We are living through an era of digital transition. Throughout the media, and increasingly in the workplace, it's common to hear discussion related to “Industry 4.0”, “big data” and the “Internet-of-things”. These are broad concepts that can often lack specific details of how they might arise in practice, particularly for engineers. However, within this broader landscape, the concept of a “digital twin” has emerged as a potentially transformative idea for engineers engaged in modelling and simulation.