Trying to define what is a Digital Twin (or Virtual Plant or Plant Information Model or Plant Lifecycle Model or whatever other name it is known by is not easy.
I have seen various ways of expressing it as words:
“The sum of the intelligence about the plant that is contained within our systems”.
or the Virtual Plant is a depiction of the Physical Plant as it is, as it was and how it is planned to be.
I tried once, at a meeting at the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) on this topic to draw a picture
But I don’t think that worked either. Its a picture with too many words in for my liking.
or this one which I used to initiate a virtual plant initiative once.
No matter how we describe it, the real challenge is getting executives to sign on to developing it when the barriers against it are cost, effort and “what’s in it for me?” which I’ll address in another post.
