Introduction
Imagine a world where everything is connected and able to share data with each other. In this world, you can get answers to questions that you’ve never even asked. You can know the condition of your assets in real-time, where they are located and what condition they’re in. This type of information helps companies make better decisions, optimize their operations and increase productivity.
Benefits of digital twins
Digital Twins are a digital representation of an asset and can be used to help you monitor, manage, and optimize your assets. Digital twins can help you make better decisions about your assets by providing accurate information about the current state of each asset.
Automated analysis and optimization
- Automated analysis and optimization
- Self-learning
- Self-healing
- Self-optimizing
- Self-protecting
- Self-replicating
- Self-restoring
To achieve this, the following characteristics are required: * self-scaling (the ability to add capacity on demand) * self-scrubbing (keeping the state of the complex model consistent with reality) * self-servicing (providing services that can be consumed by other components in the system)
Improved decision making
- Decision making is often based on past experience, but the ability to make better decisions comes from using real-time data and historical data to inform your current decision. A digital twin can help you do just that.
- Digital twins can be used in many ways to make decisions based on real-time data:
- You can use a digital twin to make dynamic adjustments based on your current situation. For example, if demand for a product increases or decreases during the day, you can use a digital twin’s analysis of that product’s usage patterns over time (which reflects its current status) so that you know how much inventory to order or if a condition is consuming more or less product than expected.
- You can also use a digital twin for predictive analysis—and thereby forecast demand for products before they are manufactured or purchased by customers. This allows you to plan ahead so as not only meet demand but also avoid costly waste due to overproduction (e.g., stockouts).
Better productivity
The digital twin will enable better decision making on a number of fronts. First and foremost, it will provide the ability for workers to make informed decisions about how best to optimize their assets. This may include decisions like: what is the best combination of materials I can use? Where can I save money by using less materials while still producing a product that meets my customer requirements? What is the optimal way to repair this part in order to keep it running efficiently for as long as possible? What are all these different parts costing me per hour/day/week?
Second, the digital twin will allow companies to automate analysis and optimization processes previously done manually. For example, if you have a fleet of trucks with sensors placed on them, this data can be used by an ML algorithm so that your company knows when each truck needs maintenance based on its readings from each sensor (e.g., tire wear). Thirdly, if you have employees who aren’t experts at analyzing data but just need answers quickly (e.g., customer service agents), then having access to a simple interface can allow them access directly into your data without needing any training or knowledge about how everything works behind-the-scenes!
Asset life extension
Digital twins can be used to predict when an asset is likely to fail, how much maintenance is needed, and when the asset will need to be replaced or decommissioned.
For example, a digital twin could help identify that a machine’s bearings have reached their end of life and need replacing. This discovery would allow you to schedule replacement parts ahead of time or even move up the timing for a planned shutdown so that it takes place while new bearings are being installed at the factory.
Digital twins help ensure that assets are operating as expected, in ‘real’ time.
A digital twin is a virtual representation of an asset that can be used to predict potential failures, optimize operations and improve overall system performance. The concept has been around for decades but only recently become feasible as computing power has increased, storage costs have declined and the need for more efficient processes has grown in importance.
Digital twins are becoming increasingly important because they allow organizations to ensure that assets are operating as expected in real time. They also help prevent unexpected downtime or costly maintenance issues by giving operators insight into what’s happening with their systems right now — instead of after it breaks down or stops working properly.
Conclusion
Digital twins are an important tool for companies to leverage. They help companies optimize their operations and become more efficient by providing insights into the performance of key assets. This can lead to increased productivity and revenue, as well as improved decision making. Digital twins allow companies to gain visibility into their most critical assets, which is critical for future growth in this data-driven world we live in today―and tomorrow!