How Digital Twins Impact Industries?

Digital Twins and the virtual replicas of devices, machines, or plants are usually used to perform popular simulations before physical implementation.  

As such, the definition of Digital Twin is a real-time digital copy of a process, product, or system to be utilized for diagnostics, testing, and analysis even before physically creating the object represented.  

Therefore, Digital Twins associate data analysis techniques, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and simulation.   

Digital Twin technology commonly uses those for modeling Internet of Things (IoT) systems and product lifecycle management (PLM).  

On another note, the sensors collect an amount of data existing in an industrial plant or a machine, to be considered huge to the extent they are under Big Data.  

If this data is not collected and organized to facilitate the decision-making process (becoming information), it will become useless.  

In addition, the combination of physical and virtual worlds is beneficial, allowing you to solve design or operating problems through simulations, prevent machine or plant downtime, and better plan the product life cycle.  

Under the concept of industrial 4.0, the idea of the digital twin is evolving with new dynamism. At the same time, Michael Grieves first introduced this specific concept in 2003, but it was hard to implement the concept for general use.  

Now, the situation has drastically changed, especially with IoT, AI, Big Data, and cloud computing. It allows people to have an ideal maintenance situation, where an on-site technician and a remote specialist can access the same data and discuss what to do.  

Digital twin technologies aim at reducing production expenses and time-to-market while improving quality. Subsequently, the product twins can be used to check the product’s performance in the physical world.  

While the process Twins models simulate the production methods, a virtual production process allows people to create scenarios and show what will happen in different situations, allowing individuals to make the most efficient production methodology. 

This process is enhanced with the assistance of product twins for the pieces of equipment, allowing for preventive maintenance and avoiding costly plant downtime. 

Therefore, production operations will be safer, faster, and more efficient.  

Last but not least, Digital Twins are virtual models of the entire system, such as a plant or a factory, collecting amounts of data produced within the system, acquiring information, and creating new business opportunities to optimize all processes.