What is a Digital Product Twin?

What is a digital product twin?

Digital product twins are digital representations of real products that represent the condition, properties and behavior of their physical counterparts. They collect data throughout the entire life cycle of a product – from development and production to use, maintenance and disposal – and make it possible to analyze, simulate and optimize products holistically. The real added value of digital product twins results from the intelligent linking of product data originating from the digital master (e.g. CAD models, parts lists and simulations) with operating, status and process data stored in the digital shadow. This makes it possible, for example, to make more precise predictions about optimal maintenance cycles or to identify potential improvements for future product generations (feedback to design).

We offer comprehensive support in developing and implementing product twins – from strategy to practical implementation. Together, we define a customized product twin strategy and develop an individual target picture that is perfectly aligned with your requirements. With specific use cases, practical demonstrations, and an optimization of your process and system landscape, we ensure that your digital twins deliver maximum added value. Our modular online program »Mastering Digital Twins« and targeted training courses support the development of expertise and networks in your company so that you can benefit from the technology's potential in the long term.

How can digital product twins be used throughout the life cycle?

Digital product twins offer a wide range of possible applications that cover a product's entire life cycle – from development and production to use and maintenance, as well as at the end of life. They enable data to be used in a targeted way to continuously improve products and make them more efficient.

Digital product twins enable detailed analyses and simulations to be carried out as early as the development phase, allowing design errors to be identified at an early stage, various scenarios to be tested and the product to be made more efficient overall. This makes it possible to find optimal design solutions, avoid errors and significantly reduce development times – even before the product is physically implemented. Findings from production, such as quality defects and assembly problems, as well as information from the usage and end-of-life phases, such as wear and reusability of individual components, are directly reintegrated into development. This feedback helps to not only to manufacture future product generations more efficiently, but also to make them more durable and sustainable. At the same time, insights into how to improve product quality can be gained by evaluating data from production, such as temperatures and manufacturing tolerances. In addition, digital product twins can help to analyze and improve manufacturing processes, for example in terms of their ecological footprint or energy efficiency.

Digital product twins provide valuable support during the usage and maintenance phase by continuously monitoring the current state of a product. By analyzing sensor data, they can detect early signs of wear or malfunction, enabling predictive maintenance and reducing unplanned downtime. In addition, the data obtained helps to target repairs and identify the causes of defects more quickly. During the usage phase, digital product twins also provide important insights into how a product is actually used, which contributes to continuously improving product design and services.

Digital product twins also provide valuable information at the end of a product's life. Data on wear and tear, material composition and disassembly not only support the planning of take-back, recycling or reuse processes, but also informed decisions on their implementation and optimization. This allows resources to be used more efficiently and the ecological footprint to be minimized. In addition, insights from the end-of-life phase can be fed back into the design and development phase. Information on material wear or disassembly processes helps to make future products more sustainable and more recyclable.

What are the advantages of digital product twins?

Digital product twins enable companies to capture and evaluate product data throughout the entire life cycle. The continuous feedback of information from development, production, use, maintenance and end of life provides valuable insights that lead to better decisions and optimized processes. This data can be used in a targeted manner to develop smart services and create the basis for new business models. The most important advantages at a glance:

Efficiency improvements

Evaluating product data enables better coordination of design, production and use, which in turn makes processes more efficient.

Customer retention

Digital product twins enable a personalized and optimized user experience. Customers can benefit from improved services, which leads to higher customer satisfaction.

Sustainability transparency

Digital product twins can be used to analyze the environmental impacts of a product over its entire life cycle and make them transparent.

Product quality

Feedback from production, use and end of life makes it possible to identify design and manufacturing weaknesses and to continuously improve product quality.

Utilization efficiency

With digital product twins, companies can optimize the behavior of their products in use, increase efficiency of use, and reduce resource consumption (e.g. energy or materials) during operation.

Data exchange

Digital product twins enable data to be exchanged across companies. In the industrial metaverse, physical and digital worlds merge, opening up new possibilities for collaboration, simulation and process optimization.

How can we help you?

We support you step by step in developing and implementing digital product twins throughout their entire life cycle. With user-centered methods and practice-oriented approaches, we ensure that you can exploit the full potential of digital product twins.

Strategy and target development

We support you in defining your individual strategy for digital product twins and work with you to develop the target vision for modeling your digital twin concept.

Use case development and situation analysis

We work with you to identify specific application possibilities for digital product twins along the life cycle and analyze the initial situation, the current status of your data-driven value creation, and the necessary prerequisites for successful implementation.

Demonstrator development

We work with you to develop user-centered demonstrators for digital twins as a proof of concept to visualize the added value for users and management.

Conceptual design of the implementation environment

We support you in setting up the necessary structures for implementing product twins – both in terms of the process and system landscape and at the level of data, models and artifacts.

Network and competence development

We impart in-depth knowledge, for example through our modular online program »Mastering Digital Twins« and promote the targeted development of expertise and networks in your company to ensure the long-term success of your product twins.

Our offer

Solution

Digital Twins for the circular economy

Closing information and material loops to promote recycling management

Designing products that take into account all phases of their life cycle

Reducing waste and returning products to the cycle after their useful life

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Solution

Sustainability with the help of digital twins

Responsibility of product developers to design products optimally across all life cycle phases
Thinking ahead of the life cycle phases as part of product life cycle management
Collecting and evaluating a wide range of information to determine the actual sustainability of a product or system

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Certificate course / online program

Mastering Digital Twins

Are you looking for new ways to drive the digital transformation of your company? »Mastering Digital Twins« is designed as an online learning program and is suitable for various specialists, depending on their training needs. It is held in English.

Mastering Digital Twins

Digital Product Twins