As of this writing, the issue of digital twins seems to be capable of evoking strong emotions and sparking the types of debates we’re accustomed to seeing in the realms of post-truth politics and contact sports. Either digital twins are a must-have for every self-respecting engineering consultant, or they are disregarded as the newest VC-fueled ‘constructech’ craze.
There are several advantages to employing Digital Twins, including cost savings and reduced time to market for new goods, as well as increased sustainability and assistance for predictive maintenance. In fact, according to KPMG, Digital Twin adoption may result in a 6:1 return on investment.
Some organisations, however, will be held back from adopting Digital Twins and reaping the advantages due to a lack of digital maturity and awareness of how to get there. Of course, it might be argued that digital maturity is more of a journey than a destination, but to adopt Digital Twins effectively, organisations must have the necessary data and digital foundation in place. To do this, concentrate on the following four areas:
Outline your strategic objectives
A Digital Twin is a catch-all word for any digital strategy. And the lack of clarity about how digital investment would help the company is often the first roadblock in an organization’s journey to digital maturity. Before adopting anything, leaders must first assess their company goals – what do you want to accomplish, what are your main objectives?
Recognize and comprehend business data
It’s a common misconception that establishing a Digital Twin is a massive endeavour that requires a complete revamp of technology and operations. Fundamentally, you have the appropriate basis to get started if your firm has data, and that data is gathered, kept in an information management system, and understood by everybody. In the end, though, a Digital Twin can only succeed if it is supplied the appropriate data. This is due to the workforce’s ability to read, comprehend, generate, and transmit data as information, not just information management systems. To put it another way, they must be data literate.
The project’s constructability is shown through digital twins. A digital twin for one project reflects the current state on site, with a short- to medium-term view forward to ensure that material lay-down zones, personnel, plant segregation, and construction activity do not collide. The digital twin is intended to provide alternatives to worksite leaders so that they may make decisions based on real data. As a consequence, changes were made to ensure that construction could take place and that the crew could go about their business safely and without feeling compelled to cut shortcuts.
Improvement is ongoing
Digital maturity is not a one-time event; it is an ongoing process. Leaders must continually assess their company’s capabilities against its digital requirements and invest in the appropriate technology and skillsets to keep up with the times. Small scrum teams should ideally be formed to drive digital strategy ahead and ensure that the company continues to create the necessary data for Digital Twins to function properly. It’s also useful collaborating with third parties that are on the cutting edge of technology and have the knowledge to help with change management inside the company.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest that digital twins are on their way to becoming mature. What will the Year in Infrastructure 2020 Conference’s digital twin projects look like? It’s a reasonable assumption that there will be more instances of digital twins with creative machine learning applications.
