With the arrival of Industry 4.0 technologies and the whole manufacturing transformation, digitization of individual establishments, processes and products is becoming much more discussed. And it seems that after several decades of existence, the concept of digital twins is entering a new era.

The development of computing capacities and the decreasing price of both technologies and components makes the means of Internet of Things quite available and usable. However, the continuous data flow is not a sufficient basis for further decision-making and optimizations. It’s necessary to know how to analyze these data and only basing on clear results, suggest measures for increasing the system’s performance and its entire optimization.

Digital twins don’t only bring a business value. They are also able to model relationships among assets and the collaboration options of people and machines’. Therefore, they bring new innovative business models, make predictions and are able to prevent might be potentially dangerous or just ineffective situations from happening.

What Are the Main Benefits?

The Most Common Applications

Digital twins are able to unprecedentedly deal with issues, such as adherence to quality or workforce qualifications. This technology can even be successfully used within building or expanding branches and new enterprises, as well as in the area of logistics optimization or doing business in previously unthinkable fields, such as various dangerous or otherwise challenging environments.

Investments and Purchases Management

The traditional means of purchasing products and equipment are slowly withdrawing because of new means of payments and valuation. The current processes’ performance can be continuously monitored and measured which therefore enables payments for specific utilization cases or implementation of new payment formats that enable not charging downtimes and drawing outages. Perfect customer service, effective management of warranty conditions and returning goods and nicely made service packages bring further business opportunities.

Data Sharing and Intelligent Solutions

Modern technologies enable individual devices and products to react to their surroundings and collaborate with them. Therefore, saved or freshly created data can be shared through a cloud via various devices and therefore become a foundation for artificial intelligence. Then, the result is the option to coordinate working procedures among several process stages and adaptive behaviour of individual connected devices. Another bonus could be the inclusion of third parties’ data , such as data regarding weather or traffic conditions.

Standardization

The effort to utilize the benefits coming from the internet of things resulted in the introduction of standards for connected devices, data processing and communication. Standardization is the key to securing compatibility, achieving synergy and ultimate cybernetic security.

An Interface Enabling Collaboration

The transition to a democratic approach in determining product parameters, where customers get a share in decision making, requires new communication platforms. In order to have quick reactions to ever-changing requirements, it’s necessary to combine software and hardware means into a new, user-friendly design. Thanks to historical data, it is then possible to streamline the processes further and achieve greater results. Depending on the environmental conditions, the usability, performance and also material needs might vary considerably, although with corresponding technology, these disproportions might be resolved in accordance with the specific cases.

Where to start?

Primarily, an in-depth analysis of the company state, as well as established standards, are needed. Based on this analysis, the problematic parts that need to be resolved will be identified. It’s also necessary to design suitable technological solutions and procedures. When the ideal scenario is selected, it’s necessary to progress slowly, test the solution’s effectiveness in terms of different checkpoints and then fully utilize the achieved benefits of this strategy.