Digital twins have become invaluable because this cutting edge technology enables companies to test and validate a product before it even exists in the real world.
By creating a replica of the planned production process, a digital twin enables engineers to identify any process failures before the product goes into production.
Consequently, the benefits are considerable.
For example, maintenance costs are lowered by digital twin technology because the digital twin’s IoT sensors generate big data in real time which allows businesses to more accurately schedule predictive maintenance. This improves production line efficiency.
Also, digital twins enable organizations to make quicker, and usually more accurate, decisions. A virtual representation of a physical object can integrate financial data, such as the cost of materials and labor. The availability of a large amount of real-time data and advanced analytics allows businesses to make better and faster decisions about whether or not adjustments to a manufacturing value chain are financially sound.
Analysts point out that the digital twin also helps improve team collaboration. Process automation and around-the-clock access to system information allow technicians to focus more on inter-team collaboration, improving productivity and operational efficiency.
While nearly all sectors can benefit from digital twins, this technology has become especially prominent in manufacturing in order to create accurate, real-time monitoring of assets.
By creating a centralized, visualized twin of a complex system, factories can better predict issues such as production bottlenecks, machine failure, resource depletion, and worker safety hazards. One can also take advantage of predictive analytics to foresee problems that would be difficult to spot from a factory floor or using traditional management tools.
There are also many opportunities to use a digital twin to automate processes within the system being tracked. For example, tools within car factories can automatically calibrate when they move close to specific vehicles, speeding up the production process.
The ability to gather data on tool, machinery, worker, and system efficiency in real time presents opportunities to improve production lines and perform tests on a digital models without having to risk the productivity of the site. The ability to trial and implement far more complex paths to optimum efficiency is one of the key draws of digital twin technology.
Want to learn more? Tonex offers Fundamentals of Digital Twins, a 2-day course that covers the key principles of digital twins and how it relates to integration of digital engineering, modeling and simulations, AI/ML, 3D and integration for service and product-related data and systems.
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