As more businesses bring their data from the physical world to the digital world, they are getting a greater insight into the inner workings of their company and competitors. Through digital twin technology, every process, service, or physical product gets a digital representation that is then evaluated based on analysis of the twin in a range of working environments. This makes use of real-world data to create an easily integrable program for any kind of system.
Let’s take a deeper look into the world of digital twins.
Understanding Digital Twins
You might be asking yourself, what are digital twins? Digital twins are a virtual representation of physical products and processes, used to understand the performance characteristics of that product. Digital twins are used throughout the life cycle of the product, simulating and predicting analytics. This allows for businesses to get a better understanding of their data sources and returns, before investing in physical prototypes and assets.
The concept of digital twins breaks away from the traditional approach, making a complex process much simpler. From design to the deployment phase, organizations can create a digital footprint of their physical assets. These digital creations are interconnected and able to generate data in real-time. This helps businesses to better analyze and predict challenges in key areas based on incoming and historical data. Problems can be corrected in advance, improving products cost-effectively, thanks to simulations of real-world applications.
Digital twin processes incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence to incorporate the future of these spaces.
Types of Digital Twins
Product twins are digital models of separate products. Manufacturers create these virtual models to examine the product’s capabilities under different conditions. Digital twin technology allows for companies to take on product design and revisions before hitting the production line. Process twins use the concept of a digital twin to better understand manufacturing processes.
Businesses can fine-tune their methods to better expedite production or create greater customer service. This also lowers the occurrence of costly downtime. System twins are digital models also for a virtual replication of an entire factory system. This helps with gaining insights for the creation of better business opportunities.
Digital twins have changed the foundation of several industries. For example, the manufacturing field is able to create more efficient designs and upgrades as part of this digital transformation. The automobile industry creates virtual models to capture operational collected data. This helps to analyze the overall function and performance levels of the vehicle and all of its connected features. This results in a personalized experience for car owners to customize their specific needs.
Virtual models of the customer have made their way into the retail sector, with online shopping using digital twins to simulate the appearance of an interior design or certain clothes.
Benefits of Digital Twins
Digital twins are a cost-friendly production method. This allows for companies to draft up innovations and create new products without having to rely on expensive manufacturing efforts. Digital twins give engineers a chance to test and simulate a product in a virtual set-up, creating much more cost-effective methods to correct errors in a virtual environment. By not having to rely on consistent creations of a physical product, digital twins spare the wait of the manufacturing process.
Another benefit of digital twins is the quick time-to-market for products. Companies reduce the amount of time to make the product available to consumers, allowing businesses to beat their competition to the punch. With better workflows, there’s a greater chance for higher profits being the first one available in the marketplace.
Digital twins can also anticipate problems and provide solutions in advance. This predictive maintenance monitors physical counterparts and gathers a range of data sets via sensors. This allows for real-time analysis to take care of issues immediately.
Cover photo credit: Tayeb Mezahdia / Pixabay
