Digital twin technology isn’t exactly a new concept. It’s been at the heart of industrial transformation for a few years now, paving the way to the industrial metaverse, and industry 4.0. However, digital twins aren’t just a valuable resource for manufacturers and AEC teams.
Currently growing at a CAGR of 41%, the global digital twin market is predicted to reach a value of $240.3 billion by 2035. Part of the reason for this phenomenal growth is the discovery of new use cases for digital twins in every enterprise environment.
From helping companies track and enhance employee performance to improving resource allocation and transforming remote hybrid work, digital twins hold endless potential.
Here’s why every enterprise should consider investing in digital twin technology.
1. Digital Twin Technology Transforms Product Quality
For years, manufacturing and engineering companies have used digital twin technology to help build better products, from more powerful, eco-friendly cars to better buildings. With the right digital twin solution, any company can experiment with different materials, production strategies, and simulations in a virtual environment, enhancing product development.
With the ability to experiment freely without wasting resources or space, companies in all industries can design better, more data-driven solutions. Healthcare organizations can create unique products for patients, such as ergonomic and cost-effective artificial limbs.
Technology companies can design advanced computer systems and tools. Even every day retailers can explore new ways of creating their products to reduce supply costs and enhance customer satisfaction. There are even digital twin solutions that allow enterprises to build metaverse worlds for staff.
2. Improving Customer Experience
Every enterprise, no matter which industry it serves needs to focus on exceptional customer experience to thrive in today’s competitive landscape. Digital twin technology can enhance the customer experience in a multitude of ways. First, studies show consumers will spend more with a company they believe understands their needs and expectations.
Digital twins can help you simulate experiences with customers, learn more about their behaviors, and build more comprehensive customer profiles. With digital twins, you can also enhance customer satisfaction by offering predictive, proactive maintenance support from a distance.
Because these solutions can collect real-time data on products, they enable smoother repair and customer service interactions. This data can also give you the insights you need to build stronger strategies for long-term customer service and product development.
3. Optimizing the Supply Chain
Many enterprises rely heavily on supply chain resilience and agility to ensure they can effectively serve customers and stay ahead of the competition. Digital twin technology offers organizations an incredible way to track and optimize the performance of the supply chain.
Blockchain technology infused with digital twins can create an environment that supports better accountability and reporting throughout the supply chain. Additionally, digital twins can help companies simulate different supply chain strategies. Some solutions can even help businesses to predict potential delays and security issues before they arise.
With connected logistics networks, companies can even gain real-time insights into how road layouts and traffic situations might influence distribution and supply routes. Plus, these tools can help companies enhance warehouse design and management with virtual simulations.
4. Digital Twin Technology Enhances Business Performance
One of the major benefits of digital twin technology is that it provides companies with exceptional visibility. Digital twins can be used to simulate processes and procedures in an organization, offering valuable insights into ways to improve efficiency and productivity.
Using digital twin solutions, companies can evaluate how employees use different resources throughout the business, from immersive collaboration meeting rooms to manufacturing hardware. This can offer insights into new ways to design offices and enterprise environments to facilitate better productivity while reducing costs.
Additionally, digital twin technology can give companies an insight into how their facility could perform going forward after making changes. Companies could use simulations of new business layouts and structures to identify how they might reduce downtime and improve outcomes.
5. Unlocking New Revenue Opportunities
Digital twin technology can help companies reduce costs and increase profitability in a variety of ways. Not only do they help companies to design innovative products faster, reducing time to market, but they can also introduce new opportunities for revenue.
For instance, companies can use digital twin as a service solutions to create metaverse environments based on their existing spaces. This could introduce an opportunity to offer customers extra services, like training on how to use a new system or product in an immersive space.
Digital twin solutions can also empower companies to experiment with different versions of their products intended for various use cases. For instance, a computer manufacturer could experiment with design options to create a solution intended for people with vision issues.
Moreover, the data collected by digital twins offers companies an excellent opportunity to learn more about their customers’ preferences, popular products, and trending solutions, helping them identify the best opportunities for growth.
6. Achieving Sustainability Goals
A growing demand for sustainability is part of what has made digital twin technology so popular among industrial companies. However, as consumers and investors continue to show a preference for eco-friendly organizations, all enterprises can benefit from the sustainability advantages of this technology. First, digital twin solutions enable a new form of hybrid work.
With digital twins, companies can create virtual versions of their offices in the metaverse, allowing employees to connect, share resources, and even work on projects together from any location. This limits the need to invest in large spaces for collaboration and product development.
Digital twin technologies also give companies an opportunity to experiment with different strategies for reducing carbon emissions and waste in their operations. By offering insights into current operational data, businesses can detect new ways to reduce their carbon footprint, whether by replacing materials in a product or automating the switch-off of IoT-connected devices.
7. Digital Twin Technology Transforms Employee Experiences
Finally, most companies today recognize that exceptional employee experiences are crucial to achieving their goals. Digital twin technology, combined with the metaverse, extended reality, and IoT unlocks new ways to empower and engage employees.
Team members working in a hybrid or remote environment can leverage digital twins to analyze machines and processes from a distance, implement changes through IoT, and even collaborate with their team members in a familiar space.
Using AR and mixed reality tools, offsite experts can even detect problems with machinery or a workplace process from a distance and then provide step-by-step guidance to team members.
Additionally, digital twin services allow companies to build more comprehensive and immersive training and onboarding scenarios for team members. These tools can help businesses introduce employees to new systems and processes, regardless of their location, with XR.
Investing in Digital Twin Technology
Ultimately, digital twin technology unlocks a range of opportunities for companies in any environment, whether it’s the industrial landscape or the standard enterprise space. With digital twins, companies can boost productivity, enhance employee and customer satisfaction, reduce costs and improve their carbon footprint.
As digital twin solutions grow increasingly accessible, through metaverse as a service systems and evolving technology, every business can benefit from investing in this technology.
