Achieving Scale Through Composable and Lean Digital Twins

Abstract

The application of Digital Twins (DTs) has gained traction across industrial and manufacturing organizations. The adoption and implementation of Digital Twins invariable requires the business case to pass muster before the allocation of resources to a specific project. The bar is even higher if Digital Twins are to be adopted and encouraged within an enterprise as a way of doing business and as a way of thinking about complex problems. For individual projects within an organization, it is crucial to access technologies and methodologies that repeatedly have a high probability of achieving success. This includes adoption of a general framework where the organization can gain confidence from learnings across projects and to develop trusted general processes and tools that lift the level of practice across the organization over time. The Composable Digital Twin is such an approach and has at its core several important features. It offers re-use of effort, accelerated time to results, general applicability, and the dynamic range to address both simple and complex issues within an enterprise at scale. The building of enterprise capabilities and the development of project specific Digital Twins also requires processes management techniques that minimize risk and build confidence. The Lean Digital Twin exploits the idea of a minimum viable product and lean and agile development techniques for managing DT development projects. It provides a set of steps for guiding Digital Twin projects while aligning business goals and outcomes with technical capabilities across a project’s lifecycle. It also emphasizes the accomplishment of early results. The Chapter explores and illustrates the importance of both ideas, composable and lean DTs, with step by step descriptions and fielded examples.