WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 06/2018 (RU)

Bringing
digital twin
applications
to your
business
Video
Learn more: SAP’s view on
network of digital twins:
http://bit.ly/SAP_DigitalTwin
AUTOMATION
In order to create new business models and boost
innovation; digital twins must evolve to connect,
interact, and communicate with each other –
expanding the entire value chain by creating a
network. This article demonstrates the impact of
digital twins as a first step towards making processes
more intelligent, collaborative, and automated.
Digital transformation offers significant opportunity, but it can
also be a challenge for manufacturers as machines are becoming
more complex and need to support flexible production.
Digital twins can be leveraged to boost multi-discipline collaboration
over the complete product lifecycle from innovation to operation.
Digital twins are not a new concept for specific purposes like
engineering, manufacturing or operations; but they stood alone and
did not deliver on the promise of seamless collaboration – until now.
SAP believes that in order for digital twins to have the desired impact
they need to deliver value in four distinct areas: be an exact
digital representation of and have a high fidelity connection to the
physical object, support multiple processes (R&D, manufacturing,
service) with just one version of the digital twin, allow multiple
stakeholders and partners to collaborate on one version of the digital
twin, and to allow semantic relations between digital twins of
assets from different suppliers in the customer context.
A new era of networks and product design
Digital twins are more than a virtual lookalike of a physical product.
Spread across the entire product and asset lifecycle, digital twins
are used in engineering, manufacturing, operations and service.
With the product lifecycle shrinking, ever-increasing streams of
connected data and more complex production; organizations need
to work across silos and ensure decision access for all disciplines.
What if digital twins could communicate with one another, creating
a network between themselves? The real-world product and its
digital twin can bridge the physical and digital worlds at all points
along the value chain, opening the door to new innovation and
multiplying the possibilities of what can be achieved. Drawing on
actual usage data of connected products and assets, digital twins
are the basis for new product-as-a-service business models: Using
machine learning, live insights can be gained from the constant
stream of real-time usage and performance data to continually
automate, learn and improve processes throughout the value chain
and across all business areas.
Digital Twins improve collaboration and provide
insights
Creating a network of digital twins makes it easy to share data with
internal colleagues, external supply chain partners and even customers.
Its its partners and it’s customers can collaboratively improve
processes and more.
Sharing digital-twin data with multiple internal departments ensures
everyone is on the same page. The R&D, finance, marketing
and sales teams – groups that typically work in silos – can collaborate
to ensure a new product is properly designed, accurately priced,
sufficiently promoted and commercially viable. Supply chain partners
benefit from a network of digital twins with enhanced visibility.
If an asset malfunctions, the maintenance provider knows it needs
to mobilize a team to fix the equipment. If an organization manufactures
a product ahead of schedule, the logistics provider knows it
can pick up the goods and deliver them early. Finally, digital twin
networks help glean invaluable insights from customers. By monitoring
how customers interact with goods, organizations can remove
underused features from future product iterations or develop
new products that highlight popular features.
Enabling an open, collaborative environment through a network of
digital twins offers the chance to transform engineering, operations
and everything in between. In turn, this allows enterprises to bring
digital representations of multiple products, equipment and assets
together into one technical and business context, and to become
more intelligent.
Photographs: SAP
www.sap.com
SAP supports the network of digital
twins from idea to manufacturing to
service and back in the innovation cycle.
Georg Kube, Global Vice President, Industrial
Machinery & Components Industry Business Unit, SAP
34 WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 2018