Adopting a digital twin strategy can lead to significant emissions reductions and cost savings. Alex Brihac, VP of AEC strategy and execution at Hexagon’s Geosystems division, discusses the findings of research from Hexagon and what they mean for the potential of digital twins in the AECO sector
Digital twins are precise digital representations of assets or processes in the physical world that use dynamic data to help simulate, analyse, monitor and optimise performance.
To understand the status quo of digital twin adoption, Hexagon interviewed 660 global executives across 11 industries, including AECO, for its Digital Twin Industry Report.
Digital twins: An essential capability for impact
Generally, across all industries and sectors, the survey validated that digital twins enable companies to achieve sustainability goals by reducing emissions, while typically exceeding expected cost reductions.
Across all industries, 77% of organisations report that implementing a digital twin helped reduce carbon emissions, averaging a 15% reduction from targets. Given that many businesses are targeting net zero emissions by 2050, digital twins can form a significant component of their reduction strategies.
Furthermore, 92% of organisations across all industries who track the return on investment (ROI) of their digital twins report an ROI of more than 10%.
Across all the industries surveyed, only 32% of leaders without digital twins expected cost savings as an outcome, but 44% of the leaders with digital twins reported cost savings.
This indicates that companies are underestimating the cost reductions achieved by implementing digital twins, which on average were reported to be approximately 19% across the asset lifecycle.
Many believe that digital twins will be costly to build and run. But according to the survey, this isn’t the case, with cost overruns at the bottom of the list of challenges people reported. Given the fiscal constraints affecting most businesses and governments, turning to digital twins can be a prudent strategy to keep costs in check.
Zooming in: A closer look at digital twins in the AECO sector
Companies which have implemented digital twins in the AECO sector reported comparable benefits as other industries across reduction in emissions and cost, and improvements in ROI.
Examples of impact are seen across the entire project lifecycle, ranging from optimising the design of assets using their digital twin to simulate energy consumption scenarios, to improving construction productivity using digital twins to plan field operations.
Developing and maintaining a digital twin generally turns out to be less costly than people anticipate.
Like other sectors in the survey, “cost overruns” were one of the lowest reported challenges for AECO leaders implementing a digital twin – and financial benefits accrue incrementally over the lifespan of a building.
Despite experiencing similar benefits to other sectors, the report identified the AEC sector as lagging in digital twin adoption, with only 52% of leaders saying they are implementing them on their projects, the lowest of all the sectors surveyed.
Owners – notably building and facility managers – were found to be more mature in their adoption of digital twins, with 67% of leaders saying they have a digital twin, as they continue to extract value beyond construction across the entire building lifecycle.
Owners without digital twins were more optimistic about energy efficiency and cost reductions compared with AEC leaders without digital twins. Interestingly, however, upon implementation of digital twins, the distinction fades as actual benefits experienced did not differ greatly between the two groups.
So, what’s holding AEC stakeholders back? Some regard digital twins as overhyped, doubting if the technology can deliver, concerned that they are too complex and expensive to implement, and believing that there is too little value to extract from them. But responses in the report indicate the contrary.
To capture the above benefits, AECO organisations should capitalise on the potential of digital twins, and further implement them on their projects using best practices across four dimensions:
- Define the use case: Digital twins in the AEC sector can range from representative models used to simulate various conditions (ie digital twin prototypes) to as-built digital representations of existing assets (ie digital twin instances). Defining the target outcome and use case of the digital twin early on is critical to ensure the right digital twin is built.
- Select the right technology: Digital twin technologies have become ever-more reliable and user-friendly, making them easier to implement by project teams. The offering today from technology providers brings a mix of hardware and software solutions which can be integrated in workflows and largely automated.
- Be pragmatic: As teams gain a more comprehensive understanding of the technology stack, they will target and expand real-value creation use cases. While the most progressive groups and projects inspire the industry to push boundaries, a pragmatic approach to digital twins is the norm for most companies. This involves starting small with one use case, and expanding as the project progresses and more data becomes available.
- Partner and get help: Technology providers become innovation partners. Emerging business models mean that technology providers offer support throughout the journey of defining a digital twin strategy, as well as services for implementing and maintaining the digital twin.
Given the push of cost pressure and sustainability requirements along with the pull of current technological advances, the industry is poised to fully harness the benefits of digital twins.
You can download the full report and take your digital twin self-assessment here.
