Towards collaborative life cycle specification of digital twins in manufacturing value chains

Abstract

A digital twin is a digital representation of an unique product or product service system that is sufficient to meet the requirements of a set of use cases. Following this definition, the implementation of a digital twin must be derived from concrete use cases along the life cycle of a product. However, the involvement of a variety of different stakeholders and frequent changes of ownership in the value chain complicate the identification of use cases as well as the specification of the digital twin and its governance.This leads to a need for a systematic approach that enables various partners to implement the digital twins needed for their specific use cases. This paper presents a specification technique that combines aspects from Model-Based Systems Engineering with Product Lifecycle Management to support a collaborative front-end planning and specification of digital twins. It integrates the different views of various digital twin stakeholders (product manager, systems engineer, developer, data scientist etc.) in a collaborative model across the value chain. As part of the systematic approach, a digital twin specification grid that structures guidelines for the aspects of a digital twin (e.g. the data sources) across the product life cycle is provided. The presented approach also supports the derivation of a digital twin by integrating different use cases. This specification technique is the first step towards a holistic, Model-Based Digital Twin Design Framework.