Have you heard of digital twins? It sounds like the name of a new film. A digital twin is a digital version of an actual thing, such as a business process or a manufacturing facility.
A business can take the digital version and manipulate it. Make changes to the process or facility to see what will happen. Will those changes affect the process adversely or improve it?
Imagine the possibilities, the time, and the money saved by having a good idea of the outcome without guessing. Big businesses jumped into digital twin technology several years ago. Can a smaller company take advantage?
Google, Amazon, and Microsoft offer digital twin solutions. If you use their cloud services, they may help implement a solution for you. They can handle the data flow in real time.
You’re likely to have the best success by starting small. Choose a simple but essential process to model, like employment management. Chances are you’re basing hiring and retention decisions on data and guesses from several sources plugged into a spreadsheet.
There’s no way to replace guesswork with actual data that may lead to better decisions. A digital twin for this process can take past-hire statistics, such as attrition rates and current hiring trends for specific positions, to remove some guesswork and improve your decisions.
When designing a practical digital twin, it’s essential to understand the process thoroughly. What variables are relevant and which aren’t? The twin must reflect the real world.
Does digital twin technology work? The latest surveys indicate over a 15% improvement in sales and operations benchmarks. That’s impressive.
Author: Kris Keppeler is a writer who finds technology fascinating and loves humor. She writes on Medium.com, Channillo, and Women of Wisdom. Award-winning podcast producer who enjoys telling funny stories. Follow her @KrisKKAria on Twitter or on LinkedIn.
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