Digital Twins – From Rocket Science to your Kitchen appliance
The concept of a Digital Twin goes back decades in aerospace. It was used by NASA for the Apollo missions and more recently for the Mars Curiosity Rover. Back down on Earth, Digital Twins have been used by automobile manufacturers for decades and has become a business method that has effected many products which benefit from being monitored through its life.
The idea of a Digital Twin has moved from rocket science to the everyday appliance on your kitchen counter. But what is it and why does it matter?
A Digital Twin is essentially a link between real world objects and the digital representation that describe that product’s design, manufacturing, usage and eventual decommissioning. While the term goes back decades, it is becoming mainstream lingo in construction technology circles due to the mass adoption of Building Information Modeling (BIM) and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT).
You may not have heard the term Digital Twin, but you have benefited from the concept in the products and environments you interact. Digital twins have improved the quality, performance, capabilities and longevity of the places we go and the things we use.
Digital Workplace – So much more than “paperless”
We all exist within a Digital Workplace – it is the technology we use to connect to the people with whom we work, and to the digital assets of the projects which bring us together. The concept of a Digital Workplace has been around since we began using email and Computer Aided Design (CAD).
You may think of your Digital Workplace as the many software and hardware tools used to replace manual or analog processes of the past. But a broader description of a Digital Workplace is the platform which delivers digital connectivity to the people and information, woven into the context you need to get your job done.
In the construction industry, digital connectivity is becoming like electricity or water. It is an essential part of how architects, engineers and owners operate their business and deliver the buildings we occupy. If there is poor digital connectivity then most everything a team does to design, construct and eventually operate a building can come to a halt.
Time invested in defining and implementing a Digital Workplace will improve internal and external engagement, operational efficiencies, project delivery and the owner’s expectations.
Digital Workplace + Digital Twins = Project Success
Teams which consider the importance of their Digital Workplace and take action to use proper tools and workflows are the same teams who interact in a collaborative work environment regardless of where they are located.
Teams which consider the importance of Digital Twins in the process of designing, building and monitoring their physical projects are the same teams who find success by reduced time chasing people and information. As our physical world becomes more connected to a digital world, many industries will see improved quality and predictability of their deliverables.
Digital Workplace solutions which encourage the use of Digital Twins allow construction teams to act more quickly and respond to changes. This leads to improved productivity, enhanced motivation, empowered collaboration, and ultimately, an outperforming company.
Digital twins have changed the manufacturing industry creating economy, quality and predictability.
Digital twins are about to change the way the construction industry manages building projects and infrastructure initiatives.
In construction projects, a Digital Twin is a combination of the 3D model, the 2D drawings and all the relevant non-graphical technical information, completely describing and mirroring a building digitally. Digital twins are synchronized with the physical building they represent — engineering specifications, construction errors, and actual measured performance data create a complete digital representation to support the lifecycle of the building.
When the Digital Twin is accessible to all hardware platforms, physical locations and adapts to the users means and methods of communicating, the result is a building project that is better designed, engineered, constructed and operated.
The Digital Platform improves the physical environment
Adopting digital tools for design & engineering is only half the battle. Organizations much consider connecting the people to this new treasure trove of information. There must be a foundation for easy access, communication, collaboration, sharing and security.
Digital Workplaces combined with the Digital Twin enable rich communications and information access throughout a building’s entire lifecycle. Starting from the initial design, into procurement, construction, usage all the way through to demolition – the weeks, months, years or decades long method of implementing Digital Workplaces around a Digital Twin will pay off many times over for the entire extended project team:
Architects and building engineers who model their projects rich with data allow planners to simulate future facility operations long before the first truck rolls to the jobsite.
A Digital Twin available to an extended team lets planners run energy, circulation or evacuation scenarios to ensure regulations are met prior to actual construction.
During construction, scans posted to the Digital Workplace are used as a source of feedback for comparing the built condition to the planned condition.
Later in a building’s life, the Digital Twin is used to analyze building performance, comfort and actual occupancy & load situations.
By connecting data used across an organization – such as facilities, energy, security, leasing, maintenance — building operations become centralized, simplified and efficient.
While a physical office holds company, team, product & project information securely – a Digital Workplace must also carry the trust and confidence of the team.
Industrial teams seeking to benefit from a Digital Workplace that delivers a Digital Twin combined with the benefits of team collaboration should consider a platform that offers:
Collaboration: To solve the myriad of business problems across a construction project, teams need the ability to connect to each other and to the digital assets that empower them to make decisions. Work occurs across distributed team with people onsite, in job trailers and corner offices. Individuals need online, seamless, integrated and intuitive collaboration tools that enhance their productivity and leads towards clarity between internal staff, key contacts at trade partners and subcontractors.
Communications: The flow of information required to do any job, including construction continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. Access to information and people is mission critical. To ensure the right information reaches the right internal and external people with the right levels of access and permission, the team need tools that support push notifications and two-way communication across SMS, email, video and more on browser-based sites and mobile applications.
Connections: No man is an island and self-sufficiency never guaranteed effectiveness in construction. A contractor’s staff and supporting teams need tools that allow them to connect across their organizations, leverage knowledge from a wide range of sources and encourages insights to be gained from one another. The Digital Workplace delivering a Digital Twin does so by connecting people and their plans with multiple information sources through a wide range of modern protocols and open formats.
Conclusion
The current wave of technology adoption promises to lift the level of quality, safety and predictability in construction. Teams are making changes, choosing solutions that drive collaboration & connections in the context of their wide range of digital tasks.
The impact and importance of an easy to use and empowering Digital Workplace for a construction team which delivers a complete Digital Twin for buildings, infrastructure and industrial projects cannot be overstated.
Where are you and your company on the path towards creating a Digital Workplace that delivers a Digital Twin? Let me know how I can help.