Digital Twins as an International Competitive Factor
China has been investing heavily in the high-tech industry for years, rapidly expanding its technical dominance. Announced sovereign wealth funds for robotics, AI, and cutting-edge innovations could now accelerate this pace even further. Europe feels compelled to act, because once it falls behind, it will be very difficult to catch up again.
Production of The Future: Dark Factory
One example of this development is the so-called dark factories. These factories are no longer just a vision of the future; in China, they are increasingly common, particularly in the automotive industry. These fully automated factories operate around the clock, without light and without human intervention. Western industry leaders who visited these factories in Beijing were alarmed. Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, warns in the British newspaper The Telegraph: “If we lose this competition, Ford has no future.” This is because the cars produced there are not only cheaper, but also technically superior, as Christian Kahle from WinFuture writes in his article. The new benchmark that China wants to set is therefore clear: radical automation and short development cycles.
Staying Competitive with Digital Twins
What can European manufacturers do now to keep up with this rapid development? Autonomous factories require complete digital product data – it is the foundation for simulations, virtual commissioning, and Digital Twins in production.
A Digital Twin is the virtual representation of a physical product, a machine, or an entire plant. In addition to pure geometry data, intelligent supplementary information is necessary to turn a 3D model into a fully functional digital counterpart.
Types of Digital Twins
Depending on the level of detail, Digital Twins can be categorized into different types.
- Component twins: the basic building block of a Digital Twin
- Asset twins: when several components interact, asset twins are created. They provide performance data for analysis and optimization.
- System or unit twins: map entire systems, highlight interactions, and reveal potential for improvement
Those who provide high-quality digital design data, thereby creating the basis for component twins, will be favored in global supply chains. Without this data, manufacturers cannot integrate with smart factories, as robots, CNC machines, and autonomous transport systems require high-quality CAD models containing information on materials, tolerances, kinematics, and more to execute manufacturing processes without manual intervention.
Advantages of Digital Product Data
- Digital engineering data enables automatic and error-free data exchange between design, manufacturing, quality assurance, and logistics.
- Autonomous systems can only work accurately if the data is complete and correct.
- Scalability and increased production speed can only be achieved if all product information is available digitally.
Act Now and Provide Digital Product Data
Digital Twins are the future of products and processes, creating a common data foundation for development, manufacturing, operation, and maintenance. For manufacturers who want to be globally competitive, providing high-quality digital product data is crucial.
Act now: Make your products available as Digital Twins – we'll help you make it happen!
Digital Twins – your competitive advantage
Whether in the automotive, construction, or mechanical engineering industries, we support manufacturers in preparing their products as Digital Twins and making them available in all relevant formats. Concrete use cases and references from leading companies show how this works in practice.
