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WHAT IS A DIGITAL TWIN? – DEFINITIONS AND INSIGHTS FROM AN INDUSTRIAL CASE STUDY IN TECHNICAL PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Part of: Design Organisation and Management

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2020

J. Trauer ,
S. Schweigert-Recksiek ,
C. Engel ,
K. Spreitzer  and
M. Zimmermann
J. Trauer*
Affiliation:
Technical University of Munich, Germany
S. Schweigert-Recksiek
Affiliation:
Technical University of Munich, Germany
C. Engel
Affiliation:
Viessmann Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
K. Spreitzer
Affiliation:
Viessmann Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
M. Zimmermann
Affiliation:
Technical University of Munich, Germany
*
*[email protected]

Abstract

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Over the last two decades, a concept called Digital Twin has evolved rapidly. Yet, there is no unified definition of the term. Based on a literature study and an industrial case study, an overarching definition of Digital twins is presented. Three characteristics were identified – representation of a physical system, bidirectional data exchange, and the connection along the entire lifecycle. Further, three sub-concepts are presented, namely: Engineering Twin, Production Twin, and Operation Twin. The presented paper thus formulates a consistent and detailed definition of Digital Twins.

Keywords

digital twinproduct developmentvirtual engineering (VE)product lifecycle management (PLM)industry 4.0
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: DESIGN Conference , Volume 1 , May 2020 , pp. 757 - 766
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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