s spatial intelligence capabilities will be embedded directly into Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio, providing users with a real-time, 3D, context-rich view of non-conformances, maintenance actions, and engineering intent connected directly to the digital model-based asset. The result is faster decision-making, improved quality outcomes, and enhanced operational readiness across the entire lifecycle—from as-designed to as-built to as-maintained.
“This agreement represents a major step forward in delivering on the promise of the digital twin intelligence,” said Pete Forno, Vice President of Sales at NLign. “By integrating directly into Teamcenter, NLign enables organizations to move beyond disconnected data so every quality event, engineering decision, and maintenance action can be understood in the context of the asset itself.”
The integration addresses a critical gap in today’s digital transformation efforts: the inability to operationalize digital twins with real-world, in-service data. NLign enhances Siemens’ ecosystem by bringing a precise, spatially grounded layer of intelligence that connects quality, manufacturing, and sustainment workflows in a way that existing enterprise systems alone cannot achieve.
KEY CAPABILITIES ENABLED THROUGH THE OEM AGREEMENT INCLUDE:
- Model-Based Non-Conformance Management: Visualize and resolve quality issues directly on the digital model-based asset with precise spatial significance
- Accelerated MRB and Disposition Cycles: Reduce cycle times by providing full context across engineering, manufacturing, and sustainment
- Closed-Loop Quality Across Lifecycle: Connect manufacturing data with in-service maintenance insights to prevent repeat defects
- Improved Operational Readiness: Enable faster fault isolation and more confident decision-making for high-risk assets
Organizations leveraging this integrated solution can expect significant improvements in data visibility, reduction in rework and repeat defects, and measurable gains in asset availability and mission readiness.
“This partnership reinforces Siemens’ commitment to delivering a comprehensive digital enterprise solution,” said Zvi Feuer, Senior Vice President of Digital Manufacturing at Siemens Digital Industries Software. “NLign’s capabilities bring a new dimension of operational intelligence to our customers, strengthening the connection between the digital and physical worlds.”
The OEM agreement positions NLign and Siemens to jointly support customers across aerospace and defense, energy, transportation, and other industries where asset performance, safety, and lifecycle visibility are mission critical.
Learn more about the partnership from Henri Thevenot, Industry Strategy Leader for Aerospace & Defense at Siemens Digital Industries Software, here.
ABOUT SIEMENS DIGITAL INDUSTRIES SOFTWARE
Siemens Digital Industries Software helps organizations of all sizes digitally transform using software, hardware, and services from the Siemens Xcelerator business platform. Siemens’ software and the comprehensive digital twin enable companies to optimize their design, engineering, and manufacturing processes to turn today’s ideas into the sustainable products of the future.
NLign Analytics and Click Bond Partner to Empower Aerospace’s Technical Workforce with Digital Precision and Structural Intelligence
NLign Analytics and Click Bond announce a strategic partnership to modernize aircraft manufacturing, sustainment, and structural inspection and repair processes across aerospace and defense.
CINCINNATI, OH – APRIL 1, 2026
NLign Analytics and Click Bond announced a strategic partnership to modernize aircraft manufacturing, sustainment, structural inspections, and repair processes in the aerospace and defense industries.
The aerospace sector faces workforce shortages despite increased demand for skilled technicians. Additionally, quality and configuration data from inspections, repairs, and maintenance often remain disconnected from aircraft engineering baselines, causing rework delays and limiting fleet visibility.
“The pace of the industry is asking them to do more complex work, with fewer experienced hands to learn from.“
— Karl Hutter, CEO of Click Bond
The partnership integrates NLign’s 3D Digital Twin spatial database with Click Bond’s digital work guidance solutions, leveraging 40 years of assembly expertise. This unified workflow helps technicians, engineers, and maintainers execute tasks with greater accuracy and speed, whether building new aircraft or maintaining existing fleets. Data remains connected to original engineering records throughout assembly, inspection, modification, and repair.
“Partnering with Click Bond allows us to connect the digital and physical worlds of aircraft manufacturing and sustainment,” said Tom Sharp, CEO of NLign Analytics.
ABOUT NLIGN ANALYTICS
NLign delivers Digital Twin-Driven Asset Intelligence for high-risk assets by connecting inspection and conformance data to digital models, enabling safer decisions and stronger readiness.
ABOUT CLICK BOND
Click Bond creates innovative assembly solutions and engineered hardware through world-class manufacturing. The company is headquartered in Carson City, Nevada, with an additional facility in Watertown, Connecticut.
NLign Analytics Joins the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA)
NLign Analytics is accepted as a member of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, strengthening its commitment to aviation safety and lifecycle modernization.
BLUE ASH, OH – JUNE 2025
We’re excited to share that NLign Analytics has been accepted as a member of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). This membership highlights NLign’s commitment to advancing aviation safety, lifecycle modernization, and industry collaboration.
Joining GAMA strengthens our focus on helping the aviation community modernize inspection, maintenance, and manufacturing processes. It underscores NLign’s ongoing efforts to deliver innovative digital solutions that improve lifecycle visibility, strengthen decision-making, and advance aviation safety.
At NLign, we provide a single, integrated system that maps the lifecycle of high-value assets from as-designed to as-built to as-maintained onto a 3D model with patented precision. From the first inspection through final disposition, teams gain full structural health traceability so they can act faster, work smarter, and increase aircraft availability and readiness.
Joining GAMA also opens new opportunities for collaboration with manufacturers, maintainers, and innovators across the aviation industry. Together, we can continue to advance safety, improve efficiency, and support the broader general aviation community.
“We are pleased to bring our expertise in asset and fleet manufacturing and sustainment to GAMA and our fellow members,” said Larry Faist, President of NLign Analytics. “Our membership helps raise awareness of the innovative technological advancements in digital twin, digital thread, and digital transformation. We look forward to collaborating with other aviation leaders to improve safety and efficiency.”
Defining and Developing the Digital Groundwork to Realize Tangible Tactical Advantages
The A-10 System Program Office built NLign into the backbone of its structural data collection, cutting inspection processing from months to weeks.
Science & Engineering Vector (August 2019)
The term “NLign” was a play on words to bring aircraft damage data “in-line” with aircraft integrity requirements. Since the software’s beginnings as a Small Business Innovative Research project in 2007, NLign has quickly become an essential tool for the A-10 in maintaining an aging fleet. NLign has the capability to spatially locate data on a two- or three-dimensional model, and provides a means to search and trend that information.
The A-10 engineers within the System Program Office (SPO) first used this program as a way to document discrepancies and their associated analyses to speed future support requests. Eventually, additional forms of data began to be recorded into the system: Non-Destructive Inspections (NDI), test and teardown, non-conformance records, flight histories, serialized component historical records, and discrepancy data. The engineers currently have access to over 42,000 spatially defined records, providing at-a-glance communication of emerging fleet damage hot spots.
One of the largest areas of improvement has been in acquiring NDI data. For years, aircraft maintenance shops captured NDI data on handwritten forms. These records remained with the aircraft component until it left the depot. The inspection findings are the main purpose for depot maintenance and are essential to predicting aircraft fatigue to manage the fleet. It took several months for the handwritten forms to arrive in the Aircraft Structural Integrity Program’s (ASIP) office for processing. That time gap made it very difficult to find errors and correct them before the aircraft left the depot.
Due to the critical nature of the inspection data and the challenge of managing a fleet beyond its original design life, it became necessary to change how inspection data was collected. NLign was organically configured by the SPO engineers, sheet metal mechanics, and NDI technicians to effectively capture inspection data. The process used to collect data with NLign was validated on the shop floor, technical order requirements changed, and a training program was implemented to ensure success. Now, data is controlled, digitally captured, and available in real time.
The results of this are astounding. What used to take seven to nine months can now be completed in weeks. Additionally, increased collaboration between the A-10 maintenance groups and the engineers has led to a dramatic increase in the quality of data. The quality of inspection records went from 17 percent good in 2017 to a current 95 percent in 2019.
With the proven efficiencies gained at the Hill depot to capture maintenance data, the A-10 SPO is deploying NLign and training the field units on how to benefit from this system. The intent is to develop and implement processes to collapse engineering response times, collect prognostic indicators, and forecast individual aircraft maintenance based on condition and need.