Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
  • Publication
    Methodology to develop Digital Twins for energy efficient customizable IoT-Products
    Products are increasingly individualized and enhanced to be able to communicate, e.g. via Industrial Internet of Things (IoT). However, the impact of products on sustainability (environmental and social) across their life is often not considered and analyzed. IoT-based or smart products, that are able to communicate, generate data, which can be used to monitor and optimize sustainability indicators. The Digital Twin (DT) is a new technological concept which focuses on product individual data collection and analysis. It provides the possibility to make use of the available data and optimize the systems individual sustainability as well as future product generations. However, the design and realization of such a DT requires new approaches and capabilities, which is an identified research gap. Therefore, this paper presents a methodology to develop DTs of physical IoT-based products, the so called DT V-Model with the aim to optimize the systems sustainability, specifically environmental aspects. It is based on the V-model for the development of smart products and is enhanced with additional roles and approaches for DT development. The methodology is described in detail. The result of a development cycle according to the DT-V-Model is a tested concept of a DT, which includes Digital Master (DM) data from the planning phase and Digital Shadow (DS) data from the production, operation and End of Life-phase. For a DT for energy efficiency, the Digital Master model consists of the information and models from the product development phase including the planned production and use phase energy consumption. The Digital Shadow consists of the actual production energy consumption and the use phase energy consumption. The methodology is applied to a use case of an IoT-based consumer product that can be customized to a certain degree by the consumer. A DT is developed to monitor and optimize the products energy efficiency in production and use. The necessary elements of the DT and the capabilities are depicted. The paper shows the feasibility of the methodology for the development of DTs, the necessary adaptions to common approaches for development and the specific characteristics of DT development for the aim of energy efficiency.
  • Publication
    Enabling automated engineering's project progress measurement by using data flow models and digital twins
    ( 2021)
    Ebel, Helena
    ;
    ;
    Stark, Rainer
    A significant challenge of managing successful engineering projects is to know their status at any time. This paper describes a concept of automated project progress measurement based on data flow models, digital twins, and machine learning (ML) algorithms. The approach integrates information from previous projects by considering historical data using ML algorithms and current unfinished artifacts to determine the degree of completion. The information required to measure the progress of engineering activities is extracted from engineering artifacts and subsequently analyzed and interpreted according to the project's progress. Data flow models of the engineering process help understand the context of the analyzed artifacts. The use of digital twins makes it possible to connect plan data with actual data during the completion of the engineering project.
  • Publication
    Progress for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment by Means of Digital Lifecycle Twins - A Taxonomy
    ( 2021) ;
    Neugebauer, Sabrina
    ;
    To understand and optimize the impact of a product along its lifecycle, the consideration of social, economic and environmental factors is of increasing interest for customers and regulating institutions. In this context, Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) is used to monitor and understand the trade-offs of the three sustainability dimensions. Today, LCSA still faces major challenges, such as availability, actuality and validity of data or consistent and appropriate measures to support Design for Sustainability. New technological innovations may support the enhancement of the methodology. In the background of a digitized product and service lifecycle, especially Industry 4.0 technologies, Digital Twins and the integration of Artificial Intelligence may solve data and feedback challenges through new ways of data collection, transfer, validation and intelligent analysis. This paper aims at exploring this potential of new technological innovations for an enhanced LCSA of capital goods and durable consumer goods as well as related services and proposes a taxonomy. Therefore, a literature review to identify existing digital solutions and research gaps is established. For the identified gaps, a new concept, the Digital Lifecycle Twin for LCSA is presented. The authors address both, the positive but also the negative implications put on the LCSA framework from a sustainability perspective. Ultimately, these findings will contribute to the enhancement of the LCSA methodology as well as to the design of a support system to enable environmentally and socially sound design of products and services.
  • Publication
    User centered development of a digital twin concept with focus on sustainability in the clothing industry
    ( 2020) ;
    Dorfhuber, Lisa
    ;
    Stark, Rainer
    The optimization of a product's socio-economic and environmental impact is gaining more relevance for customers and regulating institutions. Still, there is a gap between sustainable attitude and behavior. In this context, new technologies are explored to stimulate sustainable consumers' behavior. This paper aims at analyzing the concept of a Digital Twin and its sustainability impact. The authors present a user centered development of a Digital Clothing Twin with the aim to foster sustainability in the Mid-of-life and End-of-Life-phase. The sustainability impact of the Digital Twin concept as a potential solution as well as part of the problem is discussed.
  • Publication
    Systematic literature review - Effects of PSS on sustainability based on use case assessments
    ( 2020) ; ; ;
    Klemichen, Antje
    ;
    Stark, Rainer
    Product-service systems (PSS) are often presented as an inherently sustainable business model. The argumentation is often based on theoretical considerations, which cite circular economy (CE) characteristics in PSS business models as an explanation. In this paper we examined to what extent positive and negative sustainability effects of PSS could actually be observed, based on use cases. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review and analyzed the statements on sustainability effects based on the triple bottom line approach. We find that positive sustainability effects, especially on the environmental sustainability of PSS, are described disproportionately often, which may be indicating a possible publication bias. In addition, the methods used to derive statements on sustainability effects are very heterogeneous and often unsystematic, making it difficult to compare the described effects. Furthermore, we were able to identify drivers that are particularly often considered in literature to be responsible for sustainability effects. As a result, we were able to derive direct implications for future research in the field of sustainability assessment of PSS.
  • Publication
    Feedback to Design with Digital Lifecycle-Twins - literature review and concept presentation
    ( 2018) ; ;
    Stark, Rainer
    In this paper, the authors propose a concept for optimizing the design process as well as product-related features and services through learning from Digital Twin data and establishing a continuous feedback loop from downstream phases of the product lifecycle to the design phase. As a first step, a systematic review of existing concepts in literature as well as a gap analysis is conducted. The presented concept details existing Digital Twin concepts and implementations by focusing on the specific objective of realizing Feedback to Design and integrating the lifecycle aspect.
  • Publication
    Industrielle Netzwerkanwendungen in der Virtuellen Produktentstehung
    ( 2018)
    Stark, Rainer
    ;
    Der Artikel behandelt die Zukunft des Engineerings und untersucht unter anderem, wie sich aktuelle Veränderungen in der Produktentwicklung, die Digitalisierung der Produktion sowie neue Technologien und Smart Services auf die entstehenden Informations- und Datenflüsse auswirken. Als Vorbereitung für den Aufbau einer Testumgebung wurden hierfür die Auswirkungen auf industrielle Netzwerktechnologien und entsprechende Anforderungen systematisch analysiert. Dafür wurden zunächst im Rahmen eines Literaturreviews relevante Trends und technologische Innovationen identifiziert und diese im Rahmen einer Expertenumfrage auf ihre Relevanz, Barrieren und Handlungsfelder aus Sicht der Wissenschaft bewertet. Als Resultat konnten verschiedene Anwendungsfälle der Zukunft abgeleitet werden. Zur tieferen Analyse der Informations- und Datenflüsse wurde der Ansatz der Datenflussarchitektur des Fraunhofer IPK angewandt.