Table of Content
Digital twins are computerised models that can understand and quantify their real-world equivalents. It can be used to represent any physical process, product, person, or location. The components of digital twin technology are an information model (such as dashboards and HMIs), which connects and displays data to aid in decision-making, a digital representation of its counterpart (such as CAD or PLM), and operational or experiential data. Engineering, manufacturing, and services use digital twin applications, which encompass the entire product lifecycle.
What Makes a Digital Twin Crucial?
As digital technology advances, digital twins become more resilient and critical for NDT and Non-destructive Evaluation. Businesses can utilise digital twin technology to support service workers in the field, resulting in speedier repairs, or to spot process bottlenecks more easily.
1. Growing Importance of Digital Twins
As Digital Technology Advances, the future of digital twins becomes an essential tool for companies in Industry 4.0. They help businesses work more efficiently and make smarter decisions.
2. Supporting Field Workers and Improving Processes
Digital twins simulation assists field workers in making faster repairs and identifying process bottlenecks. They allow companies to use real-world data to enhance future product designs.
3. Return on Investment (ROI) and Value
When considering how to use digital twins, it's important to think about the ROI and the added value they bring to the business.
4. Special Need for Industrial Companies
Industrial companies, with multiple locations and large workforces, benefit even more from digital twins to keep everything coordinated.
5. Predicting Failures and Optimising Workflows
Digital twins can predict hardware failures, identify underutilised factories, and help create better workflows for product development.
6. Helping Executives Make Informed Decisions
Executives can rely on digital twins to get answers about equipment performance, both short-term and long-term.
7. Improving Processes and Factory Efficiency
Digital twins help improve inefficient processes and optimise factory layouts for better productivity.
8. Empowering Technicians with Data
NDT Technicians can make better decisions with more informed data from digital twins, resulting in improved overall operations.
9. Stronger Organizations with Digital Twins
NDT Companies that use digital twins are stronger than those that depend on guesses and incomplete data.
10. Long-Term Cost Savings and Growth Opportunities
Predictive maintenance with digital twins may initially cost more than a million dollars, but the long-term savings and growth opportunities for the company are significant.
What Advantages Can Digital Twin Technology Offer?
Image Credit: Anasoft
1. Boost the Robustness and Agility of the Supply Chain
Disruptions in the supply chain have brought agility and resilience to the forefront. The pursuit of a digital twin of the actual end-to-end supply chain is now feasible thanks to a mix of platforms and technology. Businesses may make real-time adjustments both internally and with their partners when they use this kind of digital twin, which gives them visibility into their supply chain and details like lead times.
2. Reduce the product's time to market
Digital twins can provide businesses with ongoing insights into how their products are performing in the field. With these insights, they may be able to invent and iterate products more quickly and effectively.
3. Facilitate Novel Business Models, such as Product-as-a-Service
Industry Digital Transformation can occasionally be a secondary advantage to digital twins if you can consider the options. The product data insight may open up opportunities for subscription services and other offers that provide customers with better support or service.
4. Boost Client Contentment
Digital twins can help increase customer happiness through use cases like predictive maintenance. However, because they gather real-time product data, they can also facilitate easier customer service and repair procedures, as well as provide information for future product enhancements.
5. Effectiveness of Operations
Digital twins provide the insights needed to achieve those operational efficiencies throughout the value chain. Organisations can use process-based digital twins to combine several data sources to obtain real-time information on asset and production performance, for instance, by using process-based digital twins. They are able to identify any bottlenecks and assess the possible effects of various solutions on the process as a whole.
6. Better Output
The issue of staff attrition and retention affects almost all industries. Productivity is slowed when a talented worker departs because they nearly always take their expertise with them. Organisations can alleviate some of these difficulties by utilising digital twins for remote monitoring and support.
7. Calibre of the Product
Engineers and designers can use generational upgrades of a product based on operational data from many digital twins in the real world to inform future product or version development after initial expenditures have been made.
8. Improved Visibility of Data
Digital twins have the potential to eliminate data silos inside an organisation and provide value throughout the lifecycle of a product or process. Real-time and historical data are combined in one location.
9. Provide Context for Sustainability Initiatives
With Digital Twins, there are chances to find sustainability potential all throughout the value chain. Reducing carbon emissions or scrap during the production process, switching to more environmentally friendly product ingredients, or cutting back on the number of service truck trips are a few examples.
Key Takeaways
- Digital twins can help organisations identify sustainability opportunities in various aspects of their operations, such as reducing carbon emissions and implementing more eco-friendly practices.
- By consolidating real-time and historical data on one platform, organisations can enhance visibility and make informed decisions to drive sustainability initiatives forward.
- Overall, digital twins can play a crucial role in helping organisations achieve their sustainability goals.