Smart factory? Not without a digital twin

The digital image of a smart factory is an example of how more and more digital twins are finding their way into companies. According to a Gartner survey on IoT usage in mid-2018, only about 13 percent of the nearly 600 companies surveyed had deployed virtual images in production. But another 62 percent said they wanted to introduce digital twins within a year. The analysts therefore assume that by 2021 half of all industrial companies will already be using a digital twin.

What do companies expect from these virtual images? Interest is primarily being driven by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which is also known as Industry 4.0. The Internet of Things allows the digital twins to mirror the complete development, production and operating cycle of a product or system. Users equip their products with IoT sensors in order to reduce downtime and repair costs on the basis of current machine data, or to individually design their products.

Permanently networking a physical object with its twin means both develop identically at all times. So once created, a digital twin accompanies a product through its entire lifecycle. IoT sensors record operating data in real-time and send it to the cloud. There all information is collected on a digital platform so machine learning and AI algorithms can evaluate the data. This has two main advantages: A product can be optimized during operation and maintenance can be scheduled precisely. And the data helps manufacturers improve the next generation of their products.

As is already the case today with e.Go Mobile, companies will be able to map entire factories with a digital twin in the future. This digital twin will depict machinery, other means of production, buildings, utilities and whole processes in data models. These will then be virtually redesigned as required. In the smart factory, everything revolves around real-time operation and optimization. To do this, the virtual factories and production systems must be an exact replica of the real factory – and not just the geometry and kinematics like a 3D model does.

All physical objects – tools, machines, each part and product to be produced, but also factory buildings, robots and autonomous transport units – are represented by digital images in a smart factory. The logical behavior and control of the manufacturing units are also part of a digital twin. The individual components of a virtual factory communicate with each other just as they do in the real environment of a smart factory. This ensures the digital twin can organize and optimize itself independently.

It’s like having a copy of one of the world’s largest Tetra Pak warehouses in Singapore – only one is real and the other is its digital twin. DHL has been simulating the warehouse since June 2019 using a combination of IoT and data analysis to monitor all processes in the smart warehouse in real-time – around the clock. The DHL warehouse enables Tetra Pak to reduce bottlenecks, conserve resources and distribute the workload better.