Operation Procedures of a Work-Center-Level Digital Twin for Sustainable and Smart Manufacturing

Abstract

A process and systematic efficiency enhancement in sustainable manufacturing can enhance energy and production operations as well as the energy-related indicators. Simulations are frequently used to increase this type of efficiency through diagnosis and evaluation of a physical asset. In particular, digital twin (DT) is currently attracting considerable attention as it provides technical functionality at the type and instance stages of a work center. In addition, DT can support efficient control and decision making with less gap in the site through vertical integration and horizontal coordination. Moreover, DT can contribute to prevent energy-related inefficiency by providing the functionalities required for the service composition of the technical functionalities that are defined for the enhancement of process and systematic efficiency. However, in terms of the provision of service-composition-based technical functionality of DT, no research has defined each step of the operation procedures of work-center-level DT application at a detailed level. This study proposes detailed operation procedures to create, synchronize, and utilize a work-center-level DT to provide appropriate service-composition-based technical functionality. To this end, the technical requirements were derived from the analysis of the service-composition-based technical functionality. This study systematically defined the various service-composition-based technical functionalities through a combination of various types of operation procedures. Each type is defined for three steps, namely creation, synchronization, and utilization. In addition, a case study was conducted to clarify DT and provide a suitable definition for the requirements.