Three Ways Digital Twins Can Transform Your Business

It would be amazing if you could simulate alternate scenarios and plans for products and services. It’s crucial to use the latest technologies and tools when creating websites and apps for today's connected world. Digital twin technology is one such technology. It is also one of the most important industry 4.0 technologies worldwide. Digital twin technology is a way to see what's happening in your production line or operation line and predict what will happen in the future.

NASA had used a precursor to digital twin technology (a pair tech) to address the problem of maintaining, repairing, and operating systems even when you're not physically there. This is exactly how space companies identify current and future challenges. Digital twin technology applications at NASA uses digital twin technology extensively today to study the next-generation aircraft and vehicles.

Digital twin technology is not only used by tech giants but also by modern businesses and enterprises. It can be used for various reasons, including improving ongoing operations, testing new features before launching them, training staff, and operating services in a virtual environment where it is more cost-effective and easier to fix any problem.

Companies that integrate machine learning (ML) and Artificial intelligence (AL) to analyze the digital twins' operations model can achieve real digital power. Digital twin technology offers a wide range of tech solutions that can be used to improve productivity and efficiency in every industry, including Manufacturing, logistics, Healthcare, aviation, energy, retail and automotive.

The digital twin market in the supply chain and manufacturing industry will be over 6 billion USD by 2025.

You might be curious to know more about digital twin technology. This article will explain the basics of digital twin technology and how it can be used in business and enterprise operations. Let's dig in.

What is Digital Twin technology?

Digital twin technology refers to a virtual representation representing a system or object over its entire lifecycle. The environment is created from real-time data. It uses simulation, reasoning, and machine learning to aid in decision-making.

It is simply the spectra used to create a complex virtual model. This is the counterpart or twin of a physical system. It could be any system, from an engine to a car to a bridge. The digital twin technology isn't an object simulation. It is a digital twin which keeps updating as new data is added to the object.

Modern organisations use digital twin apps to complete a variety of tasks, such as

• Real users visualise products in action in real-time
• Enhance assumptions using predictive analytics
• System-of-Systems Management: Managing complexity and linkage
• Digital Thread: Connecting disparate systems, promoting traceability
• Troubleshooting distant systems and devices

We will be discussing many other industrial applications and uses of digital twin technology in the upcoming sections.

The digital twin technology allows you to get familiar with the IoT implementation and the automation. They can simulate the application before it goes live. You can apply the lessons and opportunities learned through a digital twin to your physical environment.

Digital twins are a way to see what is happening with equipment and other assets. This has benefited Manufacturing, which can reduce maintenance costs and maximize production output. While the idea of a digital twin was first introduced in 2002, IoT made it affordable and accessible to businesses. You will be amazed at the possibilities of digital twins for your business. Once we are familiar with the working concept of the digital twin technology, we will move on to industrial applications.

What is the working principle of Digital Twins?

You can create a digital twin with as little data as you need. The digital twin can be created even before an asset is physically built. You can create virtual counterparts (digital Twins) using the following elements:

Sensors: These sensors record the operational behaviour and environment of assets and processes (temperature, pressure, vibration, and temperature).

Communication network: This transfers data from physical devices to digital worlds.

A digital platform: This is a modern data repository that stores and processes shop floor sensor data and high-level business data such as ERP, MSE, etc. Combining these data resources with data analytics algorithms can provide actionable insights.

You can achieve the most accurate analysis of your assets and business results by maintaining a consistent data flow. Your digital twin acts as a living model of the physical equipment.

Another important question is: When to use the digital twin technology.

Digital Twin technology: When should it be used?

The digital twin concept can be used in all possible digital business spaces. However, experts recommend three situations where it works best.

The digital twin solutions can be divided into three categories, which show different times at which the process can be used.

Digital Twin Prototype (DTP).

This is where the physical asset has already been created.

Digital Twin Instance (DTI).

This happens once a product has been manufactured to allow for testing on different usage scenarios.

Digital Twin Aggregate - DTW

This is where DTI data is gathered and analysed to determine the asset's capabilities, test operating parameters, and make prognostications.

These categories can be used for many purposes, such as product development, planning, logistics, quality control, and Manufacturing.

How can you use the digital twin concept in your business? Let's find out.

Digital Twin technology can be used in business applications.

Digital twin solutions have the potential to transform Manufacturing, Healthcare, Retail, and many other industries through amplifying model-driven decisions. Let's look at how the major industrial markets have implemented the digital twin concept into their business models.

What is the Digital Twins doing to transform the supply chain?

Performance prediction

It is easy to virtualize product packaging and check for errors before it is packed. Logistic companies can use digital twin technology to determine material feasibility.

Shipment protection

With the simulation of digital twin insights, logistics businesses can analyze how different packaging conditions impact product delivery.

Operational performance, warehouse design

Logistics companies can use digital twins to evaluate warehouse layouts and make the best warehouse design decisions to maximize operational efficiency.

The creation of a logistics netowrk

The digital twin of a road network contains information about road layout, traffic situation, and construction. Logistic companies can use the knowledge to design distribution routes and storage locations for their inventory.

How can Digital Twins transform Healthcare?

Healthcare operations improved

A digital twin of a hospital can be created to help healthcare providers evaluate the operational performance of a logistics enterprise.

Personalized care

To provide personalised Healthcare, such as rare and unique drugs, pharma companies and healthcare providers employ digital twin technology applications for certain patients.

How can Digital Twins transform Manufacturing?

Manufacturing relies on expensive equipment that generates high volumes of data. This makes it even more important to bring digital twin solutions into the business.

Customization of design

Businesses can create multiple product variants with digital twins to offer customised products and services.

Product development

Before launching products, you can check whether they are feasible. The test results show that you can develop scalable products.

Construction

Construction companies can use a digital twin to monitor and adjust the performance of their buildings in real-time. This allows them to optimise efficiency and improve performance. Data from digital twins are used to plan and design future buildings.

Predictive maintenance

It is not surprising that digital twins are changing the manufacturing industry by anticipating the possible downtime of machines. This allows companies to reduce non-value-adding maintenance and increase overall efficiency before it occurs.

However, a digital twin can prove difficult to scale as it is a machine-specific virtual replica. To build and maintain twins, you will likely need to hire data scientists or a trusted digital transformation company.

How can Digital Twins transform Automotive and Aerospace?

The concept of physical twins was first used in aerospace before digital twins. As an example of how digital twins successfully managed Apollo 13 programs, NASA is brilliant.

Virtually all vehicle and engine development occur within the automotive and aerospace industry. In the automotive industry, digital twins are used to creating virtual models of connected vehicles. Digital twin solutions can create ideal automotive assets long before production begins.

Self-driven automobile development

Self-driven autonomous vehicle design is one of the most impressive examples of digital twin technology. Many sensors are required to update data about the vehicle and its environment continuously. A digital twin helps avoid any unintended damage or injuries due to autonomous vehicles' liability issues.

The most important support benefit is vehicle maintenance and road testing.

What is the Digital Twins doing to transform Retail?

Simulations and consumer modelling

You can build digital twin models of different customer personas if you own a digital twin transforming retail store to scale customer experience. You can also talk to customers about personalized clothing and products based on their digital footprint.

The digital twin technology is also well-suited for every business situation, offering a greater benefit scale. Let's not forget to mention the benefits of digital twin technology.

Digital Twin technology has many benefits for businesses

The digital twin is an updated, dynamic representation of a physical object. It never stops growing and providing real-time output. Many digital landscapes embrace digital twin models because of this.

Production and risk assessment at an accelerated pace

Digital twins allow enterprises to validate products before they are made. To identify potential production errors, you can make a replica of the process. Consider the savings you will make on product failures.

It can disrupt the system to generate unpredictable scenarios and determine mitigation strategies. The system can then react. This capability will improve risk assessment, speed up the development of new products, and increase reliability in the operation line.

Predictive maintenance

The digital twin's system and IoT sensors produce big data in real-time. You can use this data to identify potential problems. This allows businesses to schedule predictive maintenance accurately, resulting in low downtime and lower maintenance costs.

Collaboration in teams

Digital twin technology has many benefits, but one of them is the ability to increase productivity and team collaboration. Digital twin technology allows for smooth data flow and efficient operations thanks to its 24*7 accessibility and process automation.

Remote monitoring in real-time

Many organisations still find it difficult to get a detailed, real-time view of a large physical system. The digital twin allows simultaneous access that allows you to monitor and control system performance remotely.

Better financial decision making

Virtual representations of physical objects can include financial data, such as labour and material costs. The availability of big and advanced analytics allows you to visualise possible outcomes and make more reliable and faster decisions. These benefits are not limited to one dimension. You can digitally transform any business with the help of digital twin technology solutions.

How can you successfully implement digital twin technology within your business? Let's see how we can help you.

Before you implement Digital Twin technology, here are some things to keep in mind

You can take a few steps to ensure that the digital twin concept is implemented successfully in your company. These are the main ones:

Keep your data security protocols up-to-date

Gartner predicts that 75% of digital twin models will need at least five different IoT integration points. Cyber-attacks and other malfunctions could make it easy for these data points to generate many data. It would be good to have the latest security protocols for digital twin technology.

These are the areas where security is more important shortly.

• Principles of least privilege
• Data encryption
• Routine security audits
• Access privileges, including a description of user roles
• Recognizing and fixing known vulnerabilities

Data quality management

Digital twin modelling relies on data from remote sensors communicating over unreliable networks. You must be able to exclude bad data from your data streams and manage gaps between them if you want to use digital twin technology.

Training for teams

Potential digital twin technology solutions users need to adopt new ways to work with data and technology. This will allow them to deal with technical challenges. You must ensure that your staff is equipped with the necessary skills and tools to manage digital-twin models.

Future of cognitive Digital Twin technology

By understanding customer preferences and customizing products, digital twins can help enterprises avoid digital disruption. This knowledge can help you deliver products faster, develop faster, and provide better data. Other advanced technologies like NLP, object vision recognition, signal processing, and acoustic analysis are just some of the many features beyond our human intuition when using Digital twin modelling.

This shows that digital twin technology does not only concern what we build but also who we create it for.

PerfectionGeeks Technologies can help you find digital twin technology solutions

PerfectionGeeks Technologies, a digital transformation agency, specialises in helping businesses revolutionise their business using technology and innovation. Connect with us, as we believe in helping organisations become more responsive and intuitive to their customers.

You can get tangible results with our digital transformation solutions, including data modelling, legacy optimization, and digital twin consulting. Get in touch with us to kickstart your digital transformation journey.