Digital twins can see firms boost sustainability efforts and sales

The majority of organisations are now leaning on digital twins to boost their operational performance. Market leaders enjoy boosts to sales and sustainability of around 25%.

Digital twins are virtual replicas of physical systems that can model, simulate, monitor, analyse, and constantly optimise the physical world. As customer preferences and regulations evolve, amid increasing concerns about climate change, digital twins can help firms build predictive models, which can help develop products that meet this demand, and buoy sales in the process.

A new Capgemini Research Institute report has examined how digital twins add intelligence to real world business decisions, showing how the benefits stack up for those deploying them.

Polling 1,000 organisations, the researchers also conducted in-depth interviews with industry executives and academics to understand the technology’s transformative impact.

Understanding of the potential of digital twins among business leaders is widespread. The study found that respondents believed the process could provide benefits across all facets of business – improving top and bottom line drivers. For example, leading top line drivers for digital twin investments saw 73% of those asked suggest it could help reduce time to market, while 67% said it could introduce new business models, and 65% said it could boost customer-centricity.

Meanwhile, top bottom line drivers saw 79% assert digital twin investments would lead to saving costs, and 71% anticipated improving operational efficiency. Leading on from this, 60% said twinning could lead to improved sustainability efforts. All this means it might not be a surprise that 60% of organisations across major industries have already deployed digital twins to accelerate both their operational performance and sustainability agenda.

So how is this translating in terms of business performance? According to Capgemini, the results are still mixed. While organisations did realise a multitude of benefits from their digital twin implementations, the number to see positive impacts in each area were still only in the teens. For example, 16% said they had improved sustainability, and 15% said they had increased operational efficiency – while the same number saw customer satisfaction and sale improve.

This is not to say firms should be discouraged from digital twin projects, however. Capgemini also identified a selection of firms who were ‘frontrunners’ in twinning – and used them to show the potential that could be realised if firms stick with their investments in the technology. According to the researchers, these firms realise as much as 75% higher benefits from digital twinning, compared to average companies.

In this case, close to a quarter of firms enjoyed improved sustainability. Meanwhile, 23% said they saw improved customer engagement and sales – coupled with 21% noticing decreased costs.

According to Roshan Gya, Global Head of Intelligent Industry at Capgemini, these leaders had succeeded by bridging the ‘physical-digital’ gap, using twins to unlock value, bring synergies across data, technologies, and business processes, and are at the core of Intelligent Industry transformation.

Gya concluded, “Digital twins offer a unique opportunity for organisations looking to accelerate their journey towards intelligent operations, while increasing profitability and enabling a sustainable future.”