Sustainable Manufacturing Digital Twins: A Review of Development and Application

Abstract

Sustainable manufacturing as a concept as well as the practices that are deployed are well established in the literature. Tools that guide the development of manufacturing to have less environmental impact are being deployed and documented. The power of digital technology to enable manufacturing systems to be more productive is well established and advances continue to be made. What is less well known is how digital technology can support the pursuit of sustainable manufacturing, especially using digital models, shadows and twins. Here a digital simulation model is configured to analyse, replicate and drive the real production respectively to improve resource productivity in the widest sense. This paper considers the literature and practice of such digital tools in manufacturing operations as well as across the lifecycle. Literature considered is mostly from 2018 onwards as this is the point at which digital twin empirical work emerges. Whilst the work on digital twins is advancing fast, the work on sustainable manufacturing is limited to energy and, to some extent, resource efficiency. Further when compared to documented practice, the academic field appears to be lagging depending on how the loose definition of digital twins in practice is interpreted. The paper concludes with potential avenues for further research on digital models, shadows and twins in the pursuit of sustainable manufacturing.