December 2022CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM9Take, for example, a customer doing business with competing suppliers. While the supplier is willing to share data with the customer, that data may have to be restricted within the customer's company to ensure that it is not shared with the competing supplier. These tactical implementation issues can completely bog down a "digital twin" initiative within a company. Rather than delivering value to your customer, you end up in non-value-added discussions around protecting your data.Another challenge is that digital twin data formats are often specified to be compatible with a digital design, manufacturing, and operations solution that an OEM might have chosen to implement. Having all of the data stored and tracked in a single system provides efficiency benefits for the OEM, but it can cause real problems for the supply chain. The OEM might dictate that a supplier provide its digital twin data with a specific software format. If the supplier is small or has chosen another software platform, this can create significant financial and operational challenges for the supplier. The commercial software systems usually have capabilities to restrict data to different individuals, but everyone needs to be using the software system for these to apply.As a result, implementing a digital twin will require compromises within the supply chain. I recommend the following approach:1) Define what data you need now and what data you need your supplier to store but not share. For example, an engineered material provider could provide the mechanical, thermal, and electrical properties of the material, when and where it was produced, and how it was transported to the customer. The supplier could also be required to store all of the raw material data they used and then provide it to the customer only if there were a failure or warranty claim in the field where this data is needed to address the failure.2) Be sensitive to the proprietary data of your suppliers and implement procedures to protect that data. Your supply chains are proprietary to you and provide you value so you should treat their data with the same diligence as your own. Your supply chain can unravel quickly if you don't protect your supplier's data.3) Where possible, push for open data formats that are not dependent on a particular software vendor.4) Define the goals of your digital twin efforts and share these with your suppliers. If you treat your suppliers as your partners and articulate your goals, your suppliers will work with you to find solutions to the problem you are trying to address while protecting their proprietary data and utilizing the data capture systems they have put into place. The goal is to get the right data for your digital twin rather than all of the data. The models can fail to perform if there is too much data, so it is imperative to define the important data to achieve desired goals. Edicts from an OEM without discussion with the supplier can create an adversarial relationship that is not in the best interests of either party.The digital twin idea is one that can provide tremendous value when implemented, but it can be a complex endeavor when used with a supply chain. Through open dialogue with your supply chain and clearly defining your goals and objectives over time, you can achieve incremental benefits of digital twin technology to provide value to your customers and shareholders. If you treat your suppliers as your partners and articulate your goals, your suppliers will work with you to find solutions to the problem you are trying to address
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