What are the key benefits of using digital twin technology?
Digital twin technology is increasingly being deployed by industrial organizations as part of their digital transformation journey. It presents an opportunity to find new ways of working and rethink how people collaborate and engage with these information models to create value for the business – and not view digital twins as simply as automating the current way of doing business.
Digital twins provide the ability to create a virtual replica of potential and actual physical assets, processes, people, places, systems and devices that can be used for various purposes. Organizations use the technology for many reasons including testing new assets or procedures before launching them in the real world, where it becomes more expensive and complicated to fix any issues, the improvement of ongoing operations or training employees. In practical terms, this type of technology can help improve the safety on an oil rig, improve the efficiency of a production plant, or ensuring buildings meet sustainability, efficiency or regulatory requirements.
More importantly, a digital twin can help predict potential failures before they happen and suggest ways to prevent those failures. Knowing the current state of an asset, the digital model can use predictive learning technology to proactively identify potential asset failures before they occur and even suggest ways to prevent those failures. In other words, the digital twin can predict when its physical counterpart will break, well before that happens.
The digital twin can also utilize artificial intelligence with advanced process control, control strategy design and process optimization. These tools incorporate necessary variations from process and asset design into the engineering asset or plant data, enabling a complete and efficient digital value loop and unified lifecycle management. As organizations scale-up to a digital twin of the enterprise operating model, inefficiencies and opportunities in their ongoing operations can be identified and executed upon in real-time.
What are the essential steps involved in employing a digital twin strategy?
To establish an effective digital twin strategy, each asset requires a different set of asset data services, together with engineering master data, effective visualization tools, plus collaboration and workflow procedures:
1. Create a digital twin model that uses accurate data feeds to help understand product or operations performance and adjust critical control points to deliver short- and long-term value.
2. Identify where digital twin simulations and predictive maintenance can deliver the best value, for example, improvements in operations or processes, reduction in costs or risks.
3. Build a digital twin architectural roadmap that enables program and project planning for digital transformation.
4. Data insight is king. Use a Digital Twin for deployments or projects as this will expose how the organization or project connects with its current state and how it is likely to respond to internal or external changes.
A digital twin incorporates data from these diverse data points, and creates a myriad of potential benefits, including the ability to test changes to processes before they are implemented, making better and accurate decisions based on data. Organizations that succeed in realising the potential savings from effective intelligent master data management will reap the transformative benefits of digital twin technology and have a lot to gain through unlocking the boundaries of creativity without the burden of risk.
Does this technology currently have any use cases beyond manufacturing and supply chain industries?
The concept of digital twins is becoming relevant to an increasing number of industries such as oil and gas, utilities, construction and manufacturing. Consequently, buildings and cities are becoming smarter – all fuelled by data and application of that data. Gartner estimates that by this year there will be over 25 billion Internet of Things (IoT) endpoints and digital twins will exist for potentially billions of scenarios. Benefits will include asset optimization, competitive differentiation and improved user experience. Digital twinning is fast becoming essential to IoT deployment as many more IoT platform providers and analytics companies are investing in digital twin technology. These cover functions from initial ideas, through to design, development and construction.
Tell us more about your webinar on digital twin of the organization and the role it plays in digital transformation.
According to IDC, spending on digital transformation will reach $2.3 Trillion by 2023. However only 20% of all digital initiatives undertaken globally impact the bottom line. Asset intensive businesses recognize the imperative behind digital transformation. However, there is an increasing awareness that isolated initiatives do not deliver the expected value. In order to deliver real value, digital transformation demands a holistic, enterprise-level approach. The Digital Twin of the Organization provides the foundation for a practical, enterprise-level approach to the industrial organization’s transformation plan, aligning business and operational objectives to deliver optimal results.
AVEVA and Arqitek are hosting this webinar for our customers, where we will share a practical transformation framework to enable the organization’s business to systematically move towards a best-in-class and efficient digital architecture. The webinar will cover:
• How a framework-driven approach to digital transformation will deliver higher returns
• What a Digital Twin of the Organization is and why it’s important
• Why it’s important to build a roadmap for improvement which can be realized in an agile and continuous way
• How to leverage data created at every stage of the asset lifecycle, from design and build to operate and maintain
• How to create and maintain a Digital Twin to enable new ways of working.
AVEVA welcomes industrial organisations to join its webinar on 9 March 2021 at 11.00am UAE time to learn more on the digital twin of the organisation.
