Comparison of different digital twin implementation concepts and implementation concept for a Fischertechnik industry 4.0 demonstrator

Abstract

In recent years, there is a growing trend towards the digital transformation of manufacturing and related industries known as Industry 4.0. One of the main concepts associated with this wave is Digital Twin, which can be understood as a digital representation of a physical object or system. Digital Twin can bring great values to enterprises such as reducing time to market, keeping optimal operation, reducing maintenance cost (Fei Tao, Meng Zhang & A.Y.C. Nee, 2019), and is often integrated with the concept of Product Lifecycle Management (Yu Zheng, Sen Yang & Huanchong Cheng, 2019, S. 1142). However, the understanding when implementing this technology between different product lifecycle phases remains unclear. Therefore, this Bachelor Thesis aims to compare the Digital Twin concept in three different product lifecycle phases: product design phase, product production phase, and product service phase, in terms of user aspect, functional aspect, data aspect, and physical object aspect. Although each phase has its characteristics, our comparison results prove that Digital Twin will bring the most benefits to enterprises when it is applied across all three phases