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Digital Twin Technology: The Next Game-Changer in Business?

February 11, 2019

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There is no turning back—keeping up with the key technology trends that are likely to disrupt the business world at any given moment has become the norm.

These days especially, there is one technology that emerges as the main enabler of strategic growth for the modern enterprise: digital twins.

The concept is not a novelty—the origins of the digital twin date back to 2002—but the interest in this technology grows stronger by the minute due to the advent of IoT and analytics. Poised to impact all business sectors, Gartner predicts that half of the large industrial companies will use digital twins by 2021.

It might as well be the next big tech leap, but is it a fundamental tool to successfully drive real value?

Let’s take a look.

What Is a Digital Twin?

The current business landscape is making the convergence of the physical and digital worlds a reality. In turn, you may be quick to notice that it is essential to build a bridge between them in order to gain a complete picture of how customers respond to your product or asset and which areas need attention and improvement.

Digital twin technology facilitates this action—and helps you take it one step further: it collects the necessary data to empower better decision-making and eliminate the uncertainties around product, service, or process innovation now and well into the future. What is more, its use cases do not exclusively concentrate on industries like design and manufacturing; they are also increasingly popular in transportation, healthcare, and entertainment.

Although its terminology has undergone various changes over the years, the basic notion of the digital twin remains the same: the dynamic, identical digital representation of a physical object, system, or process that enables companies to understand, predict and optimize the performance of their enterprise.

The technology is based on massive, cumulative, real-time data measurements to create an evolving profile that provides crucial insights on how to drive tangible value, create new revenue streams, or answer key strategic questions—currently unattainable through other methods.

Digital Twinning Is Here to Stay: Why Should You Consider It?

Let’s be real—regardless of your company’s focus, you can’t afford to stifle innovation. Your success hinges on the ability to continuously strengthen your business operations, enhance current products or services, and improve collaboration with suppliers, partners, and customers.

So, imagine this: You have a new product ready for the market—it could be anything: a car, a spacecraft, or an engine—but even with all the pre-launch buzz you started to build, what if it fails to address your audience’s pain points or needs? And sure, it might look like an excellent technological advancement in your eyes, but does it actually function properly out there in the real world? With a digital twin, you can effortlessly avoid these situations and visualize your product in action in real-time.

Having these insights at your disposal will help identify potential faults, improve customer satisfaction, enhance product quality, reduce overall warranty cost, and create various revenue growth opportunities.

With this in mind, there is no surprise that digital twin technology is quickly gaining momentum. And although the adoption continues to be in its early stages, jumping the bandwagon early on is in your best interest.

NASA and the United States Air Force already capitalized on the opportunity to develop a culture of continuous innovation. By investing in a digital twin, their future generations of aerospace vehicles will benefit from unprecedented levels of safety and reliability. The advantages are multifold: this technology will unceasingly forecast the health of their vehicles or systems, the remaining useful life, and the probability of mission success. In addition, it uncovers previously unknown issues before they become critical and proactively mitigates damage or degradation by activating self-healing mechanisms.

No matter what industry you are in, the bottom line is that you can’t ignore the emergence of this next-generation solution that brings together the intelligence, insights, and tools in virtual spaces for better business outcomes.

The ultimate competitive advantage is not gained by laggards. You need to keep abreast of new technological developments and reshape your business accordingly.

That is why there is no better time than now to start adding more value to your enterprise with the help of what is quickly becoming tomorrow’s commonplace technology—the digital twin.