This end-to-end visibility identifies disruptions across the supply chain and gives full visibility of what is expected against what is actually taking place.
A boon for manufacturing
In Ireland, industry sectors with complex and highly engineered manufacturing processes are ideally positioned to benefit from both supply chain and factory level digital twins. The digital twin can be used to evaluate design options prior to making capital commitments. This optimises efficiency, reduces cost, and minimises risk. It can also be used to operate a manufacturing facility to make it capable of handling highly complex and time dependent processes that change frequently.
As a result, we frequently see a 5% to 10% increase in throughput at factories implementing digital twin scheduling software. Of course, manufacturing companies have used forms of simulation software for many years, but we are now seeing a convergence of increased computing power, enhanced data handling capability, and new technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT). Together this is having a transformative impact.
At a supply chain level, digital twins provide intelligence and end-to-end visibility across the full breadth of trading partners and suppliers. This greatly reduces supplier risk as the constant monitoring acts as an early warning system for supply chain issues.
As organisations chart a path to recovery from COVID-19, there can be no doubt that today’s supply chain decisions will determine the future of many businesses. Enabling end-to-end visibility with technologies such as digital twin is critical to anticipating and responding to continued disruptions while developing the agility to outperform competitors and create new value for customers.
Digital twin technology can help Irish companies create a virtual replica of their supply chains to optimise business decisions and better serve customers. With hyper-personalisation, consumer product and companies in other sectors such as pharma need to rethink their business models to serve customers differently and enable cost-effective supply chains. Digital twin is the new must have weapon for optimised supply chains.
Summary
Digital twins can create virtual replicas that help organisations make rapid decisions, better align to customer preferences and bring in competitive agility.
