Digital Twins: A Maturity Model for Their Classification and Evaluation

Abstract

Digital Twins represent a powerful tool for transforming production and logistics towards Industry 4.0. They mirror physical assets in the digital world, enriching them with additional capabilities and features such as decision-making or lifecycle management. Due to the diverse possibilities associated with the Digital Twin, their design and implementation are also wide-ranging. This paper aims to contribute to the formalization and standardization of the description of Digital Twins. It presents a method for evaluating them through their lifecycle, from design to operation. The paper is based on an overview of their potential functionalities and properties with ranked stages of development. This method allows for an application-specific evaluation of Digital Twins and describes how they can be improved to suit the application better. The maturity model development follows the procedure for developing maturity models for IT management. Relevant capabilities and features were identified with a systematic literature review following the PRISMA guidelines. The results of this review were ranked and categorized and constitute the core of the maturity model, which was validated on five use-cases from different domains in production and logistics. The maturity model assesses Digita Twins in seven categories (context, data, computing capabilities, model, integration, control, human-machine interface) with 31 ranked characteristics. It evaluates existing solutions for potential improvements for a given application or the transfer to a new use-case. The resulting method and a supplementary web service present a generalized model for the evaluation of Digital Twins. Based on a description of a potential application, this is the first step towards a systematic evaluation, improving the structured development of such applications