The Potential of Digital Death

Abstract

As a key part of digital transformation, digital twin is an important concept for achieving smart manufacturing. However, there remains many challenges about the digital twin concept and how it can be implemented in real manufacturing systems, especially among small and medium-sized enterprises. Relevant standards that provide common terminology and implementation guidelines can help address these challenges. This paper discusses the concept, definitions, applications, and recent standardization efforts of digital twins. In particular, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/Draft International Standard (DIS) 23247, Digital Twin Framework for Manufacturing, is introduced. The scenarios of three digital-twin use cases in manufacturing are explored in depth and the procedures of implementing such use cases according to the ISO/DIS 23247 framework are presented. The designs of these use case scenarios can be implemented at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Smart Manufacturing Systems (SMS) Test Bed or on any manufacturing shop floor that has similar maturity level of digital transformation. In addition, the procedures of design and implementation of ISO/DIS 23247 can be used for developing additional applications of digital twins in manufacturing.