February 23, 2024
Planning and analysis is the essential part of the development process in any industry. The question is, how to make testing and predictions more accurate, manageable, and cost-effective? How to choose the perfect direction when there are so many factors and data sources to account for? Digital Twin software is the answer.
The use of Digital Twin can significantly improve the efficiency of project implementation in various industries. Benefits include increased productivity, better failure prediction, maintenance optimization, improved training and increased innovation. The level of efficiency improvement depends on the specifics of the project and the technology used, but in many cases, significant benefits can be achieved.
The level of efficiency improvement in individual areas and industries may vary depending on the specificity of the project and the technology used. However, reports indicate that significant improvements can be achieved in many cases:
The impact of DT technology on business processes has been groundbreaking across various industries such as construction, network operations, and product design. Based on the data from market study reports, it can be concluded that the use of Digital Twin can significantly improve the efficiency of project implementation in various industries. Here are some key areas where Digital Twin technology can provide benefits:
1. Increased productivity:
Digital Twins can help optimize processes and procedures, leading to increased productivity.
Example: Rolls-Royce uses digital twins of its aircraft engines to reduce the time needed to repair them by 25%.
2. Better failure prediction:
Digital Twins can help identify potential problems before they occur, preventing failures and downtime.
Example: Siemens uses digital twins of its wind turbines to predict failures 99% in advance.
3. Maintenance optimization:
Digital Twins can help plan and optimize maintenance, reducing costs and extending the life of machines.
Example: GE Aviation uses digital twins of its aircraft engines to reduce maintenance costs by 20%.
4. Better training:
Digital Twins can be used to train staff, technicians and other employees, which improves work safety and efficiency.
Example: The U.S. Navy uses digital twins of its warships to train pilots in emergency procedures.
5. Increased innovation:
Digital Twins can help you test new ideas and solutions before implementing them in reality, reducing risk and costs.
Example: Ford Motor Company uses digital twins of its cars to test new features and design solutions.
The idea of Digital Twin is to create a precise virtual representation of a given physical asset for testing, analysis, design, and cost estimation. It could be a small, commercial product or an entire country-wide electric grid. Ideally, the Digital Twin of any physical object, network, or area should have all of the required properties for the task at hand, whether it’s predictive analysis for construction or creating immersive experiences for public consultations.
Using different integration technologies, connected sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, the system collects data about the object and its physical environment to make a digital version of it to a degree of similarity that allows for making accurate predictions and estimations. What's also important is that, by using telemetry sensors and integrations with other systems, digital twin systems can be updated in real-time.
A great example would be the Digital Twin we created for the Lux Turrim 5G project. Its goal was to test and demonstrate an innovative technical ecosystem based on a 5G network mounted on smart lamp-poles and other types of interconnected sensors. We were responsible for creating a digital version of the test area and integrating all of the required data from different sources into it. The Digital Twin we created enabled monitoring of the area, performing advanced testing, and planning of IoT devices on the virtual model in order to better understand the technology and environment so that much better, data-based decisions could be made.
Whether the object is a single product or entire construction site, engineers, designers, and developers can use its Digital Twin to understand the technical and business impact of every decision before they make it. Informed, data-driven decision processes radically increase every project's safety and operational efficiency, as well as reduce development time.
The gravity and financial impact of decisions in construction, urban planning, and network operations leave engineers and designers very little or, more often, no room for error. Given that, it's much safer and cheaper to test different solutions in virtual environment than to make ill-advised decisions based on limited data.
Using Digital Twin technology, you can create precise representation of ports, infrastructure facilities, or even whole cities with every significant element like a tree or traffic sign placed with 10 cm precision. Analysis and testing based on such models significantly improve the planning and cost-estimation of development projects, but Digital Twins also provide many more benefits in the long run.
Real-time updates of Digital Twin models are essential for enterprises, municipalities, and organisations for them to track and maintain a given area or network. Here are some common examples of how insights from Digital Twin software can help businesses and local governments:
Cities:
In addition, our Digital Twin platform offers ready-to-go solutions for street light planning in urban areas, camera surveillance systems, and 5G networks.
Network operations, such as gas, water or electric grids:
Construction:
What's also crucial is that Digital Twin software is an accessible tool for everyone, not only designers and engineers. It allows for presentation of the current state of the project, it’s future phases, and all potential scenarios.
To create a functional Digital Twin, it is sometimes necessary to deal with great amount of data scattered across many independent platforms. For example, a city might have different systems for electricity, street lighting, camera surveillance, traffic lights or parking, all of which can be completely separate from each other, with their own databases. This may not sound like a big problem at first, but without having the big picture it’s very easy to overlook important correlations and miss opportunities.
Of course, it is a challenge which can be solved with the use of proper tools and solutions. Here at Blare Tech, we provide our clients with Digital Twin platform that is designed to integrate data from any number of systems to create a multifunctional, live-updated model.
Product development is one of the processes for which Digital Twins are most widely utilized. The complexity of data that the technology collects allows for predicting the entire product life cycle. Engineers use the system to test different usage scenarios in a digital environment in order to identify product defects. The testing capabilities that Digital Twins provide improve the overall quality of a product and allow manufacturers to understand it better.
Effectively, all participants in the development process, from engineers to marketers, can make smarter decisions and optimize costs all round. That includes all processes from manufacturing optimization to marketing strategy creation, which is why the manufacturing industry was one of the first to utilize Digital Twins. It applies to simple products as well as more complex devices and even next-generation vehicles.
For facilities like ports or electric plants, collecting and understanding data is necessary. The number of processes involved in modern infrastructure maintenance makes it almost impossible to work efficiently and make smart decisions without a working Digital Twin software.
A great example would be our Port of Oulu project, which is the biggest general port in the Bothnian Bay in Finland. Along with our partner, SITOWISE, we created a digital and interactive representation of the whole facility, which collects real-time data about ongoing processes and activities to improve safety, efficiency, and optimize costs.
Besides maintenance, the Digital Twin we created allows for making precise simulations, cost-estimations, and analyzing the possible consequences of further port expansion. Make sure to read more about the project in our article about Digital Twin of Port of Oulu.
A growing need for process automation goes hand-in-hand with Digital Twin technology which allows the seamless gathering of data from many different systems that are not compatible with one another.
It all starts with data. Although technologies like AI, Machine Learning, or VR, facilitated the process in recent years, data is still the key. The development process of any Digital Twins must always be based on the data requirements of each specific project.
First, we have to find out what type of information is necessary and how it will be obtained in order to build a functional digital representation of the area or an object. Once we established a necessary data set, we can proceed to the development process, which concludes with the creation of an accurate DT virtual model.
The final product allows users to test different design options and scenarios, make precise estimations, exchange them between teams, and seamlessly create accessible marketing materials. You can read more about the benefits here.
We deliver our solutions in the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. The final product is a ready-to-go Digital Twin platform in a cloud-based system. If you are interested, feel free to schedule a call with our CEO, Grzegorz Hawrot.
© 2022 Blare Technologies. All rights reserved. Cookie Policy