A Critical Overview of Digital Twins

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-61
Author(s):  
Princess Adjei ◽  
Reza Montasari
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Critical Perspective ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Critical Overview

In recent years, organisations have invested heavily in the digitisation of their processes to maximise productivity. A digital twin is one of the most recent emerging technologies that is to disrupt business models and to leverage competitive advantage; applications can be found in many industries including, but not limited to healthcare, manufacturing and supply chains, and engineering. This article provides a critical perspective to the benefits of digital twins, their applications as well as the challenges encountered following their use. Cybersecurity risks as one of these key challenges will be further discussed within the article.

E-Procurement Systems as Tools for the Development of Supply Chains

2012 ◽  
pp. 1703-1723
Author(s):  
Cuauhtémoc Sánchez-Ramírez ◽  
Giner Alor-Hernandez ◽  
Guillermo Cortes-Robles ◽  
Jorge Luis García-Alcaráz ◽  
Alejandro Rodríguez-González
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chain Management ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Customer Requirements ◽  
Chain Management ◽  
Customer Services ◽  
Procurement System

The Supply Chain Management is a strategy that has allowed the organizations that have established in their business models a competitive advantage. The supply chain is a network of elements, where different key process such as: procurement, manufacturing, distribution, inventory, customer services, and information should be managed and controlled to meet customer requirements. To achieve this goal, different tools have been developed to help to the key processes of the supply chain; one of these tools is the e-procurement system, which helps an organization to control the interactions with the most crucial suppliers.

E-procurement Systems as Tools for the Development of Supply Chains

2013 ◽  
pp. 239-260
Author(s):  
Cuauhtémoc Sánchez-Ramírez ◽  
Giner Alor-Hernandez ◽  
Guillermo Cortes-Robles ◽  
Jorge Luis García-Alcaráz ◽  
Alejandro Rodríguez-González
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chain Management ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Customer Requirements ◽  
Chain Management ◽  
Customer Services ◽  
Procurement System

The Supply Chain Management is a strategy that has allowed the organizations that have established in their business models a competitive advantage. The supply chain is a network of elements, where different key process such as: procurement, manufacturing, distribution, inventory, customer services, and information should be managed and controlled to meet customer requirements. To achieve this goal, different tools have been developed to help to the key processes of the supply chain; one of these tools is the e-procurement system, which helps an organization to control the interactions with the most crucial suppliers.

scholarly journals Digital Twins for the Circular Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10467
Author(s):  
Anna Preut ◽  
Jan-Philip Kopka ◽  
Uwe Clausen
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Stakeholder Analysis ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
The Right

Accurate information plays an important role for the circulation of materials and products. It influences the economically and ecologically successful execution of processes such as reconditioning and the corresponding supply chain management. Digitization concepts, such as digital twins, enable the relevant information to be made available to the right actor at the right time in a decentralized manner. It is assumed that digital twins will play an important role in the future and can contribute, among other things, to the successful implementation of circular economy strategies. However, there is no uniform definition of the term digital twin yet and the exploration and use of digital twins in the context of circular economy products and supply chains is still in its infancy. This article presents potential contributions of digital twins to the circularity of products and the management of circular supply chains. To this end, the derivation and validation of a definition for the term digital twin is described. A stakeholder analysis with a special focus on the processes of the individual stakeholders results in an overview of potentials and information requirements of circular supply chains for a digital twin. The paper concludes that circular supply chains can benefit from digital twins, but that there is still a need for research and development, particularly regarding product and use case-specific implementations of the concept.

scholarly journals Concept for a Supply Chain Digital Twin

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 1498-1515 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey Yevgenievich Barykin ◽  
Andrey Aleksandrovich Bochkarev ◽  
Olga Vladimirovna Kalinina ◽  
Vladimir Konstantinovich Yadykin
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Distribution Centers ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Operational Risks ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
The Impact

There is currently a discussion going on in the scientific community about using digital twins and modeling to manage risks in the supply chains. This need for constructing digital twins is caused by the low reliability and stability of supply chains due to the faults in their operation. These faults are a result of risks in the supply chains which can be consolidated into two types. The first type is operational risks. These are the current risks of the supply chain itself caused by an uncer-tainty of supply and demand as well as by an obstructed flow of information along the supply chain. The second type is critical risks caused by force majeure. These risks disrupt the normal operation of the supply chain and critically reduce the most important performance indicators of the company such as annual income and profits. Risks happen due to natural or man-made causes such as fires and floods in the distribution centers or at production facilities, legal disputes with sup-pliers, strikes, terrorist attacks on logistics facilities and others. Dynamic simulation and analytical optimization are two dominant technologies for managing risks of the supply chains, which helps to increase their reliability and stability if failures occur. Through optimizing and simulating of the supply chains, companies can generate new information about the impact of failure and influence the supply chain and its performance by looking at various scenarios that simulate the locations of failures, the duration and recovery policies. An analysis of the literary sources shows that there is no single approach to build the concept for a supply chain digital twin. This article gives an overview of the literature according to this problem and offers the author's point of view on the concept for a supply chain digital twin.

scholarly journals Digital twins are coming: Will we need them in supply chains of fresh horticultural produce?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thijs Defraeye ◽  
Chandrima Shrivastava ◽  
Tarl Berry ◽  
Pieter Verboven ◽  
Daniel Onwude ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
Food Quality ◽  
Fresh Produce ◽  
Marketing Strategies ◽  
Quality Loss ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Physiological Processes ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Gas Atmosphere ◽  
Postharvest Life

Background. Digital twins have advanced fast in various industries, but are just emerging in postharvest supply chains. A digital twin is a virtual representation of fresh horticultural produce. This twin is linked to the real-world product by sensors supplying data of the environmental conditions near the target fruit or vegetable. Statistical and data-driven twins quantify how fresh-produce quality loss occurs by grasping patterns in the data. Physics-based twins provide an augmented insight into the underlying physical, biochemical, microbiological and physiological processes, enabling to explain also why this quality loss occurs.Scope and Approach. We identify what the key advantages are of digital twins and how the fresh-produce supply chain can benefit from them in the future. Key Findings and Conclusions. A digital twin has a huge potential to help horticultural produce to tell its history as it drifts along throughout its postharvest life. The reason is that each shipment is subject to a unique and unpredictable set of temperature and gas atmosphere conditions from farm to consumer. Digital twins help to identify the resulting, largely uncharted, postharvest evolution of food quality. The benefit of digital twins particularly comes forward for perishable species and at low airflow rates. Digital twins provide actionable data for exporters, retailers, and consumers, such as the remaining shelf life for each shipment, on which logistics decisions and marketing strategies can be based. The twins also help diagnose and predict potential problems in supply chains that will reduce food quality and induce food loss. Twins can even suggest preventive shipment-tailored measures to reduce retail and household food losses.

scholarly journals Towards next generation cyber-physical systems and digital twins for construction

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 505-525
Author(s):  
Abiola A. Akanmu ◽  
Chimay J. Anumba ◽  
Omobolanle O. Ogunseiju
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Cyber Physical Systems ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Virtual Design ◽  
Sensors And Actuators ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Digital Twins

The construction industry continues to seek innovative ways to safely, timely and cost-effectively deliver construction projects. Several efforts have been made to automate construction processes but marginial success has been achieved in effectively reducing the long standing risks suffered by the industry. While industry 4.0 promises to improve project efficiency, reduce waste and improve productivity, the transition to this will depend on the successful adoption of many emerging technologies such as virtual design modeling technologies, sensing technologies, data analysis, storage and communication technologies, human-computer interaction technologies, and robotics. To accelerate innovation, digital twins and cyber-physical systems will be a necessity to advance automation and real-time control with these technologies. While digital twin represents a digital replica of the asplanned and as-built facility, cyber physical systems involve integration of physical systems with their digital replica through sensors and actuators. Despite evidence of the efficacy of cyber-physical systems and digital twins for reducing non-fatal injuries, enhancing safety management, improving progress monitoring and enhancing performance monitoring and control of facilities, their adoption in the construction industry is still in its infancy. This paper sheds light on the opportunities offered by cyber-physical systems and digital twins in other industry sectors and advocates for their increased deployment in the construction industry. This paper describes cyber-physical integration of emerging technologies with the physical construction or constructed facility as the next generation digital twin and cyber-physical systems. Potential scenarios of next generation cyber physical system and digital twin for improving workforce productivity, health, and safety, lifecycle management of building systems, and workforce competency are presented.

Web 2.0

2011 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Alexis Barlow ◽  
Margaret McCann ◽  
Anne Smith
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Transfer ◽  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Competitive Advantage ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Way ◽  
Developing Strategies

This chapter critically analyses and assesses the concept and development of Web 2.0 within small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Web 2.0 is changing the way that business can be conducted, offering SMEs opportunities for developing strategies, business models and supply chains whilst adding value and gaining competitive advantage. There are many advantages for SMEs using Web 2.0 including them being easy to use, limited skills required and relatively low-cost and there are a range of emerging applications in fields such as marketing, collaboration, knowledge transfer, enhancing products and services, and research. Equally, there is an array of operational and managerial challenges that need to be overcome. This chapter suggests a set of questions that SMEs may consider using as a guide if they are considering Web 2.0 as a competitive weapon for the future.

scholarly journals The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugen Octav Popa ◽  
Mireille van Hilten ◽  
Elsje Oosterkamp ◽  
Marc-Jeroen Bogaardt
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Equal Treatment ◽  
Responsible Innovation ◽  
Quadruple Helix ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Industry Research ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Desk Research

AbstractAnticipating the ethical impact of emerging technologies is an essential part of responsible innovation. One such emergent technology is the digital twin which we define here as a living replica of a physical system (human or non-human). A digital twin combines various emerging technologies such as AI, Internet of Things, big data and robotics, each component bringing its own socio-ethical issues to the resulting artefacts. The question thus arises which of these socio-ethical themes surface in the process and how they are perceived by stakeholders in the field. In this report we present the results of a qualitative study into the socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks of using digital twins in healthcare. Employing insights from ethics of technology and the Quadruple Helix theory of innovation, we conducted desk research of white literature and 23 interviews with representatives from the four helixes: industry, research, policy and civil society. The ethical scan revealed several important areas where the digital twin can produce socio-ethical value (e.g., prevention and treatment of disease, cost reduction, patient autonomy and freedom, equal treatment) but also several important areas of socio-ethical risks (e.g., privacy and property of data, disruption of existing societal structures, inequality and injustice). We conclude with a reflection on the employed analytical tool and suggestions for further research.

scholarly journals FROM AN INSIDE-IN TOWARDS AN OUTSIDE-OUT URBAN DIGITAL TWIN: BUSINESS MODELS AND IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES

2021 ◽  
Vol VIII-4/W1-2021 ◽  
pp. 25-32
Author(s):  
R. D’Hauwers ◽  
N. Walravens ◽  
P. Ballon
Keyword(s):  
Business Model ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Urban Ecosystems ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Value Network ◽  
Digital Twin ◽  
Digital Twins ◽  
Communication Links ◽  
The Government ◽  
Complex Relationships

Abstract. Urban Digital Twins are a virtual representation of a city environment with bi-directional communication links. They require collaborations between different actors in the urban ecosystems in order to provide a complete picture of the situation in the city. In order to define the complex relationships between the different actors in the Urban Digital Twin ecosystem, the business model literature helps to answer questions on how value can be created, and how the value network can be controlled. In this paper, we identified four different types of business models for Urban Digital Twins based on whether they are used by the government or the ecosystem, and whether the government or the ecosystem controls the value network of the Urban Digital Twin. Interviews were held in five different existing Urban Digital Twins to identify which challenges the different existing digital twins have when implementing the Urban Digital Twins. The outcomes of the business model scenarios support the design of Urban Digital Twins 1) by identifying which decisions need to be made by cities when developing Urban Digital Twins and 2) by proposing cloud requirements for technology providers supporting cities, in the development of Urban Digital Twins.

scholarly journals Sustainable Supply Chains with Blockchain, IoT and RFID: A Simulation on Order Management

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6372
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Varriale ◽  
Antonello Cammarano ◽  
Francesca Michelino ◽  
Mauro Caputo
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chains ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Emerging Technologies ◽  
Sustainable Supply Chains ◽  
Time Performance ◽  
Order Management ◽  
Management Processes ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Internet Of Things

The digital transformation of supply chains should revolutionize entire management processes and improve various aspects of sustainability. In particular, the plans of Industry 4.0 aim towards a digitization of several procedures by exploiting emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, RFID and blockchain. The purpose of this study is to highlight how order and disruption events processes can be improved with the adoption of emerging technologies and how this reflects on the improvement of sustainability aspects. The study is based on the comparison of two simulation scenarios between three actors in the cheese supply chain. In particular, a first traditional scenario “as is” is simulated without the use of new technologies and is compared to a second scenario “to be” that adopts IoT, RFID and blockchain. The results show an improvement in time performance for managing both perfect and non-compliant orders. The developed framework highlights the impact of new technologies on sustainability aspects, showing further managerial implications.

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