A Little Too Much Turbulence
As you embark on a flight from Portland, OR, to Ontario, CA, the anticipation of basking in the sun after a dreary Oregon winter fills you with excitement. Your excitement builds as the plane takes off from the runway and climbs into the air. However, this moment is abruptly shattered when the emergency exit door, merely two rows in front of you, rips off the plane, causing a rapid drop in air pressure. People start panicking, and luggage falls from the overhead compartments. This nightmare was not the trip you imagined.
This dramatic scenario unfolded on January 5, 2024, when Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 was scheduled to make a routine trip from Portland to Ontario. Shortly after takeoff, the failure of a door plug due to a manufacturing error caused the emergency exit door at the center of the plane to detach violently, leading to an uncontrolled decompression of the fuselage. Although alarming, this accident is not the first incident involving a Boeing 737 MAX 9 malfunctioning due to manufacturing errors.1 See Figure 1 for a visual representation of total accidents from 1969-2020.
In fact, recent incidents have led to 171 of the 217 Boeing 737 Max 9 planes being grounded while the FAA investigates Boeing’s manufacturing practices. How could a company as technologically advanced as Boeing miss a bolt on their emergency door? What are the solutions?
A technology known as “digital twins” has the potential to dramatically change the future of manufacturing and predictive maintenance. This article will delve into the essence of digital twin technology, examine its current applications, and present potential future uses within various industries.
The Origin of the Digital Twin
The term “digital twin” was first introduced by Professor Michael Grieves of the Florida Institute of Technology. In his original definition, he stated: “The Digital Twin is a set of virtual in formation constructs that fully describes a potential or actual physical manufactured product from the micro atomic level to the macro geometrical level.”2 Simply put, a digital twin is a virtual copy of a physical entity. This innovative idea has expanded to include various applications, fundamentally transforming how industries approach design, maintenance, and optimization. By linking the physical and digital worlds, digital twins offer tremendous insights into inefficiencies and potential improvements.
A paper from the journal Decision Support Systems discusses how the digital twin was born out of necessity. Before digital twins, manufacturing a new product required many iterations of design and testing. All this data was traditionally tracked using paper-based systems. The conception of digital twins was to facilitate the transition from this traditional, paper-based method to a more dynamic, digital model that could serve as the foundation for the entire product life-cycle management.3
The applications of digital twins are vast ranging from aerospace to automotive, manufacturing to urban planning,. By enabling a continuous feedback loop, this technology allows for real-time analysis and predictive modeling, potentially ushering in a new era of efficiency and innovation across multiple sectors.
Current Implementations
Digital twins are currently being utilized in various industries. Boeing is one of the market leaders in utilizing digital twin technologies. However, they use the term “digital thread” to describe the same concept.
In practice, there is little difference between these concepts. Boeing uses digital threads to track information about airplane components during production.5 Once a plane is produced, these systems are terminated. Future aircraft maintenance is tracked using logbooks or web-based maintenance tracking software. PlockControl is a new company specializing in developing digital twin technology at the microscopic level. Their goal is to create highly granular digital twin work f lows that track individual manufacturing components down to irreducible parts (the nuts and bolts).6 Their CEO, Sven Porepp, is a firm believer in the future of digital twin technology stating:
“Digital twins bridge the physical and virtual world that enable continuous data exchange, visualization, and optimization. They enhance productivity, quality, and flexibility while enabling data-driven decision making and new business models. Digital twins are a necessary component for the successful realization of the 4th Industrial Revolution.”7
The current implementation of digital twin technology is incomplete and has focused on low-volume, highly complex, costly systems such as jet engines, manufacturing facilities, financial systems, pharmaceutical processes, etc.8 The potential for digital twins to transform manufacturing and predictive maintenance is still unrealized. More data is needed at increasingly granular levels to realize the full potential of industry 4.0.9 A recent market study by Markets and Markets revealed that the digital twin industry is on the cusp of exploding.10 Digital twin technology is maturing to the point of widespread adoption. Soon, most large manufacturers will adopt this practice as it becomes the cheapest option. Companies like PlockControl will lead this surge of growth as they position themselves as primary providers and market leaders in high-granularity digital twin technology.
Future Applications for Digital Twin Technology
The horizon of digital twin technology stretches far beyond its current applications, promising to revolutionize the aviation industry with unprecedented precision and foresight. Envisioning a future where every individual airplane and every component within that airplane is paired with its digital twin opens a new realm of possibilities for enhancing safety, efficiency, and sustainability in air travel. This approach involves creating highly detailed virtual models of aircraft, encapsulating every component, from the engines and landing gear to the smallest bolts and electronic circuits. These digital twins allow for optimal virtual assembly of planes before their physical construction. By integrating data from onboard sensors, digital twins offer real-time insights into the aircraft’s operational status, predict maintenance needs, and identify potential issues before they escalate.
The granularity of information provided by digital twins allows airlines to move from reactive to predictive maintenance strategies. This shift not only has the potential to significantly reduce downtime and operational costs but also to dramatically improve the safety and reliability of air travel.11
For instance, sensors embedded in air craft components can monitor wear and tear, temperature fluctuations, and other critical parameters. This information can be fed back to the earliest stages of part production—from design to raw material sourcing, production, tool design, sub-assembly, and final assembly.12 This data feeds into the digital twin, enabling algorithms to analyze the information and predict when parts might fail or require servicing. By anticipating maintenance needs, airlines can prevent unexpected malfunctions, such as the catastrophic loss of an emergency exit door, ensuring 15 that every flight is as safe as possible for passengers and crew alike.
Applications for Digital Twins in Different Fields
Beyond aviation, digital twin technology can revolutionize the design and manufacturing of cars, trains, planes, and more. By simulating and testing products in the virtual world before physical models are built, engineers can optimize designs and enhance traceability 13, 14 With digital twin technology, marking and attaching digital twin information to individual parts enables infinite traceability. Since the Boeing door plug incident, Boeing stock has lost over $35 billion due to the failure.15 Importantly, they are unable to pinpoint with surgical precision which components or airplanes are still defective. Digital twins of every individual component would solve this problem.
These enhanced processes made possible by digital twins could lead to the development of more efficient, environmentally friendly products by allowing for the optimization of design elements. Furthermore, by continuously updating the digital twin with operational data, manufacturers can use insights gained from the virtual model to inform future designs and improvements.16
Conclusion
Adopting digital twins is a significant leap toward a future where predictive maintenance is commonplace, not a rar ity. Just as an aircraft is inspected thor oughly before each flight, the aviation industry must scrutinize every insight digital twins offer. Doing so will ensure a safer, more cost-effective journey for all.
Notes
1. “Boeing Shares Tumble After US Grounds 171 MAX Jets,” The Sun, accessed March 1, 2023, https://thesun.my/business/boeing-shares-tumble-after-usgrounds-171-max-9-jets-OP11961593.
2. Michael Grieves, Origins of the Digital Twin Concept, August 2016, doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.26367.61609.
3. Grieves, Origins of the Digital Twin Concept, 5.
4. “Let’s Connect: Digital Thread Advances Manufacturing,” Boeing, accessed March 3,
2023, https://www.boeing.com/innovation/innovationquarterly/2022/10/let-s-connect-digital-thread-advances-manufacturing.
5. Boeing, “Let’s Connect.”
6. Andrew Lear, “A Personal Interview with Andrew Lear, CFO, About PlockControl,” interview by James Lear, BYU, March 3, 2023.
7. Sven Porepp, “A Personal Interview with Sven Porepp, CEO, About PlockControl,” interview by James Lear, BYU, March 3, 2023.
8. Lear, interview.
9. Lear, interview.
10. Porepp, interview.
11. Jinkang Guo and Lv Zhihan, “Application of Digital Twins in Multiple Fields,” Multimedia Tools and Applications 81, no. 7-8 (2022), https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11042-022-12536-5.
12. Eric Vanderhorn and Mahadevan Sankaran, “Digital Twin: Generalization, Characterization and Implementation,” Decisions Support Systems 145 (2021), https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167923621000348.
13. Aidan Fuller, Fan Zhong, Day Charles, and Chris Barlow, “Digital Twin: Enabling Technologies, Challenges and Open Research,” Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 8 (2020), doi:10.1109/access.2020.2998358.
14. Fuller, Zhong, Charles, Barlow, “Digital Twin: Enabling Technologies,” 7.
15. “Boeing Co, BA,” Morning Star, accessed March 20, 2023, https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xnys/ba/quote.
16. Fuller, Zhong, Charles, Barlow, “Digital Twin: Enabling Technologies,” 9