Digital twin in manufacturing: conceptual framework and case studies

The digital twin (DT) concept has a key role in the future of the smart manufacturing industry. This review paper aims to investigate the development of the digital twin concept, its maturity and its vital role in the fourth industrial revolution. Having identified its potential functionalities for the digitalisation of the manufacturing industry, the digital twin concept, its origin and perspectives from both the academic and industrial sectors are presented. The identified research gaps, trends and technical limitations hampering the implementation of digital twins are also discussed. In particular, this review attempts to address the research question on how the digital twin concept can support the realisation of an integrated, flexible and collaborative manufacturing environment which is one of the goals projected by the fourth industrial revolution. To address this, a conceptual framework supporting an integrated product-process digital twin for application in digitised manufacturing is proposed. The application and benefits of the proposed framework are presented in three case studies.