Digital Twin
Innovation Alphabet
Digital Twin
In a nutshell
The digital twin consists of the virtual replica of a real product, process, or system. Interconnecting the physical and computer worlds makes it possible to study both realities in order to fully understand their behavior and thus carry out an important preventive activity.
Application Fields
• Predictive maintenance: Digital Twins can identify and anticipate possible machine or system failures. By analyzing the history of malfunctions, it allows technicians to plan a maintenance intervention before the failure occurs.
• Performance monitoring: Twins can keep an eye on the performance of the physical plant in terms of yield, quality and other important KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) in real time. The alerting system notifies the department manager of the requirement for an audit, preventing defective and unrecoverable items from being produced.
• Simulation of possible scenarios: Based on system history and mathematical models, Digital Twins make it possible to simulate forecast scenarios under unconventional conditions. For example, monitoring the behavior of the distribution network when dealing with changes in the organization.
• Addressing climate change: The European Union has launched the “Destination Earth” initiative. It will draw on a host of environmental, socioeconomic and satellite data to develop digital “doppelgangers” of the planet in order to help policymakers better understand and respond to rising temperatures. Then, AI techniques will analyze human and natural activity and allow for simulations that will predict future environmental change and its impacts. The potential is very broad: from understanding the effects of geo-engineering to evaluating genetic mutations on infectious species such as mosquitoes.
Industries
• Digital Twin in the manufacturing industry
Fameccanica, a world leader in the diaper and sanitary napkin manufacturing machinery industry, has created a virtual room in which production machinery can be replicated in real, three-dimensional size in order to optimize product development and train maintainers accurately and comprehensively.
• Digital Twin in the energy industry
General Electric has created digital twins to control the maintenance and after-sales phase of wind power systems. When a turbine is sold, it is paired with a virtual replica. The physical product, thanks to its sensors, communicates with the virtual turbine by providing data on ignition, blade rotation speed, electrical power, and so on.
• Digital Twin in the sports industry
Digital clones are used to fine-tune Formula 1 car racing. In fact, simulating the race helps the driver and his team improve performance before taking to the track.
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Business Functions
• Digital Twin in support of healthcare
In medical care, the use of digital twins would allow doctors and operators to experience different treatments and procedures in a simulated environment rather than on a real patient. French startup Sim&Cure, for example, has developed a Digital Twin for the treatment of aneurysms.
• Digital Twin in support of design
Dallara is an Italian manufacturer of racing cars that develops virtual models to test its products before manufacturing them. The company leverages Digital Twins to perform all the tests and simulations necessary to finalize each design. When the computer twin is ready, bits are converted into atoms (any references to existing podcasts are purely coincidental) and the product is obtained. A procedure that speeds up the design process.
• Digital Twin in support of training employees
ENI uses the Digital Twin to train employees, who are given smart glasses and a sensorized glove. They can then move in an Augmented Reality space within the virtual twin of an installation and simulate supervised and safe operations.
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Check out more of the Innovation Alphabet:
Gamification
Gamification
Gamification is actually adding a game-like element to make more fun and engaging something that’s not necessarily a game. It’s all about turning a task that might be boring or difficult into a more enjoyable and motivating activity. You can also earn points, badges, and rewards for completing certain actions or challenges. Are you ready to play?
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Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence
A smart business means efficiency: Business Intelligence represents the ability to collect up-to-date data, present it in easy-to-understand formats, and deliver it in a timely manner to employees. Making data-driven decision-making and management processes leads to competitive advantage, reduces inefficiencies, and improves productivity and service at all levels.
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Artificial Scarcity
Artificial Scarcity
We often tend to desire what we cannot have. Or what we are in danger of losing: Artificial Scarcity is a strategy that flaunts a limited number of items that do not correspond to actual availability. The goal is to stimulate the perception in consumers that the stock of items is about to run out and thus create a need based on the “fear of being cut off” or the intention to buy the item in order to resell it at a higher price.
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Subscription Model
Subscription Model
A subscription model is a business tool that generates revenue by charging customers a fee at regular intervals. The company provides products or services to subscribers on a subscription basis, usually monthly or annually. In this way, loyalty has become more important than acquiring new users.
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Holacracy & Flat Organization
Holacracy & Flat Organization
A “flat organization” breaks down the traditional hierarchy and removes its negative connotation, while “holacracy” is the business tool that facilitates its formation. Flat organizations place more emphasis on communication and collaboration, aspiring to a distributed decision-making process that gives each employee a voice. But this is a model that is difficult to implement.
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Mass Customization
Mass Customization
Mass customization is an initiative adopted by companies to embrace the increasingly diversified needs of customers. By offering customizable products and services, consumers feel engaged and can bring their creativity into play. Brands gain from this a boost in perceived value and the opportunity to fuel a positive word-of-mouth marketing.
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Coopetition
Coopetition
If you can’t beat them, join them. Coopetition is a business strategy that defines cooperative and competitive relationships between competing companies in the same young or high-growth market. The goal is to travel a stretch of road together to lower initial research and development costs. Once the desired results are achieved, the companies will return to being enemies as before.
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MVP
MVP
To the disappointment of all sports fans, this is not an article about Michael Jordan. In the language of business, MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product and indicates the version of a new product that has enough features to attract customers. In this way, a team can gather the most feedback with the least effort, improve the prototype, and validate its sale.
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Agile
Agile
Agile is an approach to software development designed to respond to change. Teams quickly analyze the context in which they operate, identify uncertainties faced, and figure out how to adapt to always move forward. Interaction between individuals comes before processes and tools; collaboration with the customer is more important than negotiating contracts.
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Bounded Rationality
Bounded Rationality
The best solutions always come to mind when it is too late. This is because human beings tend to make decisions on the basis of satisfaction rather than optimization. Bounded Rationality means that we are unable to think clearly and linearly, we proceed by trial and error and forget all the possible variables that affect the process. But we are also flawed.
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