Unlocking Manufacturing's Future with Operational Twins

The industrial landscape is undergoing a seismic shift, with 2024 heralding the dawn of a groundbreaking era in manufacturing digitization—enter the realm of operational twins. The buzz and fervent inquiries flooding our desks unmistakably signal that these twins are poised to spearhead the most critical and intriguing manufacturing digitization initiatives this year.

But what exactly do we mean by "operational twins"? Contrary to the notion of flashy 3D replicas, operational twins are the manifestation of the digital twin concept applied to the very heart of the production process. They amalgamate an array of data from disparate IT and OT systems, encompassing everything from intricate Bill of Materials (BOM) data, product routings, maintenance and quality statistics, to energy consumption and emission information.

Unlike conventional systems that merely gather and relay data in isolated silos, operational twins craft a holistic panorama of operations. They empower employees to unravel complex connections by answering pivotal questions, such as deciphering the impact of raw material specifications on the yield of production lines.

The essence of an operational twin lies in rendering complex data accessible through user-friendly applications, dashboards, and insightful reports. This departure from traditional architectures marks a pivotal shift in how we perceive and utilize manufacturing data.

From a managerial perspective, operational twins revolutionize the landscape by addressing the pervasive challenge of complexity in digital manufacturing. They offer two pivotal advantages:

1. Complementing the existing Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) stack to deftly navigate intricate data-based scenarios and applications.
2. Crafting a unified semantic model of operations that liberates engineers and developers from the labyrinthine complexities of underlying manufacturing systems.

Contrary to the traditional approach of justifying investments based on specific use cases, operational twins offer a different proposition. They champion the cause of supporting diverse use cases without erecting data or application silos. Each use case enriches the model, contributing to shorter time-to-value for novel implementations.

Despite the past successes of using Excel workbooks, these ad-hoc solutions pose grave organizational challenges. They foster dependency on specific plant systems, lack scalability, and generate use case-specific solutions that struggle to interoperate.

Operational twins, on the other hand, serve as the vanguard of a future-ready organization. They emerge as the next-generation data management platforms, empowering engineers to innovate across various use cases while ensuring scalability across diverse plants. By capturing and leveraging tacit knowledge through sophisticated features like the industrial knowledge graph, operational twins promise continuity amidst talent transitions.

While operational twins demand more governance and rigor compared to traditional methods, they offer something invaluable—high-quality contextualized data, the cornerstone of any digital strategy, particularly within the intricate landscape of manufacturing.

In the dynamic milieu of manufacturing, operational twins emerge as the vital 1% investment that unlocks the latent potential inherent in the remaining 99%. They serve as the catalyst propelling organizations into an era where data-driven autonomy and efficiency reign supreme.

Source: https://www.smartindustry.com/benefits-of-transformation/quality

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