The Data Centric Architecture of a Factory Digital Twin
are trivially satisfied and contain no useful information . Rather only a very small number of the mathematical relationships are generated to describe the solution and prove that it is good or best . VirtECS implements such an approach for FDTs . In particular , VirtECS shrinks the bucket size to be nearly infinitesimal in duration so that its technology actually implicitly generates millions of mathematical variables and relationships per hour of the timeline that is modeled . This highly specialized approach integrates the generation and solution of the mathematical entities . To our knowledge VirtECS is the only FDT system that has implemented such an approach and the tools of infinite dimensional programming available to generate good or even optimal time-based solutions for FDT .
5 REAL WORLD FDT
In this section , we summarize real-world examples of FDTs . Using the formalism of the RTN , Figure 5-1 provides examples of several FDT for world scale manufacturing plants in different industries where VirtECS has been used . This data is new , has never been published , and shows that practical FDT have a wide range of characteristics . The FDTs of Figure 5-1 are used on an ongoing basis for planning and scheduling and engineering analysis / retrofit and on an occasional basis for facility fit to support sales processes for contract manufacturers . In addition to the basic RTN statistics ,
Figure 5-1 also contains the span of time over which an analysis or schedule has occurred in the example and the amount of time ( rightmost column ) required for the VirtECS system to obtain the solution ( Gantt Chart ) on a 3.0 GHz Intel processor computer with 64 gigabytes of memory . Figure 5-1 shows that real world FDT use can predict many months of activity in only a few seconds to few minutes and are practical using inexpensive computers . The longer activity span applications tend to be for engineering analysis / retrofit or facility fit applications and the shortest activity span are for detailed scheduling applications .
The planning uses of FDT cover an activity span of several weeks to many months . Real world applications model from the low hundreds of manufacturing tasks / steps to over one thousand task / steps over all modeled products . Real world FDT typically model dozens to low hundreds of pieces of equipment . Most real world FDT model renewable resources . Even among specific industry applications , such as drug substance , there are a wide range of FDT model sizes reflecting differences in real world plant sizes and the degree of detail of the model for the application .
Journal of Innovation 107