ISG-NTTD Data Thought Leadership Paper

Digital Twin: Beyond the Hype

Over the last decade, the manufacturing industry has undergone significant transformations to adapt to the ever changing market dynamics and hyper volatile customer expectations globally. The United Nations forecasts a global population of approximately 9.8 billion by 2050, prompting all industry verticals to consider adopting digital technologies to meet the dynamically changing expectations of consumers. These technologies can streamline their operations, reduce errors, bridge the gap between demand and supply and ultimately enhance customer service. The manufacturing industry is no exception, as evident by the increased adoption of new age technologies such as cloud & edge computing, AI, ML, IIoT, OT, VR and XR. These innovations have been pivotal in digitally transforming manufacturers operations and achieving higher levels of excellence.

Digital twin is one such technology that has demonstrated its value across major industry verticals such as industrial manufacturing, healthcare, Smart Cities, aerospace and automotive. In this paper, our primary focus is on analyzing the role of the digital twins in the manufacturing industry. A digital twin is created
based on sensory data collected from a physical object, enabling engineers, production managers, 
technicians and other stakeholders to simulate, analyze and control the object’s behavior and functionality in a remote environment. In addition to sensory data, digital twins collect and analyze inputs from simulated environments, CAD/CAE models, historical test data, etc. to constantly evolve themselves and share real time insights, predictive analytics, and the testing of scenarios without affecting the actual physical entity. Digital twins leverage technologies such as data analytics, AI, ML, edge computing, cloud computing and
robotics to enable users to analyze and predict the performance of the physical entity. This approach has facilitated key transformations within the manufacturing industry as organizations continue to adopt Industry 4.0.