As a special, interactive representation of possible or real physical structures and procedure, digital twins allow businesses to plan, imagine, track, control, and preserve their properties more effectively. Driven by the architecture, logistics, automotive, and energy sectors, these simulated replicas help to unlock new service-based business models built on perceptive lessons from operational results.
What is a digital twin?
A digital twin is an electronic replica of a real object, process, or service. A digital twin is a digital reproduction of a real thing, such as a jet engine or wind farms, or even larger entities, such as skyscrapers or entire towns. Processes may be replicated using digital twin technology to forecast how they will function.
Digital Twin-Â control physical and virtual environments:Â
Fueled by parallel developments in the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and augmented reality technology, the recent introduction of digital twins heralds a turning point-where physical and virtual environments can be controlled as one. Staff may simply connect and evaluate digital counterparts of artifacts and processes exactly as they do with actual objects and processes themselves.
Ability to dramatically transform logistics operations.
At the introductory Internet of Things (IoT) Day, DHL’s Innovation Center in Germany published a recent Trend Study on “Digital Twins in Logistics.” The study discusses the definition and growth of digital twins and how they generate meaning. Technology incorporating the use of visual models to help interpret and handle physical properties is now well known in some sectors and has the ability to dramatically transform logistics operations.
A special, interactive version of a real thing
A digital twin is a special, interactive version of a real thing that tracks and simulates the physical state and actions of the thing. The digital copy is constantly connected to the physical object(s) and updates itself. To represent developments in the modern world. Applied to goods, machines, and even whole market environments, digital twins will expose past insights, refine the current, and even forecast future results.
Digital twins- provide the unprecedented capacity to map, control, and diagnose properties.
“The digital twin market is expected to grow by more than 38 percent each year, passing the $26 billion mark by 2025,” states Matthias Heutger, Senior Vice President, Global Head of Innovation & Commercial Growth at DHL. “Digital twins provide the unprecedented capacity to map, control, and diagnose properties.
They will transform conventional supply chains, with a variety of solutions to promote data-driven decision-making and collaboration, simplified business processes, And new business models, too. We remain committed to partnering with our clients and collaborators to collectively explore applications in our industry.”
Logistics systems for digital twins:
Digital twins could be used in a range of applications across the whole supply chain, including the control of container fleets, the tracking of shipments, or the construction of logistics networks. For example, IoT sensors on individual containers indicate their location and check for harm or pollution. This data flows through the digital twin of the container network, which uses deep learning to ensure that containers are distributed as quickly as possible.
Digital twins can be used not only for individual properties, but also for whole networks and environments such as warehouses, integrating a 3D facility model with inventory and organizational details. The device would be able to provide an analysis of the condition of the machines and the supply of goods and would be able to make forecasts and autonomous choices about stock or deliveries. The same refers to big logistics centers or global logistics networks.
 Digital twins- becoming a more enticing and open business choice:
Markus Kückelhaus, Vice President, Innovation and Pattern Analysis, DHL Consumer Solutions & Innovation, adds: “IoT drove, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and innovative visualization software, Digital twins are becoming a more enticing and open business choice. However, putting these and other related technologies together for complete digital twin deployment is a dynamic and demanding mission. Close coordination between all parties in the value chain is therefore necessary in order to completely capture the opportunity.”
Digital twins- useful in handling complex asset systems in real-time
In the Trend Study, DHL discusses barriers to deployment, such as data protection problems, but points out that business case for digital implementation are becoming increasingly convincing. When similar technologies become more efficient and inexpensive, organizations in a variety of sectors can find digital twins useful in handling complex asset systems in real-time and increasing the performance of their operations.
The study ends by considering the investments and improvements required for the effective introduction of digital twins in the logistics industry.
The Trend Report: “Digital Twins in Logistics-A DHL perspective on the impact of digital twins on logistics” is free to download http://logistics.dhl/digitaltwins
