Dear Mr. Panopoulos, thank you for your interesting presentation on the simulation modelling of a typical food industry production line, with a view to go towards a fully Industry 4.0 implementation . My question is: in the presentation (and in the tile) you mention the Digital Shadow which involves a unidirectional flow of manufacturing data from the physical world to the digital model. However, in the conclusions you report that in the future research you will be aiming at developing a Digital Twin, which involves a bidirectionsl flow of manufacturing data between the physical factory and the digital counterpart. Which of these two approaches, Digital Shadow or Digital Twin, do you consider really appropriate for your application to the food industry production?
Thank you for this interesting question! As presented in the introductory slides of the presentation, Industry 4.0 is based in nine (9) pillar technologies. Among them is “Simulation”. Regarding industry, digital modelling is a powerful tool for engineers in order to design, expand, and alter manufacturing and production systems. Digital models when enriched with data (derived from the actual/physical system) enable complete monitoring of the activities/processes taking place in the physical model, which constitutes the Digital Shadow, as presented in our research work. However, if other digital technologies (e.g. Big Data Analysis and Analytics, Artificial Intelligence) are integrated to the digital models, bi-directional communication between the two worlds (i.e. physical and digital), also known as Digital Twin, thus enabling near real-time monitoring and control of the manufacturing and production processes. Further to that, the prediction of certain events (via Predictive Analytics) facilitates constant adaptation of the physical model, ensuring near-optimum operational status of the system. Taking into consideration that material resources in food industry require special handling, the development of a Digital Twin is more appropriate. However, the research work presented is focused on the digitization and digitalization (through the Digital Shadow) of an existing food industry, as a preparatory step for the complete digitalization of the industry as per the Industry 4.0 standards.
Dear Mr. Panopoulos, thank you for your interesting presentation on the simulation modelling of a typical food industry production line, with a view to go towards a fully Industry 4.0 implementation . My question is: in the presentation (and in the tile) you mention the Digital Shadow which involves a unidirectional flow of manufacturing data from the physical world to the digital model. However, in the conclusions you report that in the future research you will be aiming at developing a Digital Twin, which involves a bidirectionsl flow of manufacturing data between the physical factory and the digital counterpart. Which of these two approaches, Digital Shadow or Digital Twin, do you consider really appropriate for your application to the food industry production?
Thank you for this interesting question! As presented in the introductory slides of the presentation, Industry 4.0 is based in nine (9) pillar technologies. Among them is “Simulation”. Regarding industry, digital modelling is a powerful tool for engineers in order to design, expand, and alter manufacturing and production systems. Digital models when enriched with data (derived from the actual/physical system) enable complete monitoring of the activities/processes taking place in the physical model, which constitutes the Digital Shadow, as presented in our research work. However, if other digital technologies (e.g. Big Data Analysis and Analytics, Artificial Intelligence) are integrated to the digital models, bi-directional communication between the two worlds (i.e. physical and digital), also known as Digital Twin, thus enabling near real-time monitoring and control of the manufacturing and production processes. Further to that, the prediction of certain events (via Predictive Analytics) facilitates constant adaptation of the physical model, ensuring near-optimum operational status of the system. Taking into consideration that material resources in food industry require special handling, the development of a Digital Twin is more appropriate. However, the research work presented is focused on the digitization and digitalization (through the Digital Shadow) of an existing food industry, as a preparatory step for the complete digitalization of the industry as per the Industry 4.0 standards.