The 5 Benefits of Digital Twin Technology
1. Share Data Across Silos
One of the main benefits of using a digital twin is that you can share data across the different silos that exist in your organization.
Different areas of the business have traditionally captured and stored data in their own repositories. However, a digital twin can use a proxy to collect data from sensors and other sources instead of each silo capturing its own data. The digital twin model understands the relationship between all the siloed data sources.
2. Manage Operations in Real-Time
A digital twin creates situational awareness by building a holistic picture of the entity it represents. It does more than storing and providing insights based on historical data. It enables real-time operations by providing real-time visibility, getting recommendations, and creating actions based on events in the data.
3. Conduct Simulations & Experiments
It also provides a mechanism to do simulations, where you can experiment on the twin rather than on the real entity. Simulations are particularly useful when applying physical and engineering models like finite element methods, where you want to bring in data from multiple sources.
When you have real-time data, you can apply predictive analytics to your digital twin. Then you can determine when an asset is likely to fail or how to optimize your operations. You can also make changes to the physical entity based on the insight you gained from applying the analytics to the twin.
4. Improve Trustworthiness
Digital twins help improve the trustworthiness of your systems by giving you a global view of security, reliability, and availability. This improved visibility can help you identify any blind spots in your system.
5. Enable Collaboration
Many organizations now require cross-functional teams. They expect traditional operational technology roles like engineering and maintenance, as well as IT, automation engineers, and data scientists, to work together to improve operations. Having a digital twin can enable collaboration across your teams by providing a shared understanding of what an entity looks like when it is represented in a digital format.