Digital Twins can be the intelligent edge for IoT in the manufacturing sector – Part 2

The first half of this two-part series looked at the concept of digital twins and explored how it can help manufacturers with visualisation. Now, says Sukamal Banerjee of HCL Technologies, let’s explore the second big advantage digital twins can bring, and think about the questions an industrial enterprise needs to answer to find out what digital twins it needs to implement.

Collaboration is key

The second critical aspect of a digital twin is the ability to share this digital view of machines irrespective of the viewer’s physical distance. This allows multiple individuals to see, track and benchmark manufacturing installations on a global scale. This ability removes the delay in reporting alerts to management, eliminates single points of failure due to human error, and makes seeking expert help easier.

A digital twin expands the horizon of access of the shop floor to product managers, designers, and data scientists. Armed with a new understanding of how productive their processes and machines are, they can design better products, more efficient processes, and foresee problems/issues sooner rather than later. This saves time and reduces wasted materials on building physical models, as well as making it easier to see the gaps between desired and actual outcomes, and running root cause analysis.

It’s important to remember that digital twins are different from traditional 2D or 3D CAD images in scope and use; while CAD images and simulations consist mainly of the data of dimensions of a single piece of equipment or sub parts, digital twins focus on capturing more holistic data of the equipment in terms of how it interacts with other equipment and the environment.

Sukamal Banerjee

This entails measuring the data and configuration of the installation (including space and other dimensions between different equipment) and data of the ambient environment (temperature, pressure, vibration, etc.); this data is fed on a continual basis from the physical to the digital twin through the digital thread.

In terms of use – while CAD drawings are primarily used early in the product life cycle to influence design decisions, digital twins are used primarily for manufacturing and service operations.

So, what should a business think about if it is considering using digital twins?

There are three big questions to consider:

  1. The first step is to ask, “What do I need to know about my manufacturing operations that will allow me to drive decisions?”. This helps decide what kind of data to capture, and which visualisations to implement.
  2. The follow-up question is “What are the top three to five roles in my business for which I primarily want the digital twin?”. The answer to this question can effectively clarify what views to create from the captured data. Digital twins, by definition, are customised to roles to ensure only relevant data is shown, thereby reducing visual clutter.
  3. The final step is to create an incremental roadmap to make the digital twin richer over time. This can be done by either adding more relevant data sets to the existing imagery or by providing access to a wider set of roles within the business. A great example of how to build an incremental digital twin is Google Maps, which today emulates location and traffic data in much more detail and more accurately than it did a decade ago. It has constantly evolved over time in terms of richness of data and hence utility.

The benefits will be worth the pre-planning a digital twin requires. Industrial companies that have digital twins will be able to create sustainable competitive advantage due to better products, higher efficiency, and faster release cycles (from product ideation to market). The key to successful use of digital twins, therefore, is to start with small projects, before reinvesting benefits and ROI to create better, more complete systems in the near future, driving success on an ongoing basis.

The author of this blog is Sukamal Banerjee, corporate vice president – ERS Sales (Hi Tech & Comm) and head of IoT WoRKS at HCL Technologies.

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_OR @jcIoTnow

RECENT ARTICLES

Get a US$50 Amazon voucher for sharing your IoT brand knowledge

Posted on: March 28, 2024

We want to know what you know about the IoT space. Just 3 minutes could earn you a US$50 Amazon digital gift card!

Read more

Enhance EV charging performance with cellular connectivity

Posted on: March 28, 2024

Electric vehicles (EVs) are steadily growing their market share at the expense of internal combustion engine vehicles. The growth is fuelled by several factors. Perhaps most importantly, prices for EVs have started to drop as competition in the industry is intensifying. New players and models are emerging, prompting several established EV makers to lower their

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more