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Are You Ready For Digital Twins?
Business in the 21st century inevitably means having a digital presence of some kind. If you’re not online, then you’re nowhere in 2022. It also means that you’ll inevitably use a range of different technological tools and resources to help you conceive, design, and manufacture your range of products.
We’ve certainly come a long way where technology is concerned and some serious evolution has taken place since the 60s and 70s when computers first really came to the fore as a professional design tool.
Nowadays, with the advent of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, virtual reality, and so on, we have a lot to choose from and it’s never been easier to visualise a product and test it out before bringing it to market, helping boost productivity and maximising the chances of success.
For product development, all sorts of brands across a range of industries and sectors are now making excellent use of PLM systems to help them cope with the increasingly complex processes and engineering challenges that are presented by competing for a place in a global marketplace.
What is product lifecycle management
Product lifecycle management – or PLM – is the process of managing the entire lifecycle of any given product, from inception through to design and manufacture, service, and ultimate disposal at the end of its life.
The software brings everything together in a single place, including data, processes, people, and business systems, so that companies and their extended enterprises can collaborate more effectively. The goal is to improve product quality, reduce time to market, drive down prototyping costs, reduce environmental impacts and identify possible sales opportunities.
If your brand is already using these systems then, no doubt, you’ve already experienced some or all of the many benefits PLM can bring.
However, it’s important not to rest on your laurels where tech is concerned because developments happen every day and it’s a world that moves pretty quickly. If you aren’t keeping an eye on what’s coming next, you could risk being left behind, with your customers finding what they need elsewhere.
Where product design and manufacture is concerned, it seems that there’s a new tool on the block that could help improve digital product representation… and that’s the digital twin.
Digital Twins
Think of digital twins as a virtual representation of your actual physical products or processes, used throughout the entire product lifecycle to simulate, predict and optimise your systems before you actually invest in any real-life prototypes and other assets… saving you time and potentially lots of money!
Big-name brands in the global fashion industry are already using digital twins, so it would seem – which suggests that now’s the perfect time to do some research into it for your own business to see how you could benefit.
The likes of Valentino, Max Mara, Diesel, Versace, and Ferragamo have all collaborated with digital transformation specialist company Hyphen to transform their brands using digital twins… and advice from CEO Stefano Righetti is not to think of these twins as simply 3D representations of your actual products.
Speaking to Vogue Italia, he explained that while it may look like the product in question, the avatar is just one tiny part of a huge wealth of information contained within the files, including textures, fabrics, size, colours, prices, advertising photos, fashion show images, technical photos, sample numbers and so on… all of which is kept in one place.
He also made mention of relationship links and how brands can use this technology to support the customer shopping experience, saying: “Imagine you’re in a clothing store and want to know what colours would go best with the trousers you are trying on.
“The salesman can now consult the digital twin of the trousers in real-time and provide you with these suggestions.”
If you’d like to find out more about PLM, digital twins, and how you and your brand could take advantage of new technological innovations, get in touch with the team here at Bombyx PLM today.