Digital twin implementation for performance improvement in process industries- A case study of food processing company

Abstract

In recent years, the emerging Digital Twin (DT) paradigm under Industry 4.0 has been attracting more attention from both practitioners and academia due to its dynamic capabilities. Most DT studies are theoretical and deal with hypothetical analysis, whereas fewer studies are available on real-life empirical cases. Due to dynamic problem-solving capabilities, DT technologies are widely used in performance improvement analysis in food processing companies (FPC) despite limited implication’s for business strategies. Our study incorporates the DT technologies with an implementation case study on FPC and accomplishes the real-life problem of the food processing company (FPC). Moreover, the proposed DT research framework demonstrates the various DT implementation stages, such as strategic mapping and physical-virtual space replica, with rigorous analysis. The results show that DT enhances the existing system’s machine availability, allocation efficiency, technical efficiency, worker efficiency, utilization rate, effectiveness, step ratio, and throughput rate. The proposed physical-virtual interface model is executed using AnyLogic software with JAVA-enabled programming.