How Digital Twin Technology is Revolutionizing Manufacturing

Why Digital Twin Technology Is a Game-Changer for Manufacturing

There’s probably no industry where digital twins – virtual replicas of a product, system or object – are more at home than in manufacturing. Trace back the roots of the technology and you’ll find yourself in 1960s America, watching Nasa use digital twins (or mirrored systems, as they were known at the time) to investigate and correct defects in their oxygen tanks following the Apollo 13 accidents. Since then, other manufacturers have followed in their small steps for digital twins to achieve some giant leaps for manufacturing-kind.

In fact, when the Digital Twin Consortium was launched in 2019 to drive development and adoption, tech manufacturers Microsoft and Dell were founding members. And it’s not just tech and spacecraft manufacturers getting in on the action. Today, digital twin applications have expanded across transport, machinery, and everything in between.

Momentum has only increased as manufacturing undergoes the so-called fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0. This widespread digital transformation is driving efficiency with smart manufacturing processes, such as automating manual operations. But before we look at innovations that real companies are achieving with digital twins, let’s explore why the technology has proved such an enduring hit in the world of manufacturing.

What are the benefits of digital twin technology for the manufacturing industry?

The popularity of digital twins in manufacturing lies in their ability to improve outcomes for customers and, in turn, for the business.

Quality control

Digital twins do that primarily through greater product quality control. One of the hallmarks of an excellent manufacturing operation is not only producing flawless products, but repeating that every single time. With a digital twin of its manufacturing equipment, a company can monitor performance and promptly intervene when levels drop and signal potential malfunction.

Product testing

A manufacturer can analyze a virtual prototype using real-time data from sensors on the physical asset. This allows them to ensure a product is safe, practical and performs as it’s supposed to. The crucial difference between using a digital twin, as opposed to a standard simulation, is the manufacturer can fine tune the product based on data-backed insights rather than assumptions. Instead of having to constantly produce new prototypes to test each new iteration – racking up costs and waste, not to mention dragging out lead times – a digital twin accurately models product changes within the virtual interface.

Business continuity

Speaking of accelerating lead times, digital twins can also safeguard business continuity through predictive maintenance. Monitoring a digital twin of plant equipment allows businesses to spot defects rather than being ambushed by a failure or outage.

Coming down the production line next are some real-world applications that illustrate just how powerful these digital twin advantages can be.

Real-world examples of manufacturing digital twins

How Toyota is taking factory surveys and optimization up a gear with digital twins

Most of us are familiar with Google Street View. Some of us may even have seen the car they drive around taking photos to create a three-dimensional virtual replica of our neighborhoods. Toyota has applied a similar concept to its factories.

Production engineers use a device to scan, identify and map tracking points for locating parts and equipment. With these digital representations capturing plant layouts, the manufacturer can analyze its factories, or model and simulate improvements. Learnings can be rolled out across other plants, too, in different territories, without having to visit them. Costs, carbon footprint, and time are all saved as a result.

How Boeing is using digital twins to help aircraft maintenance reach new heights

Aircraft are expensive to produce, so manufacturers value opportunities to minimize costs. However, this always has to be balanced with ensuring safety – paramount when these products are taking passengers thousands of feet into the air. And, if there weren’t enough competing criteria for manufacturers to juggle, they need to provide a level of comfort too.

Boeing is using digital twins to streamline maintenance activities, which has practical benefits. Mechanics can inspect the wings of a plane via its sensors, for example, without having to climb on to the plane itself to take measurements or recordings. They can also test the aircraft can withstand different environmental conditions safely through a digital twin. With so many different components – that all need to operate together seamlessly – a digital twin allows each of them to be closely monitored and analyzed all the time, making each aircraft’s complicated checks and inspections process easier.

How Unilever and Procter and Gamble are using digital twins to think outside the box

Digital twins are lending consumer goods manufacturer Procter & Gamble a hand by optimizing its supply chain and production efficiency. The multinational consumer goods company is using the technology to identify bottlenecks in its supply chain. After uncovering these pinchpoints, they’ve been able to raise performance levels, lower operational costs, and meet production schedules.

Likewise, by comparing different production workflows through a digital twin, Unilever is able to identify the most energy-efficient and least wasteful process to implement. Its optimized production processes have positively impacted Unilever’s overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) KPI.

Additionally, digital twins help Unilever ensure consistency and quality across different production sites, maintaining high standards for its global product lines. That includes adapting recipes and pivoting production methods according to regional preferences or regulatory requirements. All the while, the company can efficiently test product batches to ensure it meets quality standards.

How process digital twins are revolutionizing manufacturing

If you ask us, the latest and greatest evolution of digital twins that manufacturers should really be excited about is process digital twins. This form of the technology doesn’t digitally render equipment or a physical asset. A process digital twin is used to optimize the processes running through a manufacturer’s business.

We’re seeing the value first hand. Our manufacturing customers are using the Celonis platform to construct a live, objective virtual twin of their business processes. The platform uses process mining to extract this real-time, accurate data from source systems, then layers in standardized process knowledge and artificial intelligence to help surface improvement opportunities.

This digital twin is called the Process Intelligence Graph, and manufacturers are putting it to work tackling some of their most pressing operational challenges:

• Find out how global medical device manufacturer Karl Storz triages and remedies more than 600 processes within the platform’s single interface
• Read how packaging manufacturer Smurfit Westrock has unlocked millions of euros in value every year by optimizing inventory management
• Learn how industrial manufacturing company Siemens reduced rework by 11% globally, resulting in 10 million fewer manual touches per year.

Explore more about the evolution of digital twins, and how enterprises across industries can secure value-driving wins from process twins, here.