The Digital Replica - Digital Twins

Digital twins trigger process and business innovation across industries by creating a virtual double of machines and assets, think of it like the body double for stunts in movies only more complex

- Nidhi Singal

First introduced during NASA's Apollo missions in the 1970s, the concept of digital twins has come a long way in the past five decades. But what truly put it in the spotlight in recent times was the pandemic. Take the case of contract manufacturer Flex. When a leading global medical equipment company shortlisted Flex to manufacture its Class II diabetes product in the first quarter of 2020, it had a challenge on its hands. The US-headquartered company had to accelerate and optimize the development of the product in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic while ensuring quality and reliability as any mistakes in the design or manufacturing process could put patients at risk. To optimize the manufacturing of this product, it created a digital twin of the factory floor. With the virtual representation of the complex production system, Flex tested how it would perform under various scenarios and gained insights into optimization tactics. Without simulation, this testing process would have taken at least three months longer. But our DES [discrete event simulation] tool allowed us to complete our optimization analysis in only three weeks, enabling our customer to get the product to market faster. This saved our customer time and money, says Paul Baldassari, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations at Flex. Plus, there were other efficiency gains-a 70 per cent increase in station output by optimizing work order sizes, 47 per cent more units produced per quarter, and a 15-21 per cent higher value-added process utilization.