5 best practices for digital twin implementation

Digital Twins are making solid headway in the civil infrastructure arena with notable examples such as the twin of the entire Republic of Singapore, and the city of Dubai. As mentioned in an earlier article, Keith Bentley of software developer Bentley Systems describes digital twins as the biggest opportunity for IT value contribution to the physical infrastructure industry since the personal computer, and they’re used in a wide variety of industries, lending enterprises insights into maintenance and ways to optimize manufacturing supply chains.

The infrastructure industry, however, can sometimes be its own worst enemy by falling for common objections and barriers to adoption throughout both digital twin strategy and implementation. These objections often include, “But we’ve always done it this way” (resistance to change), “It works just fine as is” (accepting the status quo which may be a sub-optimal solution), “Let’s wait until post-build” (pushing things off until later), “Let’s start with the metaverse” (being distracted by shiny objects), and more.

To counter these common objections, here are five best practices for digital twin implementation that may help you evangelize the most productive approach to seize opportunities for your organization.

Be an early adopter before your competition

One of the most common barriers to adoption is that service providers or clients may be quite happy with the current system, approach, and way of working. If we take the example of bridge inspection, some of these IT systems, or bridge management systems, were first introduced in the late 1980s, leaving a lot to be desired to leverage the latest technology.

For service providers, as a counterargument to “But, we’ve always done it this way,” if you’re not bringing emerging technology to your customer, someone else may beat you to it. Sooner or later these legacy systems will be replaced with more powerful digital twin solutions, providing a complete system of record with visibility into how assets are performing including past, present, and future indicators.

For the service provider, by being an early adopter before your competition, you can gain key learnings even if exploring the technology and conducting pilots. According to Martin Rapos, CEO of AR/VR platform Akular, which converts 3D models into digital twins, the impact of every dollar spent early is an order of magnitude higher than if you spend it five years down the road as a follower. Beyond buildings and bridges, use cases range from remotely driving bulldozers in mines, virtual training on large, specialized equipment, specialty manufacturing design, as well as restaurant design, parking monitoring, and airport operation. All companies that practice and plan with live twins are getting an edge over their competition.