What are use cases for digital twins in manufacturing?

Digital twins are virtual replicas of physical assets that are updated from real-time data. It’s an exact counterpart of an object built by combining various data including bill of materials, simulation models, IoT sensors, time-series data, maintenance records, and others. The data is then managed, unified, and modeled to build a high-fidelity digital representation of the physical reality.

Digital twins tell the story of an asset all the way through its life cycle, and can give a manufacturer an unprecedented view into how their products perform. It makes it simple to monitor and manage production remotely, gain valuable information for real-time decision-making, energy cost-savings, time reduction, strategic planning, and operational efficiency. How exactly can you utilize digital twins in your organization? Below are 5 uses cases for digital twins in manufacturing from our team of industry experts.

Configuration management is the ability to have an exact digital representation of a physical product or asset as it presently exists and its various settings. As the asset gets maintained, updated, or retrofitted, manufacturers can see those changes and accurately understand the current status to inform planning. It provides your team with the necessary context for interpretation and analysis of sensor data to make decisions moving forward.

A digital twin will provide a virtual representation of every aspect of a process, such as what happens in a factory or on a plant floor. This data can improve productivity by creating a robust data pipeline and a foundation for exploring variances and correlations in both batch and streaming production data, all in real-time. Manufacturers can capture interactions between multiple digital devices, production systems, and environmental sources across operations for an end-to-end process view. By contextualizing these data sources directly with your physical machines, you get end-to-end visibility into higher level manufacturing processes and enable greater control.

Your assets are the heart of your manufacturing operations. Asset management with digital twins makes it possible to see live-streaming telemetry from a device, asset, or product and allow you to remotely control the device or asset. It can also use real-time data to accurately assess scenario implications for other aspects of an asset or process.

Maintaining peak performance is key to delivering orders on time and adapting quickly to any disruptions. A digital twin supplies visibility and control to a system’s key performance metrics. For example, it connects components within a supply chain and continuously generates real-time insights from data it receives from the value chain and each stage of the production process. This level of insight helps manufacturers predict patterns before they happen, sense disruptions, understand the consequences of different options, and provide recommendations for optimal performance.

Simulation modeling enables the creation of a digital entity even before the physical assets are made, or where gathering data from a sensor is not an option, by using a library of simulation models and capabilities. For example, you could create a simulated proxy for a physical sensor where due to environmental conditions a sensor cannot be placed, such as at the core of a molten steel flow or the center of a jet exhaust. The result is an ability to perform a myriad “what-if” analyses and build, validate, and deploy complex systems more rapidly.

Ready to use digital twins at your manufacturing organization? Rand Group is an experienced solution provider with deep expertise working with manufacturers and building custom solutions to meet unique needs. Our team can help you use Microsoft’s Azure platform to develop digital twins and uncover data that will make a positive business impact. Contact us today.