Digital Twins Enhance Product-Service Lifecycle Competitiveness and Sustainability

Why It Matters

This research highlights how digital twins are not just design tools but strategic assets that can drive value across the entire product-service lifecycle. By providing a dynamic, data-rich representation of a product, digital twins enable better decision-making, optimize resource utilization, and facilitate innovative business models focused on longevity and reuse.

Key Finding

Digital twins offer significant advantages for manufacturing companies by improving competitiveness and sustainability across all stages of a product's life, from initial design to its eventual reuse or disposal.

Key Findings

• Digital twin-based lifecycle solutions contribute to competitiveness and sustainable value from design through usage optimization and renewal.
• Digital twins encourage companies to assess the value of data-based business and solutions throughout the entire product lifecycle, including end-of-life phases.
• An updated product-service lifecycle management framework can be inspired by the integration of digital twins.

Research Evidence

Aim: How can digital twins be leveraged to enhance competitiveness and sustainability within the product-service lifecycle of manufacturing businesses?

Method: Qualitative research using semi-structured interviews.

Procedure: Manufacturing industry professionals were interviewed to explore the potential of data-based business and digital twin-enabled solutions across product-service lifecycles.

Context: Manufacturing industry, product-service lifecycles.

Design Principle

Leverage digital twin technology to create a holistic, data-driven approach to product-service lifecycle management, fostering continuous improvement and sustainable practices.

How to Apply

When designing a new product or service, create a digital twin that evolves with the product, capturing data from manufacturing, usage, maintenance, and end-of-life scenarios to inform future iterations and business strategies.

Limitations

The study focuses on the potential and conceptual framework; concrete implementation challenges and detailed quantitative impacts require further investigation.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: Using a digital copy of a product (a digital twin) throughout its whole life, from making it to throwing it away, can help companies make more money and be better for the environment.

Why This Matters: This research shows how advanced digital tools like digital twins can be used to solve real-world problems related to business success and environmental responsibility in design and manufacturing.

Critical Thinking: To what extent can the benefits of digital twins be realized without significant investment in data infrastructure and expertise?

IA-Ready Paragraph: The integration of digital twins into product-service lifecycles presents a significant opportunity for enhancing both business competitiveness and sustainability in manufacturing. As explored by Timperi, Kokkonen, and Hannola (2023), digital twins can provide valuable data and insights from initial design through to end-of-life, enabling optimized usage, informed renewal strategies, and the development of novel data-based business models.

Project Tips

• Consider how a digital twin could represent your design project throughout its lifecycle.
• Think about what data a digital twin would need and how it could be used to improve the design or its impact.

How to Use in IA

• Reference this study when discussing the use of digital models or simulations to analyze product lifecycles, sustainability, or business competitiveness in your design project.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding of how digital representations can extend beyond static CAD models to dynamic, data-driven lifecycle management tools.

Independent Variable: Implementation of digital twins throughout the product-service lifecycle.

Dependent Variable: Competitiveness and sustainability of manufacturing businesses.

Controlled Variables: ["Industry sector (manufacturing)","Product-service lifecycle stages"]

Strengths

• Addresses a contemporary and relevant topic in manufacturing and digital technologies.
• Proposes a practical framework for businesses to adopt.

Critical Questions

• What are the specific data requirements for effective digital twins across different product types?
• How can the 'sustainability' aspect of digital twins be quantitatively measured and verified?

Extended Essay Application

• An Extended Essay could investigate the feasibility of developing a simplified digital twin for a specific product category to track its environmental impact over its lifecycle.

Source

Digital twins in product-service lifecycles: a framework proposal for enhancing competitiveness and sustainability in manufacturing business · International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing · 2023 · 10.1080/0951192x.2023.2264814