Out of the many technologies invented or pioneered by NASA and later popularised for industrial and manufacturing sectors, Digital twins is one such, that holds tremendous potential for the commercial real estate sector. 

Although digital twins as a concept is well understood among industrial sectors, it is comparatively new to the commercial real estate (CRE) industry. Post pandemic we are witnessing a lot of initiatives towards the technology due to its remote management capability and connected features. CRETech companies such as Thoughtwire and Willow have even claimed that this will be the game changer and clear path forward for the smart facilities. Technology companies and service providers are promising wonders with the digital twins for every inflating market expectations. This sudden growth in interest for digital twins made us think, are the facilities ready enough for the shift? Specifically when facility managers are facing tight budgets, limited resources and other unforeseen challenges? 
To define a digital twin, it’s a virtual representation of a physical asset that is functionally similar to its physical counterpart. A digital twin integrates all of the organization’s digital information on a specific asset or piece of equipment with real-time operating and data streaming from the asset while in use.

Digital twin technology offers facility managers and operators a unified view of their data assets improving asset management efficiencies while saving time and money. Not to mention it also strengthens their path to achieve Net-Zero targets

Fundamentally, Digital twins impact on three different levels 

• Data system unification level
• Asset/device level
• Space and workflow level

Data System Unification

The digital twin utilizes the information collected from different sources such as design or floor plan data from the Building information system (BIM), real-time asset data from the Building management system (BMS), and other IoT and automation systems. 

Standalone asset operations

Operational data of individual assets with the context of occupancy and asset history can help to create a virtual replica of the asset that can predict different scenarios where manual or automatic interventions are required to better manage the network.  

Space and workflow level

Space management based on occupancy and asset capacities can be simplified with the 3D model of the facility that estimates cooling requirements and suggests different sitting layouts for optimum utilization of the space. 

Quick assessment test 

But before opting for the digital twins there are questions that need to be answered and a foundation that needs to be built, which is missing in most cases.  

• What data is necessary to get started? Availability, volume, storage, and transfer-friendly 
• Does this in line with the other system/platform Integration?
• What do we have to achieve with this and when do we expect to see the results? Define your use cases and impact metrics first.

Let’s assess some of the building blocks that are needed to lay the foundation for the digital twins  

1. Data:

As the name suggests, a digital twin is built on the availability of digital data for fault detection diagnostics to deliver precise predictive foresight. Unavailability of correct data at required intervals may hamper the accuracy of the insights.

2. Connectivity: 

Having data in silos would not serve the purpose, a complete access to facility-wide asset, workflow management data on a single platform is necessary. The team should ensure the enabling applications and tools are in place for end-to-end data collection and sharing.

3. Analytics and 3D modeling :

How to run real-time simulations or draw insights from them? What portion of the facility asset needs to have virtual footprints? 3D modeling allows simulations to be run against the physical asset.

4. Use cases: 

In the end, every new investment starts with the dependable use case in mind, when it comes to digital twins we find that it’s a culmination of various technologies working in synchronization,  Process optimization, facility uptime, Predictive maintenance, tenant satisfaction.

Here we should note that, except for the 3D modeling of asset simulations, all the building blocks provide an important primer for the asset performance analytics applications. (we can call it a middle ground between BMS and Digital twins)  

However, two aspects that differentiate digital twins from any other asset management methodologies are 

A) Visualization – The ability to virtually monitor and assess physical assets 

B) Simulated modeling – Test virtual models under various conditions and make the appropriate changes in physical assets on a real-time basis. 

Now we have the idea of what is required to build the digital twins so let’s examine the step-by-step approach of the maturity spectrum to build one.

Steps to build digital twins

Step 1: 2D, 3D model of the physical asset – Object-based data including surface and shapes.

Step 2: Tagging asset information such as material specifications, inspection reports, and asset management information

Step 3: Connecting real time dynamic data – with the help of IoT and sensors, linking real time parameters of the physical asset with the digital one

Step 4: Two-way interaction – developing the feedback loop of physical and digital assets where any changes in either one of them can be reflected in the other’s behavior. 

Step 5: Autonomous operation and maintenance – over a period of time, digital twins evolve from a human-controlled to a system driven O&M with the help of AI.

Organizational Objectives:

Although the steps are not linearly placed to suggest the complexity involved in the development or the value creation, each step does address a particular use case and if we have a clear objective in mind before starting we can stop at any step with definitive outcomes.  

If visualization of the critical processes/assets and simulated modelings answering ‘what If’ questions are on your organizational agenda then the digital twins is your answer. If not, you can comfortably settle with the asset performance analytics applications and move upward as and when the requirement of virtual twins is there.

To conclude our assessment we can definitely say that there are a lot of things that need to be in place to lay the foundation for the digital twins. In fact, it’s not necessary for every facility to have a digital replica of its assets. But an organizations needs smart building technology solutions. If the organizational objects are being met with the asset performance analytics applications then they are in good hands.

Want to know more about Asset Performance Strategy for CRE? Attend the virtual session Re: CONNECT organized by UNISSU (sponsored by Xempla) on Jan 07th, 2021 REGISTER HERE