Digital twins in aircraft production and MRO: challenges and opportunities

The digital twin (DT) concept, value-adding connecting the real and digital world, has been a rising trend in recent years, while the implementation and observation of challenges are still subject to research. Implementations of holistic Digital Twins of tangible and intangible assets of complex pro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:CEAS aeronautical journal 2024, Vol.15 (4), p.1051-1067
Main Authors: Moenck, Keno, Rath, Jan-Erik, Koch, Julian, Wendt, Arne, Kalscheuer, Florian, Schüppstuhl, Thorsten, Schoepflin, Daniel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerospace Technology and Astronautics
Aircraft
Aircraft production
Digital twins
Engineering
Maintenance management
Organizational aspects
Original Paper
Quality assurance
Retrofitting
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Summary:The digital twin (DT) concept, value-adding connecting the real and digital world, has been a rising trend in recent years, while the implementation and observation of challenges are still subject to research. Implementations of holistic Digital Twins of tangible and intangible assets of complex products or processes are often ideal-theoretic; instead, only subsystems and processes are replicated, which digital representations serve specific, meaningful applications. Specifically, with its distinct characteristics, the aviation industry and its production show various future application scenarios, which we use case-driven outline in this work. Therefore, we first summarize common, industry-neutral challenges of implementing Digital Twins and give an overview of aircraft production characteristics. Then, we will outline different fields of utilizing the Digital Twin concept and highlight integrational, organizational, and compliance-related challenges as well as opportunities in the context of aircraft production and Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO). The use cases are located at different aircraft life cycle phases, from production system development, production supplying logistics, and Quality Assurance (QA) up to retrofit.
ISSN:1869-5582
1869-5590
DOI:10.1007/s13272-024-00740-y