A Methodology to Develop and Implement Digital Twin Solutions for Manufacturing Systems

• Published in: IEEE access 2021, Vol.9, p.44247-44265
• Main Authors: Qamsane, Yassine, Moyne, James, Toothman, Maxwell, Kovalenko, Ilya, Balta, Efe C., Faris, John, Tilbury, Dawn M., Barton, Kira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Decision making; Digital twin; Digital twins; Extensibility; industry 4.0; Interoperability; lifecycle management; Manufacturing; Manufacturing systems; Methodology; modeling; New technology; Object oriented modeling; smart manufacturing; Systematics; Testing
• ISSN: 2169-3536; 2169-3536
• DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2021.3065971

Digital Twin (DT) is an emerging technology that has recently been cited as an underpinning element of the digital transformation. DTs are commonly defined as digital replicas of components, systems, products, and services that receive data from the field to support intelligent decision-making. Although several frameworks for DT application in manufacturing have been proposed, there is no systematic methodology in the literature that supports the development of scalable, reusable, interoperable, interchangeable, and extensible DT solutions, while taking into account specific manufacturing environment needs and conditions. This paper introduces a DT solution development methodology as a generic procedure for analyzing and developing DTs for manufacturing systems. The methodology is based on the well-known System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process and takes into consideration: (1) the specificity of DT characteristics and requirements, (2) an understanding of the manufacturing context in which the DTs will operate, and (3) the object-oriented aspects required to achieve DT capabilities of scalability, reusability, interoperability, interchangeability, and extensibility. A case study illustrates the advantages of the proposed methodology in supporting manufacturing DT solutions.