Production digital twin: a systematic literature review of challenges

Abstract

ABSTRACT The manufacturing industry is entering the fourth industrial revolution, which aims to shift the manufacturing paradigm to data-driven smart manufacturing. Many barriers still limit the adoption of this new revolution, although enabling technologies such as a digital twin (DT) have the potential to overcome them. Since the appearance of the digital twin technology, this has led to a significant increase in academic publications and industrial applications. However, significant challenges facing the implementation of this technology stem from the emergent field stage, a need for more comprehensive information, and a need for clarity and consistency in definitions and concepts. This review identifies and categorizes the potential digital twin challenges and provides a novel conceptual framework that structures them and links them to the principal digital twin components, along with an example that elucidates the proposed framework’s utilization. The emerging relationships unveil interesting insights into the current status and future research requirements.