Building Better Digital Twins for Production Systems by Incorporating Environmental Related Functions—Literature Analysis and Determining Alternatives
The digital twin solution is an industry 4.0 specific tool that has grown in the past decade, stemming from the modelling and simulation approaches that existed before, complemented by new sensor capabilities, cloud processing, big data analytics, and implementation mechanisms. As it is being used m...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Applied Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/17/8657 |
| _version_ | 1797496289099776000 |
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| author | Daniela Popescu Mihai Dragomir Sorin Popescu Diana Dragomir |
| author_facet | Daniela Popescu Mihai Dragomir Sorin Popescu Diana Dragomir |
| author_sort | Daniela Popescu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The digital twin solution is an industry 4.0 specific tool that has grown in the past decade, stemming from the modelling and simulation approaches that existed before, complemented by new sensor capabilities, cloud processing, big data analytics, and implementation mechanisms. As it is being used mostly in the present by manufacturing companies, the primary focus of the solution is to enhance productivity and reduce costs by optimizing processes and enabling real-time problem-solving, sometimes based on decision-making systems and artificial intelligence. However, as companies are being faced with an increasingly steep list of environmental requirements and regulations, ranging from the classical pollution control and waste recycling to full-scale economic models based on circular economy and transformative carbon dioxide elimination programs, the features of the manufacturing digital twins must also evolve to provide an appropriate answer to these challenges. In this paper, the authors propose a framework for building better digital twins for production systems by incorporating environmental-related functions. The demarches start from analysing existing solutions presented in literature from the point of view of environmental suitability, based on the use of the MoSCoW method for differentiating attributes (into Must have, Should have, Could have, Will not have elements) and determining development alternatives based on the employment of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for feature selection, and the TRIZ method (Theory of Inventive Problem-Solving) for application guidelines. The MCDA was performed within a focus group of nine production specialists from regionally successful sectors. We arrive at the conclusion that environmental-related functions are poorly implemented in the digital twins of the present (although more so in integrated solutions and custom-built applications) and that the development of the proper tools, databases, and interpretation keys should proceed immediately in the fields of production engineering, industrial ecology, and software development to support them. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:01:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-315e67e5aef04d9db86eb1f74485a3f4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2076-3417 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T03:01:33Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Applied Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-315e67e5aef04d9db86eb1f74485a3f42023-11-23T12:44:06ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-08-011217865710.3390/app12178657Building Better Digital Twins for Production Systems by Incorporating Environmental Related Functions—Literature Analysis and Determining AlternativesDaniela Popescu0Mihai Dragomir1Sorin Popescu2Diana Dragomir3Department of Design Engineering and Robotics, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400641 Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaDepartment of Design Engineering and Robotics, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400641 Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaDepartment of Design Engineering and Robotics, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400641 Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaDepartment of Design Engineering and Robotics, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, 400641 Cluj-Napoca, RomaniaThe digital twin solution is an industry 4.0 specific tool that has grown in the past decade, stemming from the modelling and simulation approaches that existed before, complemented by new sensor capabilities, cloud processing, big data analytics, and implementation mechanisms. As it is being used mostly in the present by manufacturing companies, the primary focus of the solution is to enhance productivity and reduce costs by optimizing processes and enabling real-time problem-solving, sometimes based on decision-making systems and artificial intelligence. However, as companies are being faced with an increasingly steep list of environmental requirements and regulations, ranging from the classical pollution control and waste recycling to full-scale economic models based on circular economy and transformative carbon dioxide elimination programs, the features of the manufacturing digital twins must also evolve to provide an appropriate answer to these challenges. In this paper, the authors propose a framework for building better digital twins for production systems by incorporating environmental-related functions. The demarches start from analysing existing solutions presented in literature from the point of view of environmental suitability, based on the use of the MoSCoW method for differentiating attributes (into Must have, Should have, Could have, Will not have elements) and determining development alternatives based on the employment of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for feature selection, and the TRIZ method (Theory of Inventive Problem-Solving) for application guidelines. The MCDA was performed within a focus group of nine production specialists from regionally successful sectors. We arrive at the conclusion that environmental-related functions are poorly implemented in the digital twins of the present (although more so in integrated solutions and custom-built applications) and that the development of the proper tools, databases, and interpretation keys should proceed immediately in the fields of production engineering, industrial ecology, and software development to support them.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/17/8657digital twindigital productionproduction systemenvironmental managementmulti-criterial decision analysis |
| spellingShingle | Daniela Popescu Mihai Dragomir Sorin Popescu Diana Dragomir Building Better Digital Twins for Production Systems by Incorporating Environmental Related Functions—Literature Analysis and Determining Alternatives Applied Sciences digital twin digital production production system environmental management multi-criterial decision analysis |
| title | Building Better Digital Twins for Production Systems by Incorporating Environmental Related Functions—Literature Analysis and Determining Alternatives |
| title_full | Building Better Digital Twins for Production Systems by Incorporating Environmental Related Functions—Literature Analysis and Determining Alternatives |
| title_fullStr | Building Better Digital Twins for Production Systems by Incorporating Environmental Related Functions—Literature Analysis and Determining Alternatives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Building Better Digital Twins for Production Systems by Incorporating Environmental Related Functions—Literature Analysis and Determining Alternatives |
| title_short | Building Better Digital Twins for Production Systems by Incorporating Environmental Related Functions—Literature Analysis and Determining Alternatives |
| title_sort | building better digital twins for production systems by incorporating environmental related functions literature analysis and determining alternatives |
| topic | digital twin digital production production system environmental management multi-criterial decision analysis |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/17/8657 |
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