Twinning is in vogue: The case of Digital Twins

This edition of The Digital Agenda newsletter explores the concept of digital twins and their transformative impact on a few industries through the lens of my client facing work over the past several years.

IoT fuels & AI turbocharges Digital Twins

Back when the Internet of Things (IoT) was the hottest emerging? technology a decade and a half ago, thoughts of an internet connected refrigerator sending you a reminder to buy milk or fruit on the way back home from work seemed novel & far-fetched.?

Today, billions of networked ‘smart’ physical objects around the world, on city streets, in homes and hospitals, are constantly collecting and sharing data across the internet, giving them a level of digital intelligence and autonomy.

?We have come much further along as now as tech penetrates deeper into the home. The refrigerator can scan the available vegetables and produce inside it and by matching against a suggested set of your preferred recipes can help you in one of two ways. It can either recommend what you can make with whatever you have in stock right now? or add things you need to put on a grocery shopping list for the evening so you can cook a delicious home cooked meal tonight.?

With connected devices of all kinds sprouting around us and spewing data every second, our world has become digitally transformed and IoT, AI and Digital Twins are intertwining to make our lives better?

Originating in aerospace engineering and manufacturing, digital twins have emerged as a transformative technology, creating dynamic replicas of physical assets continually updated to mirror real-world changes.

A digital twin is a virtual counterpart to a physical product, process, or system, facilitating real-time monitoring, analysis, and optimization.

Per analyst reports, the estimated global revenue of the digital twin market was USD 10.1 billion in 2023 and is projected to rise to USD 110.1 billion by 2028, achieving an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 61.3% from 2023 to 2028 .?

This groundbreaking technology has significantly altered the industry landscape, enabling organizations to make informed, data-driven decisions, curtail expenses, and enhance overall performance.?

Industry Examples

Let me share some perspectives of Digital twins in a few industries where I have seen this from close quarters in the trenches with my clients and teams:

A. Manufacturing

In today's fast-paced manufacturing environment, introducing digital twins has marked the beginning of a new era of innovation, efficiency, and optimization. Here are different aspects that s impact

1. Design & Prototype Simulation?Prototyping can be iterated much faster with simulation? Digital twins are revolutionizing the product design, development & testing process. They save time and costs by offering virtual prototyping, testing, and customization capabilities.?
2. Faster personalization & iterationMoreover, digital twins enable companies to personalize products based on customer needs, driving innovation, optimizing prototyping as well as? mass production processes. This combination of reduced time-to-market, improved efficiency, and enhanced customization strengthens a company's competitive edge in the market.They allow manufacturers to simulate different design scenarios, evaluate their performance, and identify potential issues before production begins. This technology streamlines the time and expenses linked to physical prototyping, expedites the design iteration process, and guarantees that the end product adheres to quality guidelines and customer demands.
3. Production OptimizationDigital twins are critical in optimizing manufacturing processes by simulating real-world conditions and predicting their effects on production. They help schedule, improve material flow, and optimize resource allocation, enhancing efficiency and reducing operational costs. By harnessing the power of data analytics and machine learning, digital twins can adjust to evolving conditions and deliver valuable insights to drive ongoing process enhancements.
4. Improved CollaborationA visual representation of assets and processes facilitates team communication and enhances understanding &? fosters better collaboration
5. Improved TrainingDigital twins enable realistic training simulations using AR/VR experiences, improving employees' skills and safety protocols. Its remote monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities further reduce downtime, enhancing overall performance and efficiency.
6. Quality ControlDigital twins are indispensable in monitoring and maintaining product quality throughout manufacturing. They collect and analyze data from sensors and IoT devices, identify defects and anomalies, and provide insights into the main causes of quality issues. By enabling real-time quality monitoring and analysis, digital twins help manufacturers detect and rectify quality issues early, ensuring that only high-quality products reach customers.

B. Commercial Real Estate?(CRE)

While traditionally the CRE industry has enjoyed growth, covid induced WFH and reduced demand for office space and oversupply? post pandemic has led to real estate glut & strained the industry. Thus, increased focus on optimizing the resources and occupancy levels contributes to improve profitability and return on capital invested for the landlords. However two use cases for Digital twins in workplace safety and environmental sustainability that are gaining traction per my client conversations are worth mentioning:

1. Sustainability and Environmental Impact

United Nations sustainable development goals (UNSDGs) are top of mind for countries as well as organizations of all shapes and sizes. Digital twin technology is a crucial enabler of sustainability. Optimizing energy usage and evaluating environmental impact help companies reduce waste and minimize their carbon footprint. Moreover, digital twins support circular economy practices, such as closed-loop manufacturing, by optimizing resource usage throughout the product lifecycle. In summary, the technology contributes significantly to sustainability efforts by promoting efficient resource usage and sustainable product design.

2. Improved Safety of the Facilities

The advanced capabilities of digital twins significantly enhance workplace safety. They can accurately simulate hazardous scenarios and identify potential safety risks, enabling companies to implement appropriate safety measures before accidents occur. By monitoring real-time data, digital twins assist in the early detection of safety hazards, thereby reducing the likelihood of accidents and injuries. This proactive approach to safety safeguards employees and helps companies comply with?

C. Healthcare & Life sciences

In healthcare, there are two immediate areas where digital twins can have a transformative effect: improving operational efficiency and enabling personalized healthcare.

1. Improving Operational EfficiencyDigital twins can improve operational efficiency by providing an objective and data-driven pathway to process optimization through simulation.Medical practitioners can practice and hone their skills in a virtual training environment. Hospitals can design and redesign new spaces to meet specific criteria before they commit to a specific build. They can also test out different strategies for equipment placement, staffing allocations, and scheduling in clinics and operating rooms.As in the Manufacturing Industry examples shared previously, Medical Device companies can design and test new products in virtual settings, before committing to a specific design.Pharmaceutical companies can optimize their drug design and manufacturing process, their inventory management systems, and their clinical trials.In essence, digital twins empower healthcare stakeholders to test operations and strategies in a data-driven virtual environment, paving the way for safer, more efficient, and effective real-life implementations.
2. Patient Digital Twin: Enabling Personalized HealthcarePersonalized care takes on an entirely? new meaning with digital twins. Data like clinical notes, lab results, imaging, genomic sequencing, demographic, and real-world data can be used to create a comprehensive digital representation of a patient -? a digital twin. Once this digital twin is created, it can be used to gauge how a? patient would react to various treatments. In the same vein, digital twins of human organs and systems are key to developing new devices, drugs, and therapies, and in creating training applications to hone surgical skills and other medical skills.
3. "What If" Scenario testing without endangering life

Digital twins are also key for virtual testing of infinite “what-if” scenarios needed to optimize the many facets of healthcare such as :

• Healthcare facilities-? building a hospital, skilled nursing facilities, rehabilitation centers, and laboratory space.
• Drugs and devices - optimizing processes in drug manufacturing plants and medical device factories. Using simulation to speed up and reduce costs of developing new drugs, medical devices, and therapies with more favorable profiles.
• Medical personnel - Improving teaching and training of medical practitioners using anatomy digital twins. With applications based on these digital twins, surgeons can now practice surgery outside of the operating room and can try out different surgical approaches for a specific patient/procedure.
• Research - Simulating biology at the system, organ or even cellular level is becoming easier using digital twins. This will enhance our understanding of biological processes, creating a virtuous feedback loop to advance our knowledge of health and disease.

D.? Cross-Industry Supply Chain??

Digital twins are instrumental in managing and optimizing real-time supply chain operations. They monitor inventory levels, track transportation routes, and optimize warehousing strategies, ensuring timely deliveries and reducing costs. Digital twins enable manufacturers to identify inefficiencies, streamline operations, and improve customer satisfaction by providing an inclusive view of the supply chain. Last year, Gartner's survey of 380 supply chain leaders showed that while 60% are piloting or planning to implement a digital supply chain twin (DSCT), only 27% intend to incorporate a digital twin of the customer (DToC) as part of their broader digital strategy.

E. Cross-Industry Maintenance & Asset Management

Digital twins provide real-time insights into the condition and performance of equipment and assets. They monitor critical parameters, predict maintenance requirements, and recommend optimal maintenance schedules, reducing unplanned downtime and improving asset reliability.?

For a large North American mining client, I had an opportunity to explore use cases in their Fleet management and optimizing maintenance. The goal was simple -? to improve the uptime for their large expensive assets such as hauling trucks used in coal and copper mining operations. Each of these trucks had components equipped with thousands of sensors.

We explored the concept of remaining useful life (RUL)? applied to assembly blocks unlocking new insights from the millions of data points generated by their mobile fleets. Issues that were previously unpredictable, such as potential electric failures, are now being identified before they happen by machine learning algorithms. We? also modeled and predicted the remaining lifespan of equipment, determining wear and tear, identifying abnormal failures, and enhancing alarm and notification systems.

By enabling predictive maintenance, digital twins extend the lifespan of equipment, optimize maintenance costs, and ensure uninterrupted production. Also for another client project in Automotive industry we were able to decipher vehicle usage patterns to improve utilization. I spoke about this at Google Cloud Next conference previously?

Conclusion

Increasingly smart tools (such a NVIDIA Omniverse and Ansys to name just a couple) enable digital twins to be physically accurate with true-to-life rendering and behavior. These digital twins are governed by physical laws when it comes to light, gravity, or motion, and are a far cry from the abstract computational models of the past.?

Engineering simulation software has traditionally been used for new product design, but with the advent of advanced embedded sensors, engineers can now use this data to create digital twins. Digital twins can be used in real-time systems analysis and engineers can reach an unparalleled level of accuracy using predictive analytics by combining machine learning (ML)-based analytics with a physics-based approach. Coupled with various SDKs, frameworks, and platforms, these tools also allow the creation of unlimited amounts of synthetic data needed to train AI models bringing the concept of AI driven Digital twin to life.?

In essence, Digital twins can completely change not only manufacturing, healthcare, life sciences, supply chain or real estate examples discussed in this post but many more industries.? If we apply the power of realistic simulation to human modeling, we can revolutionize any industry? and change it from an art to a science.?

Call to action

1. Do share this with your network
2. What are your thoughts and experiences on Digital twins?
3. Contact me to discuss your use case and strategize? more about how data, applied AI and?digital twins can revolutionize your industry operations.