Individual Assignment- Blog

Riya Shrivastava (10246553)

Digital Business and Innovation
1/22/23
 Digital Twin Technology- The old age digital disruptor
Industry 4.0 is something that’s the talk of the town now. With the amount of data being
available and the extent of digitalization, we’re witnessing the next big tech leap.” Digital
Twin” technology is one such digital disruptor in the industry. This technology is helping us
bridge the gap between physical and digital world.
A digital twin is a replica of the physical component. The idea is to have a digital version of
real things on cloud and get them connected via sensors and have an exchange of data to
analyse the digital model, which will give us insights on the real things and help us identify
potential problems ahead of time.
Digital twin is not something new. It was originated at NASA as tech-mirroring methods and
was realized as a concept in 2022. The rise of Internet of Things (IoT) lead to the rise of
digital twin. Gartner, in its report has listed Digital Twin in top 10 strategic trends.

Digital Twin – The Technology

Digital Twin is a technology that creates a digital simulation of real-life objects. Using smart
sensors on real life object it gets real time data. A digital twin is a virtually accessible proxy
of real physical object using the real time data that it collects. It helps in monitoring and
testing the physical object remotely.
Using this technology businesses can know exactly how their production units are working
rather than making assumptions. It automatically collects data from the physical object using
IoT and has algorithms that can check the performance and behaviour of the device.

Impact on Industry – Key Benefits

Digital twin technology market is projected to grow at compounded CAGR of 37% from
2023 to 2030. Gartner reported that 50% of large industrial companies are already using
digital twin resulting an increase of 10% efficiency. The dynamic nature of digital twin is
making industries adopt it more.
Risk assessment and faster production:
Digital twin can help to test a new product before it exists in the real life. The replica can help
to assess risk better and search for mitigation strategies. This will allow better risk assessment
and speed up the new product development.
Virtual real time monitoring:
Digital twin technology allows smooth and fast exchange of data from physical to digital
world which allows monitoring the systems in real time. Being digital enables monitoring
remotely from anywhere.
Predictive Maintenance:
The real time data from digital twin gives a large amount of data which can be used to predict
its behaviour and future problems using big data. This can help to take preventive steps and
plan servicing at the right time.

Digital Twin Technology - In action

This technology has it’s use case in variety of sectors. It allows the enterprises to conduct
tests that helps them to make a smarter and better-informed decision in the digital world
before implementing the same in real life. Majorly this technology has been implemented in
manufacturing sector, but it has implications in various other industries as-
Automobile
There is a prediction for growth 13% in autonomous vehicle market by 2030. Digital twin
technology can help manufacturers to build a digital version before making an original car
which will allow them to monitor and predict the issues. This can help to create a better and
safe driving experience.
Aerospace
Space industry being one of the most high-cost industry, digital twin can help to reduce the
cost. With the help of this technology, it is possible to test before conducting any mission and
prepare for it. It can also help with the R&D process by testing the spacecrafts in digital form
before building the physical one. Thus, if any issues are detected the cost of manufacturing
can be eliminated.
Healthcare
Digital twin can revisualize the hospital operation and management system. Alongside that
what is worth exploring is human digital twins which can help to identify health issues much
before their occurrence allowing doctors to treat and take the precautions beforehand.
City
Creating a digital twin of an entire city can give enormous amount of data which can be used
to make informed public policies, take proper safety measures and work on environmental
concerns.
Construction
Construction projects are quite expensive. Digital twin technology can help the owners by
reducing the maintenance cost for the buildings. With the data they can predict the time for
maintenance and act accordingly. It can save time by allowing the team to rehearse before
building. It can also help with real time project monitoring.
Manufacturing
This is the industry with largest adoption rate of digital twin. In manufacturing industry
digital twin is used for monitoring the production lines and predicting the future problems
and mis happenings beforehand. In a study conducted by Deloitte it was identified that digital
twin improves the efficiency of assembly lines by 10-20 percent.
Vessel
In shipping industry, digital twin technology helps in real time monitoring of assets and
goods conditions. This makes it easy to keep a tract of operational parameters. The data flows
between containers helps in end-to-end supply chain optimization.
Oil Fields Platforms
Digital twins are used by BP (British Petroleum) to view its massive facilities in Alaska. The
condition of thousands of pipes and connections buried beneath the snow may be checked by
BP's engineers while they work in an office using intelligent, virtual representations of their
pipes. Sensors can detect when a piece of machinery needs repair and maintenance.
Electricity (Wind Farms)
Digital twin technology is used by General Electric to monitor and manage the turbines in its
wind farms. General Electric's virtual copies, like BP, can predict energy output and spot
problem areas before they become a problem.
Agriculture
Physical flows can be separated from planning and control by using Digital Twins as the
primary tool for farm management. As a result, farmers no longer need to rely on on-site
human labour and direct observation to manage operations. Instead, they may do so remotely
using (almost) real-time digital information.

Digital twin in manufacturing industry current has the highest market share of 22% followed
by automotive (18.5%) then aviation with 16.3%.

Conclusion
According to recent MarketsandMarkets research: The market for digital twins, which was
valued at US$3.8 billion in 2019, is anticipated to grow to US$35.8 billion by 2025.
Because of the rapidly advancing simulation and modelling capabilities, improved IoT sensor
interoperability, and increased accessibility to tools and computing infrastructure, the digital
twin trend is gaining traction. As a result, enterprises of all sizes and in many sectors can now
more easily use the possibilities of digital twins.
70% of manufacturing industry has already implemented digital twin technology. With
everything moving towards data and digitalization, integration of digital twin technology is a
good opportunity for other industries to optimize their operations and costs. Digital twin
technology creates a network effect with all the data which is the steppingstone for digital
transformation. Thus, being one of the oldest known and latest technology disruptor.