Digital Twins — in Retail

A digital twin is a simulation of a physical product, production or performance. It is a software model designed to optimize brick-and-mortar places, systems, and real-life processes. Within three to five years, digital twins will represent billions of things, facilities, environments as well as businesses and processes.

Digital Twins can solve diverse problems: testing a prototype or a new design, tracking changes that happen with different conditions, and managing business life cycles.

How to create a Digital Twin?

Collect Data

Choose IOT

Determine Devices

Choose Access Limits

Create Computational Model

Decide the Function

Create 3D Visualisation

Connect Offline and Online

Connect Digital and Physical

Determine Data Integration

Strusture the Information

Allow Data Flow from IOT

Collect Feedback and Analyze

Choose Analysis Methods

Identify Process Deviations

Test DT for Optimisation

Types of Digital Twins

The amount of data and frequency of recording define what is known about an asset’s condition. Depending on their maturity, the main types of digital twins are partial DT, clone DT and augmented DT.

Augmented

As a part of augmented reality, the digital twin emphasizes the data from the connected asset with derivative data, mixed with correlated sources and sometimes data resulting from AI analytics and algorithms. It is the most detailed Digital Twin, and it is excellent for highly complex and exact replications.

Partial

The minimal digital twin contains a small number of data sources, such as temperature or a device state. It is helpful to monitor a key metric or condition. This level is also seen in proof-of-connectivity development, as it enables rapid growth of device-to-platform functionality.

Clone

Clone is a complete copy of a physical asset with all possible data sources. It is most helpful in the prototyping and data characterization phases of IoT development.

Solutions in Retail

Retail Distribution Centers

Operation managers can create action plans for different scenarios in a virtual setting (for example, a new putaway process without any real risks). It’s possible to plan the entire manufacturing process in a fully virtual environment.
An effective tool for AI-enabled load matching services.

Trucks

Creating a single channel for data from trucks about their maintenance, driver logs, and fleet management. As these formats and systems can vary, a digital twin can help unite all data and have other systems quickly access it too.

Supply Chain Administration

Use digital twins for updated information from both suppliers and retail:

replenish goods
facilitate cash flow
change placement of goods
reduce waste.

Manufacturing facilities

Improve data collection from various assets, such as original equipment, shop floor layouts, workstations, and IoT devices, by using smart edge devices, RFIDs, human-machine interfaces, and other technologies that drive data collection.

Bricks and mortar stores

Use digital twins for updated information from both suppliers and retail:

Predict shopping behavior
Improve buyers’ experience by using individual customer data and guiding them to the right items on the shelf
Optimize faster transactions at self-checkout
Manage queues better by using data on crowd size and the speed of customer intake
Produce business forecasting as AI agents make digital twin technology more intelligent. Make long-term decisions based on fact-driven choices.

Security Requirements

Increased use of Digital Twins technology all over the world requires facing inevitable security challenges.

It affects the whole model because of the constant transfer of data from the physical asset or process to the digital twin ecosystems.

Making a plan is essential to securing communication channels to prevent any sensitive information leaks across all networks. Experts look into communication protocols to understand the weaknesses in the system. Carefully looking into any potential security issues and preventing them is one of the key elements before creating digital twins technology.

Benefits

Reliable Safety Measures & Reduced Risks

Ensuring the safety of people and warehouses or assets by being able to reduce incidents and potential crises.

Optimized production

Controlling assets performance leads to a higher quality of products.

Saving money with low maintenance costs

Minimizing impact on the supply chain by taking an overall outlook on processes.

Increased Profitability

Predict issues before breakdowns occur, order parts, and schedule repairs at times that don’t impact production goals.

Faster TTV (Time to Value)

Most innovative industry tools at the reach of your fingertips with a complete analytics overview.

Environmental benefit

Digital Twins allow for reducing carbon footprint by giving an opportunity to make more sustainable packaging, tracking reusable containers, and planning more efficient loads.

Opportunities

Predict Future Events and Scale Your Business

Connect managers and stakeholders to a single channel with coherent data to improve informed decisions on every level.

Visualize Your Business

Create Digital Models of Warehouses, Supply Chains, and Entire Retail Infrastructures.

Use Safe and Trusted Platform for DT

From small businesses to global enterprises, IoT device input aids with compliance, security, and privacy.

FAQ

Why would a company use digital twin technology?

It is hard to optimize the supply chain and other operations while not challenging the existing work pipeline. Digital twins allow implementing changes in test mode, adjusting the process online, and only then bringing the perfect solution into reality. All hypotheses can be tested within the simulation, which saves time and money. Companies basically get a trial period for any potential changes online, which significantly reduces mistakes in the real processes. More than that, digital twins also help planning for extraordinary situations and conditions, which otherwise would be impossible to prepare for.

How does a company implement a digital twin?

To create a digital twin, you need to collect all information possible to recreate the real-life process digitally. That can include physical properties, used materials and locations. Then, a suite of industrial sensors help with sourcing data from real-life places. Data needs to be extensive and consistent to provide an accurate representation. Once all of digital twins data is collected and digital model is formed, you can choose how exactly you'd like to use the digital twin, be that for data-analytics based decisions, adding or removing features, security proofing and so on.

What can I use for a Digital Twin?

The main benefit of a Digital Twin is that it can be used to visualize and represent an object or process, the behaviors or states of the real-world item or procedures. It is really up to your particular business what data is used to form a digital twin: it can be design specifics or a full lifecycle of a product, every stage of production or step-by-step engineering plan, business data planning, end-of-life procedures, any equipment with materials and parts, any methods or quality control. It can be based on real-time information and supported by historical analysis and maintenance records.

How are we linking digital twins?

The findings from digital twins can be linked to create an overview, such as by taking the findings of equipment twins and putting them into a production line twin, which can then inform a factory-scale digital twin. By using linked digital twins in this way, it is possible to enable smart industrial applications for real-world operational developments and improvements."

What do Digital Twins models do?

Created from several datasets, DT can be used to create computational analytical models for any purpose needed. This includes operating effects, predictions of conditions, and determining behaviors. These models can suggest better actions based on engineering input, ML and AI, sciences like physics, chemistry, statistics as well as business objectives.

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