Digital Twin – A Tool for Project Management in Manufacturing

Abstract

The Digital Twin concept has the potential to be a useful tool in project management and in Lean manufacturing. The common goal of risk management by project managers and mitigating unpredictable behavior using the Digital Twin can improve the development of manufacturing systems. Digital Twins would also aid project managers in managing resources and communication between stakeholders. The researcher is working with a manufacturing SME in the engineering sector in the application of digitalisation tools to optimize production operations. A Digital Twin is being developed, and this will be used to investigate aspects of risk and resource management as well as the benefits of communication using visualization. Are there aspects of process development that can now be measured using Digital Twins that we were not capable of previously? The Digital Twin as a central point of reference for information about a manufacturing process and its associated equipment could add efficiencies to maintenance and process improvements over the lifecycle of a system.