Interscale Content Hub – The integration of digital twins for asset management systems changing how we manage our assets, giving us better insights and control.
What’s behind the growing interest in the Digital Twins (DTs)? The answer is that they can make asset management processes more efficient, which means lower costs and better decisions.
With digital twins, stakeholders can see, analyze, and simulate how assets perform under different scenarios. This helps them make better operational decisions.
The Role of Digital Twins in Asset Management
Digital twins are changing the way we manage assets by offering a dynamic, real-time representation of physical assets.
These virtual models bring together data from different sources, like sensors, IoT devices, and operational systems, to create accurate and up-to-date digital copies of assets.
Leveraging this comprehensive data, digital twins help asset managers monitor conditions, predict failures, and optimize performance more efficiently.
For example, digital twins help with better building maintenance and operations in construction and real estate.
They use historical and real-time data to create a virtual model to simulate different scenarios and optimize building performance.
The Ernst & Young (EY) report, “Digital Twin: The Age of Aquarius in Construction and Real Estate,” shows how digital twins can cut operational costs by up to 35% and slash carbon emissions.
Also, digital twins are a big part of the effort to make our planet more sustainable. They help cut energy use by making sure HVAC systems, lighting, and other utilities are optimized based on real-time occupancy and environmental conditions.
The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore showed that they could reduce energy consumption by 21% and make significant cost savings by using digital twin technology.
In another area, digital twins help us predict when something might go wrong with our equipment before it actually does. This proactive approach helps us avoid downtime and keep our assets in good shape for longer.
As an example, in the heritage facilities management, as discussed by Cynthia Hou and her colleagues in their paper “Digital Twin to Enable Smart Heritage Facilities Management,” with digital twins, we can manage conservation more efficiently by combining historical data with real-time monitoring to predict and prevent structural issues.
How Digital Twins Differ from Traditional Asset Management Systems
Traditional asset management systems often use historical data and periodic inspections, which can result in reactive maintenance strategies.
These systems usually use static data, which makes it tough to adjust to changes and unexpected issues as they happen.
By contrast, digital twins offer a proactive approach by continuously gathering and analyzing real-time data.
This lets you respond to new problems right away, which means you can avoid a lot of downtime and maintenance costs.
Ernst & Young says you can get a better picture of how an asset is performing over its lifetime with a digital twin. This helps you plan for the future and make better decisions.
This comprehensive view is achieved by combining different data sources and advanced analytics, which let digital twins run through different operational scenarios and optimize asset performance all the time.
Plus, digital twins help everyone involved to work together better because they provide a single source of truth about the data on the assets.
This integration makes it easier to communicate and make better decisions, which is a big advantage over traditional systems that can have data silos and inconsistent information.
To gain a broader perspective, please take a look at “The Pros and Cons of Digital Twins: A Fair Look at Much-Talked Tech.”
Benefits of Using Digital Twins for Asset Management
Enhanced Monitoring and Control
This capability lets us make timely interventions and adjustments, so we can keep everything running smoothly and avoid any unexpected failures.
For instance, remote monitoring lets managers get alerts on their phones or tablets, so they can respond quickly to any issues.
Cynthia Hou and her colleagues talk about how digital twins work with heritage building information modeling (HBIM) to keep an eye on and control heritage buildings. This helps make sure they’re preserved and managed efficiently.
Predictive Maintenance and Downtime Reduction
By looking at data patterns and any unusual stuff, digital twins can spot potential issues before they become critical, so they can be fixed before they cause any problems.
This approach helps us avoid downtime and keep our assets in good shape for longer.
Predictive maintenance not only cuts down on unplanned downtime but also lets you schedule maintenance tasks more effectively, which makes your workforce more efficient.
In the paper “Interactive Digital Twins Framework for Asset Management Through the Internet of Things,” Leo Chi Wai Kong and colleagues show how predictive maintenance supported by digital twins can lead to big cost savings and better operational efficiency in infrastructure management.
Optimized Asset Performance and Lifecycle
We use digital twins to test out different operational scenarios and find the best ways to make things more efficient.
For sure, these DTs capabilities are the key for long-term asset utilization and sustainability.
Lee and colleagues say digital twins let you keep an eye on how assets are performing and make adjustments when needed, which helps them perform better and last longer.
For instance, in the context of energy management, digital twins can help identify inefficiencies and optimize energy usage, which can lead to significant cost savings and reduced environmental impact.
You might find it helpful to see “How Digital Twin Technology is Revolutionizing & Avoids You Stuck in the Past.”
Risk Management and Safety Improvements
As a consequence, the digital twins help us manage risks and stay safe by keeping an eye on how our assets are doing and flagging up any potential issues.
Yes, digital twins make it easier to assess and manage risks in real-time across different industrial applications.
This proactive approach helps keep things safe and makes sure we’re all playing by the rules.
By giving us a clear picture of how assets are working, digital twins help us take action to avoid accidents and failures.
Implementation Challenges and Considerations
One of the main challenges is getting all the data to work together. Digital twins need to be able to bring together lots of data from different sources, including IoT sensors, operational systems, and historical records.
Making sure the data is accurate and reliable is really important for digital twins to work properly.
Cynthia Hou and her co-authors say that building a structured and semantic database to manage this data is a big challenge. It requires advanced technical skills and a lot of up-front investment.
On top of that, you need to adopt some enabling tech, like AI, machine learning, and IoT, to make a digital twin that actually works. It can be pretty resource-intensive.
Security and privacy are also big concerns. Since digital twins collect and process sensitive data, it’s crucial to keep this information safe from cyber threats and make sure we’re following data protection regulations.
On top of that, we need people who know how to manage and make sense of the complex data generated by digital twins.
The development and maintenance of digital twins require specialized knowledge in various fields, including data science, engineering, and IT. This can be a barrier for organizations lacking these resources.
That’s why we at Interscale offer solid solutions for managing Building Information Modeling (BIM) and digital twins in asset management.
Our team of experts is on hand to provide the support and training your team needs to successfully implement and manage BIM and digital twins throughout your asset’s lifecycle.
We’ll work closely with you to develop a solution that’s just right for you, based on your specific goals and requirements.
Our track record speaks for itself. Thanks to our work with K2LD Architects, we’ve shown time and again that we can deliver custom BIM solutions that boost asset performance and lifecycle management.
You can learn more about how we can help you harness the power of BIM and digital twins by clicking our Interscale BIM Management Support page here.
Also, you can count on us to set up a one-on-one meeting to talk about your specific needs and how we can help make your project a success.
In Closing
Digital twins are changing the way we manage assets. They help us monitor them better, do predictive maintenance, get the most out of them, and manage risks.
While there are some hurdles to overcome, the benefits are huge. That’s why support systems like Interscale can help you more sustainable integrate DTs into asset management.
As industries keep on digital transformation, it’s clear that digital twins for asset management will be a big part of your future.
