Digital twin and digital thread within the product lifecycle management

In today's VUCA-defined age, accelerated by the rapid digital transformation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the business sector needs to be able to adapt to expected and unexpected changes. Consistently improving the product quality and managing the whole product life cycle, starting from the new product development (NPD) process, and the related data, are important aspects of keeping a company competitive in a global landscape. This paper highlights the growing potential of Industry 4.0, particularly the digital thread (DTH) and digital twin (DT), in addressing these challenges. The research revealed existing gaps in clarity and practical guidelines for digital twin prototypes (DTP) and DTH in the existing literature. Moreover, additional issues within product life cycle management (PLM) were stated, regarding frequent data loss and the complexity of product audits in the perspective of a continuous improvement. Therefore, a definition and novel framework for DTP and DTH implementation was proposed, after analyzing and comparing state of the art literature. This framework is additionally based on product audits carried out during the design stage of the product development process using requirements engineering and quality control information added within the suggested framework. Preliminary tests with DTP and DTH commercial off-the-shelves and prototype solutions were carried out with a consumer product. The tests enabled delivering a better understanding of DTPs, their potential, and their implications for decision-making and implementation.