Abstract

In the ever-increasing world of product complexity, the enablement of Digital Twin capability has to be a key element of any company?s Digital Transformation initiative. This prompted a myriad of new thinking and development in the areas of data and lifecycle management; the understanding and meaning of the digital thread, digital twin, predictive and cognitive capabilities, and much more. One of the main results was that systems thinking started to take hold in the simulation community. Some years back it resulted in the thinking of ?Systems Modeling and Simulation?. With the competitive push of the ?digital transformation? among all industries and some underlying megatrends, such as in the mobility sector - electrification, autonomous capabilities and MaaS (mobility as a service), this transformation is now not only defining the market position of businesses but is essential for their survival. The current Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating these directions even further. These trends not only require bringing the physical and virtual worlds closer together ? in order to improve the development of products, systems, processes, and services, and predict and optimize their performance while in operation (the basic idea of the Digital Twin), ? but also push for the adoption of the Digital Twin at all stages of our businesses and daily lives. The Digital Twin needs to be pervasive at every part of an operational DNA, in all domains and levels of expertise. Essentially, Democratization of the Digital Twin. To achieve this requires foundational education on all levels of the ?Digital Twin? and how it relates to the Digital Transformation. Furthermore, it requires new thinking on the way businesses organize themselves, operate, and behave. Comprehensive and new strategies need to be put in place to merge the holistic thinking with the execution. Only then, can existing and emerging technologies be effectively utilized. Monolithic thinking and processes are something of the past. This new, and currently unfamiliar, environment needs to operate in an open, agile, unstructured, and self-organizing manner. The Digital Twin capability plays a key role in enabling such an environment. But only the democratization of this capability will enable the achievement of the highest maturity levels in business and engineering, which will in turn ensure sustained, long-term business success. In this presentation we will address various enabling elements and the positioning of the Digital Twin as part of digital transformation initiatives for businesses, engineering maturity to the culmination ?Democratization of the Digital Twin?.