Unlocking the Power of Digital Twins: Improving Operations and Training with Simulation

A digital twin is a virtual replica of an actual facility or plant, hosted either on-premises or in the cloud. It draws data from a number of sources, including real-time control systems, asset management systems, historians, and records of employee/customer interactions. With IoT implementations providing more data, high-fidelity digital twins are becoming easier to create and maintain.

Companies use digital twins to model different scenarios to make proactive instead of reactive decisions by running simulations and what-if scenarios. Manufacturers use digital twins to improve plant processes and optimize supply chains. Digital twins are most beneficial when employed to improve ongoing operations and train employees, but they can also be used to test new procedures and products in the virtual world before introducing them in the real world.

Digital twins can provide high-quality inputs needed to create models of operations that can suggest improvements to operations using AI, machine learning, and other advanced technologies. Once operations are improved, the digital twin improves and provides higher-quality inputs to models, which are then used by advanced technologies to suggest further improvements.

Digital twins allow experts to examine operations either onsite or from afar, enabling the assistance of suppliers by making a cloud-based virtual twin available to these and other resources outside the company. Digital twins can also train operators before actual implementation of a new procedure.

However, one caveat when implementing digital twins is to avoid excess computational and operational complexity. Computational complexity can tax hardware resources, and operational complexity can overwhelm personnel charged with creating and maintaining the models. A point of diminishing returns can be reached where adding new tools, enhancements and features results in only marginal improvements while greatly increasing complexity.

In conclusion, digital twins can be a key part of any IoT implementation, as they enable companies to simulate processes and improve operations. Leveraging digital twins also allows companies to train new employees and bring them up to speed faster while easing the introduction of improvements.