The digital twin and digital thread are two concepts that have been around for decades, but the technology to make them powerful, useful, and accessible is emerging.
A digital thread unifies diverse but interrelated data sets in order to uncover insights. This data unification is a necessary pre-requisite to building a true digital twin. With this as a baseline, let’s get more specific.
Digital Thread
A digital thread is a single source of truth. It’s a way to create a universal access to data. When it is implemented across an enterprise, it creates consistency and encourages collaboration by aligning different functions around a robust set of data. Upstream and downstream information is available to all users because the data set is enabled with real-time data synchronization.
Industrial enterprises often look to advance production innovation, optimize processes for efficiency, and empower workers for greater productivity. Luckily, the digital thread positively impacts all three of these areas. A digital thread eliminates chances for any miscommunications. It equips all employees with the right information at the right time – increasing flexibility and agility.
Digital threads can leverage a variety of technologies. In an enterprise setting, most digital threads commonly connect data sets from CAD, product lifecycle management (PLM), Industrial IoT (IIoT), ERP, CRM, MES, BOM, and more. With an identified use case and business outcome in mind, digital threads have the power to expand beyond manufacturing software to include other areas of an organization.
Digital Twin
A digital twin is digital model that virtually represents its physical counterpart. Digital twins aren’t restricted to actual products or physical “things”. They can additionally be developed for operational processes, or even a worker’s task.
Digital twins are gaining popularity in industrial applications. The digital twin is often used to better understand the physical counterpart and offer insights – or even predict how the physical counterpart will react or behave. Digital twins usually utilize more than one data set to render a full representation of the physical counterpart. This often includes business system data and sensor data, so digital twins truly reflect the physical counterpart and its environment. With increased quality and diverse data streams, the fidelity and complexity of a digital twin increases. Furthermore, the digital twin also unlocks new insights and possibilities by bringing together disparate data sets.
One of the many benefits of a digital twin is the ability for a single twin to be leveraged by different roles and applications. With these different “lens”, new (and additional) value can be uncovered. For example, a digital twin delivered through augmented reality can assist a service technician with a repair and the same digital twin could also improve quality assurance procedures. Because the twin has a single source of truth generated from the foundational digital thread, users are able to access the most accurate, recent information. Using digital twin technology, industrial enterprises can improve operational effectiveness, reduce miscommunication and error, achieve product differentiation, drive productivity, and increase quality.
The Future of Digital Twin and Digital Thread
The possibilities of the digital twin and digital thread are endless, both separately and combined. As additional industrial enterprises implement digital thread and digital twin, they’ll unlock increasing amounts of opportunities to drive business outcomes.
Integrating augmented reality (AR) with both of these technologies is an emerging method to realize value. As this technology becomes more prevalent in factories and other industrial applications, it serves as the “lens” that workers quickly and effectively view information in context from the digital thread and/or digital twin.