Digital Twins: The Power of Simulation
STORY INLINE POST
Digitization accelerated and permeated all business areas during confinement. Now, one of the great challenges is to increase its adoption in the industry to make it more efficient, productive, and sustainable. One of the technologies that is driving this transformation is process simulation.
If we thought of a virtual stuntman version of ourselves, with the same characteristics, health, and behavior as our physical self, perhaps we could predict how our body would function in a few years, or how we would react to a risk situation by simulating on a computer the different conditions in which we might find ourselves and prepare for them. This is how digital twin technology works.
According to Gartner, a digital twin is a virtual representation of a real-world entity or system. It is a software model that reflects a unique physical object, process, organization, person, or other abstraction, and its potential is so great that there is already a global consortium of the same name driving awareness, adoption, interoperability, and development of this technology through collaboration between industry, academic, and even government bodies, intending to promote innovations that benefit its users.
Digital twins contribute to the transformation of companies by accelerating the holistic understanding of their processes and optimal decision-making, as well as carrying out more effective actions. This technology uses real-time and historical data to represent the past and present and simulate predicted futures. It is results-driven, adaptive to use cases, and driven by the integration of Operational Technology and Information Technology (OT/IT) systems.
Today, the digital twin is used to create everything from a cellphone to an airplane, based on 3D simulation software that allows products and the plants where these are manufactured to be virtually designed, with benefits such as reduced material costs, prototypes for resistance tests and to accelerate time to market, among many others. This technology, together with the Internet of Things and big data, also helps to detect and predict problems in manufacturing processes, which also contributes to improving the maintenance of a factory's infrastructure and better managing its assets.
The manufacturing industry is taking the path of this transformation. According to analyst MarketsandMarkets™, the value of the digital twin market is expected to grow from US$6.9 billion in 2022 to US$73.5 billion by 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 60.6 percent over that time. This potential is due to its ability to reduce costs, enable predictive maintenance and improve supply chain operations with growing demand in sectors such as healthcare and automotive.
For example, during the pandemic, Siemens worked with BioNTech to manufacture one of the COVID-19 vaccines. Based on our digital twin technology, we were able to replicate one of the production lines in just five months, given the time pressure to supply it.
In another use case, the Red Bull Racing Formula 1 team has used our simulation and digitalization technologies to optimize the development of composite parts and reduce their waste in the factory, thus improving the control of budgets. The use of these solutions helps them to be a successful team as they have won several world championships. The Renault F1 sports team has also used it to manage the design, analysis, and manufacturing process of composite and fiber-reinforced raw materials.
An additional benefit of simulation technology is that it helps decision-makers move from trial and error based on experience to optimization based on models.
But there is still a long way to go. According to José Ruiz, consulting partner in supply chain and operations at KPMG in Mexico, in our country, most industries are in a stage of automation in which they manage production lines without being able to predict failures, obtain data, or establish communication between machines through interfaces, which could boost Industry 4.0 processes.
However, we are making progress, according to the study by the same consulting firm, "Perspectives of Senior Management in Mexico 2021" digital transformation is being gradually adopted by different Mexican organizations because it is imperative and, therefore, this market represents a great opportunity since only 36 percent have drastically accelerated the progress of adopting new technologies.
Let us then contribute to promoting this change that will allow Mexican industries to remain at the forefront, increase their productivity, and, therefore, contribute to the growth of the Mexican economy.
Sources:
Originals by Siemens
https://ingenuity.siemens.com/2021/12/combined-forces-lead-to-faster-and-better-production/
Additionals
https://ingenuity.siemens.com/2021/11/the-power-of-simulation/
https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/digital-twin
https://www.digitaltwinconsortium.org/initiatives/the-definition-of-a-digital-twin/
https://www.digitaltwinconsortium.org/working-groups/manufacturing/
https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/digital-twin-market-225269522.html
Siemens User Case References from the Automotive Industry
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