As manufacturing organizations embark upon their digital transformation journey, an essential starting point is to implement a digital twin. Digital twins deliver value in project execution with easier engineering and testing. When the project is over, the same digital twin enhances daily operations, improving safety and uptime by moving training and process change testing off physical equipment and on to a digital workspace. This flexibility and wide range of use cases helps digital twin technology deliver fast ROI.
Mart Berutti, Emerson’s vice president of process simulation, recently published an article with Efficient Plant magazine exploring three critical focus areas that will help any organization get the most out of a digital twin investment.
Scalability
A properly implemented digital twin simulation can serve a facility for decades, so, it needs to be able to change alongside the technologies in the plant. As Mart explains,
a pilot program that identifies a success case and allows rapid expansion is the recommended way to leverage simulation technology and build momentum for digital transformation.
Standardization
Mart also stresses the ability to standardize systems across the organization. Digital twins
should be planned from the earliest stages of a pilot project to enable replication with the least amount of rework.
In his article, Mart explores a number of key technologies that organizations should seek out to standardize across business units, plants, and world areas—ultimately building a foundation to evolve pilot digital twin projects into enterprise level systems.
Sustainability
Mart explains,
as assets and sensors change, the underlying systems…will need to be adjusted. Managing these changes will require internal or external automation experts.
Whether an organization chooses to use its own personnel to keep its digital twin up to date, or looks to a trusted vendor for support, there are a number of technologies available for simulation architecture to simplify that management. For example, Emerson’s Mimic™ simulation software can be installed in the cloud, making it easy for expert technicians to access it from anywhere for changes, testing, training, maintenance, or updates.
To learn more about how to ensure that your digital twin is scalable, standardized, and sustainable to support long-term operation in your facility, you can read the full article. In addition, feel free to comment below on the ways you are using digital twin technology in your plant to drive long-term gains across the plant or even across the enterprise.
