A Sustainability-Centric Assessment Framework for Digital Solutions Across Industries

In today’s increasingly digitalized world, the implementation of emerging digital solutions in product development, production, and maintenance unlocks transformative potential and helps businesses maintain competitiveness. However, the implementation of such solutions often requires significant (initial) investments. This makes it essential to be able to determine and assess their impact even before their implementation. This paper presents an assessment framework for digital solutions, such as Digital Twins, Virtual Reality, and worker assistance systems, incorporating the three pillars of sustainability. The framework provides a structured template that guides the user step-by-step through the process of identifying and assessing the anticipated ecological, social, and economic effects. This process is based on the identification of success factors and associated KPIs. The assessment framework was evaluated through workshops conducted with industry and scientific experts. During these workshops, participants applied the framework to different use cases of digital solutions, thereby testing its practicality and effectiveness. The findings demonstrate the ability of the developed assessment framework to provide a comprehensive overview of the expected impact of digital solutions, serving as a valuable decision-support tool. By incorporating aspects from all three pillars of sustainability, the framework ensures a holistic assessment process. With its flexible and scalable design, the framework seamlessly adapts to diverse industries and application domains, serving as a versatile tool for assessing digital solutions.