While there has been a recent growth of interest in the Digital Twin, a variety of definitions employed across industry and academia remain. There is a need to consolidate research such to maintain a common understanding of the topic and ensure future research efforts are to be based on solid foundations. Through a systematic literature review and a thematic analysis of 92 Digital Twin publications from the last ten years, this paper provides a characterisation of the Digital Twin, identification of gaps in knowledge, and required areas of future research. In characterising the Digital Twin, the state of the concept, key terminology, and associated processes are identified, discussed, and consolidated to produce 13 characteristics (Physical Entity/Twin; Virtual Entity/Twin; Physical Environment; Virtual Environment; State; Realisation; Metrology; Twinning; Twinning Rate; Physical-to-Virtual Connection/Twinning; Virtual-to-Physical Connection/Twinning; Physical Processes; and Virtual Processes) and a complete framework of the Digital Twin and its process of operation. Following this characterisation, seven knowledge gaps and topics for future research focus are identified: Perceived Benefits; Digital Twin across the Product Life-Cycle; Use-Cases; Technical Implementations; Levels of Fidelity; Data Ownership; and Integration between Virtual Entities; each of which are required to realise the Digital Twin.

https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/files/229965388/Characterising_The_Digital_Twin.pdf

Characterising the Digital Twin: A systematic literature review

Digital twins-based smart manufacturing system design in Industry 4.0: A review

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03218786/document

Digital twin paradigm: A systematic literature review

By representing the servitization of three leading corporations via a strategy map, this multiple-case study discusses how the strategic logic of servitization can be explained by linking the key practices adopted by manufacturers to support critical processes while shifting their focus to project-based customer solutions. The results draw on data collected from solution providers operating in the metal and machinery industries headquartered in Finland. By examining the strategic actions, tools, and processes behind the implementation of servitization, this study extends recent debates on the service-based business models of manufacturing companies. For servitization theory, this study develops a strategy map for a solution provider. For manufacturing firms, this study provides a framework and a tool for benchmarking, developing and implementing a strategy while mitigating the processes of long-term value creation and appropriation.

Strategy map of servitization

A fuzzy rule-based industry 4.0 maturity model for operations and supply chain management

An Industry 4.0 framework, showing every possible action towards the complete digitalization of a company both considering strategic and technological aspects, is proposed. The state of the art analysis and re-elaboration allows to coherently integrating many valuable but scattered and narrow contributions into a holistic view covering the following dimensions: value drivers, levers of action, processes and enabling technologies. Based on this framework the consequences of digitalization in shaping a new working environment are analyzed focusing on workforce impact, looking at the modification of both performed tasks and required competences as well as to more generic social consequences (job satisfaction, work-life balance, new forms of employment). To support the application of the proposed roadmap a Digitalization Maturity Model is developed to assess the state of a company journey towards Industry 4.0 considering the following dimensions: Strategy, Processes, Technologies, Products & Services and People.

Development of a Digitalization Maturity Model for the Manufacturing Sector

Digitalization has shown the potential to disrupt industrial value chains by supporting real-time, risk-free and inexpensive inputs to decision making towards enhanced companies’ productivity and value networks flexibility. Developing a reliable and robust digital replica of the physical systems of the value chain is one of the most advanced (and challenging) approaches to digitalization, condensed in the concept of Digital Twin (DT). DT plays a fundamental role in creating a data-rich environment where simulation and optimization procedures can be run. With DT expected to become a commodity in the coming years, simulation and optimization become therefore a more accessible instrument for the improvement of manufacturing and business processes also in small enterprises with limited investment capacity. While scientific literature has analysed the adoption of DT in the optimization of products lifecycle, no contributions have yet focused on the exploitation of DT to improve the sustainability performances of whole value chains. In this paper we propose a reference framework where DTs built upon process and system data gathered from the field, allow to quickly assess the sustainability performances of both existing and planned production mixes and to compare achievable impacts with changing processes and technologies, thus enabling advisory features for sustainability-aware decision making in structured, multi-entity value networks. Internal validation will be deployed referring to real case studies.

Exploiting the Digital Twin in the Assessment and Optimization of Sustainability Performances

CPS technologies are already mature at European level, but adoption in small & middle enterprises is constrained by a still emerging value chain and by the challenging transformation of manufacturing processes that their deployment in a manufacturing system requires. As a matter of fact, the CPS growing market potential is scarcely supported by tools able to sustain the solid ecosystem required for a relevant market uptake. This issue becomes even more constraining the moment the concept of CPS is extended and aggregated to propose cyber-physical machines and manufacturing systems, where the complexity of the controlling intelligence and of the digital counterpart explodes. This paper aims at describing how the design and implementation of a multi-sided platform (MSP) for CPS deployment within the automation sector can provide the technological background to incentivize their adoption. In fact, the market needs an economic support to accelerate the transition towards new paradigms for the development of the software components of a mechatronic system. Developing an infrastructure on the top of which the CPS value chain can be instantiated and orchestrated, we provide the technical means to incentivize the creation of such an ecosystem able to support SMEs in their transition towards Industry 4.0.

Design of a multi-sided platform supporting CPS deployment in the automation market

Even if the economy nowadays is still locked into a linear model of production, tighter environmental standards, resource scarcity and changing consumer expectations are forcing organizations to find alternatives to lighten their impacts. The concept of Circular Economy (CE) is to an increasing extent treated as a solution to this series of challenges. That said, the multitude of approaches and definitions around CE and Life Cycle Extension Strategies (LCES) makes it difficult to provide (Small and Medium Enterprise) SMEs with a consistent understanding of the topic. This paper aims at bridging this gap by providing a systematic literature review of the most prominent papers related to the CE and lifetime extension, with a particular focus on the equipment and machinery sector. A taxonomy was used to define and cluster a subset of selected papers to build a homogeneous approach for understanding the multiple strategies used in the industry, and the standards in maintenance and remanufacturing strategies. As a final research step, we also propose a Strategy Characterization Framework (SCF) to build the ground for the selection of the best strategy to be applied for production equipment life cycle extension on several industrial use cases.

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1117/pdf

Andrea Barni

Papers

Development of a Digitalization Maturity Model for the Manufacturing Sector

Exploiting the Digital Twin in the Assessment and Optimization of Sustainability Performances

Design of a multi-sided platform supporting CPS deployment in the automation market

Circular Economy Strategies for Equipment Lifetime Extension: A Systematic Review

Mini-factories for Close-to-customer Manufacturing of Customized Furniture: From Concept to Real Demo