Yokogawa and TIM Solution Create New 8D Digital Twin for Customers

By now, most of us have heard of digital twins, the computer-based copies of real-world scenarios that essentially provide a computerized simulation of real-world processes. They are useful in predicting the outcome of uncertain processes, and with the rise of IIoT technology, their use has spread to many different industrial applications. They differ somewhat from typical ‘simulations’ because they use real-world values to mimic the operation of certain equipment or machines.

The real value of digital twins comes from their ability to predict, analyze, and learn about plant processes. This gives manufacturers and automation users the unique ability to save money and increase efficiency without costly experiments in hopes that a change will yield cost savings. This is made possible through the use of predictive maintenance to reduce necessary downtime, machine optimization, asset monitoring, and future condition predictions.

 

TIM Solution’s 8D digital twin concept. Image used courtesy of Yokogawa

 

Yokogawa and TIM Solution’s 8D Digital Twin

Yokogawa and TIM Solution have recently announced a partnership involving TIM Solution’s 8D digital twin platform. The partnership looks to bring Yokogawa into the picture as a value-added reseller for TIM Solution’s 8D digital twin platform, and the digital twin technology will help to complement Yokogawa’s current digital twin portfolio.

Yokogawa will now have the ability to supply its customers with a digital twin system capable of handling a wider range of asset lifecycle solutions. The solutions will range from maintenance and operation to design and engineering. The goal is for the solution to help improve the intelligence level of industrial sites with the continuation of Industry 4.0 and IIoT.

The agreement gives Yokogawa the ability to manage implementation, integration, and support for TIM Solution's 8D digital twin. Yokogawa hopes that the addition of TIM Solution’s technology will give them a better handle as a global digital transformation (DX) integrator. It also looks to bring the 8D digital twin to a global market, something that would be more difficult for TIM Solution to complete without the global footprint provided by the partnership with Yokogawa.

 

What 8D Digital Twin Offers Users

Many companies are making the change to digitalize their operations, often requiring the combination of their information technology infrastructure with their operational technology infrastructure. This sometimes leaves the engineering and technology element of the process left behind in the digitalization transformation of a company. The new partnership hopes to circumvent this common problem with the addition of the 8D digital twin.

What are these 8 dimensions of data integration? Documentation, drawings, spatial (CAD data), real-time process values, cost, maintenance processes, sustainability, and safety are all factors that are important to the health and operation of a facility.

The 8D digital twin is capable of bringing the engineering side plant processes into the IT/OT combination. Plant processes throughout the lifecycle of a plant involve plant engineers, mechanical engineers, IT developers, automation engineers, security experts, and more. The integration of this side of the plant operation into the digital twin system hopes to supply users with provisions for this important piece of the system with any IT/OT convergence effort.

TIM Solution’s digital twin platform can be used with Yokogawa’s OT process digital twin to provide a more complete view of asset data. In addition, the digital twin can be used with Yokogawa asset management offerings such as OpreX Asset Health Insights to provide a single platform for the effective use of company-wide data in the digital transformation process.