While the rest of the world is busy hanging lights, doing last minute gift shopping, and sipping cocoa, the North Pole is deep in digital engineering mode. Snow is falling, elves are sprinting between workbenches, and Mrs. Claus is running point on the most critical program of the year: the final design of Santa’s Sleigh Delivery System.
This year’s challenge is a classic engineering balancing act. More gifts than ever, tighter delivery windows, and zero tolerance for missed rooftops. Every design tweak matters, especially when sleigh mass and aerodynamics can make or break an on-time global delivery.
Last year, Mrs. Claus and her team laid the foundation by designing a governed digital thread for the Sleigh Delivery System, powered by Syndeia. Requirements, System Architecture (SysML v2), Hardware, Software, Verification, and Analyses models were finally connected across tools, turning scattered artifacts into a coherent and live digital thread. If you missed that moment, it’s worth revisiting the 5-day report on how the North Pole first went digital: 👉 North Pole Calls Intercax for Digital Mission: Possible – Day 1.
This year, that digital thread is not just connecting but automated, observable, and continuously evolving.
At the heart of the program is the 3D CAD model of Santa’s Sleigh Delivery System, managed in SOLIDWORKS PDM (Figure 1). Every assembly, subassembly, and configuration including Reindeer models live there, changing rapidly as engineers shave grams, adjust materials, and fine-tune aerodynamics.
Figure 1 : Santa Sleigh Delivery System assembly in SOLIDWORKS PDM.
Through the Syndeia Web Dashboard, the team can view and navigate the Sleigh Assembly in context, both in the Tree View (Figure 2) and in the Digital Thread Explorer view (Figure 3). Syndeia provides a live connection to the SOLIDWORKS PDM vault.
Figure 2 : Santa Sleigh Delivery System assembly (SOLIDWORKS PDM) in Syndeia Web Dashboard – Assembly structure and Data Card properties.
Figure 3 : Santa Sleigh Delivery System assembly (SOLIDWORKS PDM) in Syndeia Web Dashboard – Digital Thread Explorer view.
When deeper inspection is needed, the journey stays frictionless. Engineers seamlessly navigate from the digital thread straight into a SOLIDWORKS PDM assembly deep dive, moving fluidly from system-level insight to detailed CAD geometry without losing traceability or momentum.
With the release of Syndeia 3.7, Mrs. Claus introduced a new kind of holiday magic: Pipelines.
The North Pole team now runs an automated pipeline that:
Tracks every version of the Sleigh Delivery System as the SOLDIWORKS model evolves
Computes mass properties across the connected digital thread
Generates authoritative reports automatically
Publishes results directly to Confluence for the entire workshop to review
But the real delight happens during execution.
On the Syndeia Web Dashboard, the team can watch live animations of each pipeline run, step by step (Figure 4). Every run is captured and archived, creating a complete history of pipeline executions, each one linked to the exact Confluence report it produced.
Figure 4 : Pipeline to generate a Confluence report with mass properties. Runs on schedule or on demand.
The team can track the evolution of sleigh mass properties in near real time, spotting trends early, validating improvements, and ensuring Santa’s payload stays within lift-off limits long before Christmas Eve. Syndeia pipeline generates mass properties reports for Santa’s Sleigh Delivery System in Confluence on a scheduled (or on demand) basis (Figure 5).
Figure 5 : Pipeline generates Sleigh Delivery System report in Confluence from SOLIDWORKS PDM assembly.
With live pipelines, connected CAD, and continuously updated reports, Mrs. Claus no longer manages by assumption. She manages by evidence. Weight growth is transparent. Design decisions are traceable. And trade-offs are resolved with confidence instead of guesswork.
Magic still fuels the North Pole. But behind the scenes, it’s living digital threads, animated pipelines, and real-time insight that turn wonder into delivery.
From Mrs. & Mr. Claus, her engineering elves, and all of us, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with smooth pipeline runs, seamless navigation, and sleighs that always lift off on time. 🎅✨
Kenneth Naylor (Intercax)
Gregory Seeds (Intercax)
Manas Bajaj (Intercax)