What Is a Live Digital Twin? (And Why the Old Ones Aren’t Enough)
Digital Twin Definition and Example
At its most basic, a digital twin is a virtual representation of a real world system. This is done so that a better understanding can be gained of how the system works. In simple terms, imagine you can take operators, designers, and engineers through a virtual tour of your machine and process, and not just a static process, but one showing how product moves through the system, how machines work, and where any pain points are. This is incredibly useful for optimising design, operation and product quality, as well as broadening understanding of the process.
However, this is just the beginning. So far we have been talking about long term solutions to long term problems, but what if we could bring this up to the minute? Well, if you know how your process is working, how your product is flowing, and how your machines are performing right now, you can optimise the operation of your facility, minimise product loss and machine wear, and maximise quality and quantity of product right now.
What Is a Live Digital Twin?
A live digital twin, and as the name suggests, it’s very much like a digital twin, except it uses live streaming data, and calculates live. This means that all the insights from your digital twin will be available immediately. As such, new benefits are unlocked, live reactions to condition changes, quick identification to developing problems, and rapid optimisation of the process. This stops problems becoming serious, allows real time product and quality assurance, and can even prevent damage to expensive machines.
Benefits of Live Digital Twins
With a live digital twin, you can:
- Detect and correct anomalies as they occur
- Prevent machine damage and unplanned downtime
- Continuously optimize for throughput and quality
- Reduce waste and energy use
- Ensure compliance with tighter operational safety margins
All of these benefits will help to dramatically improve efficiency, optimise maintenance and improve the safety and reliability of your plant. Legacy solutions, such as batch-based twins may provide some of these insights, but quite possibly too late, and certainly not in such a way that operations can be continually tuned to achieve the best balance of quality, machine wear and throughput in a continuously changing environment.
Real-World Applications of Live Digital Twins
Want to know how to build a live digital twin, the challenges of dealing with live data, and the ways in which real world interaction can be achieved? Check out the full whitepaper here!
Key Definitions:
Digital twin: A virtual representation of what a complex real world system was doing
Live digital twin: A virtual representation of what a complex real world system is doing
