If it is possible to create a complete digital twin in each of the ecosystems surrounding systems, products and manufacturing processes and to connect them intelligently, this will pave the way for truly smart manufacturing. Automation can also be taken to the next level with digitalization to enable new business models. Within the Friedhelm Loh Group, sister companies Rittal, Eplan, Cideon and German Edge are bringing the expertise in their domains ever closer together.

The digital system twin

The system twin ensures data consistency in electrical automation planning from engineering to construction and operation.

© Rittal

Since the 1980s, automation technology for factories can start with a digital circuit diagram and logical circuit diagram. Eplan, for example, has established itself as a standard application in the industry. In addition to the software from the Friedhelm Loh Group provider, plant manufacturers now use another standard - the Eplan Data Portal - which can be used to load most commercially available components with all relevant data as models from a library.

The 3D model is then created in software such as Eplan Pro Panel, which can be used as a digital twin of the plant - ideally as a 'single source of truth' in the Eplan Cloud. This 3D model contains relevant information that also belongs to the real system and is important for its planning, construction, commissioning and operation: the automation logic, the wiring of the entire electrical system, the control cabinets including their contents and structure as well as the functionality of the system and its individual components.

As this digital twin contains highly relevant information about what makes up the production plant, it is not only used for its planning and construction, but is also increasingly being used for processes related to automation and, above all, digitalization - starting with engineering, i.e. the design and layout of the plant, through planning and programming of the control system to the actual mechanical engineering and ultimately to the operation and servicing of the factory.

As the digital plant twin is of such great importance, especially across different areas and processes, it can now be accessed and used directly as the Rittal ePocket via a QR code on the enclosure. From now on, the digital twin in the Eplan Cloud accompanies the real enclosure throughout its entire life cycle. If all the electrical engineering data of a machine or system is available digitally, changes can be fed directly back into the project and potential downtimes can be reduced to a minimum.

The digital product twin

The product twin is used to configure the product from the customer requirement through to manufacturing.

© Rittal

One of the core motives for the smart factory is the focus on individualized production under mass production conditions. Manufacturing requires suitable, production-relevant data such as parts lists for each product type or even each individual product in the correct format. In addition to the customer's configuration information, component information or design updates from the PLM can also be incorporated. This data must run along the chain from configuration by the customer through production to delivery.

In other words, production requires a high-quality, complete, digital data record for each product or workpiece - a digital product twin. This is where the abbreviations come into play that are part of the daily vocabulary of every engineer in the manufacturing industry, just like the corresponding software solutions: CAD, PDM/PLM and ERP. As a partner for Autodesk and SAP, Cideon helps customers to work with the systems involved in an integrative process. In essence, this involves the integration of CAD from the most widely used tools AutoCAD, Inventor, Solid Edge, SolidWorks and Eplan with the aim of creating a single source of truth. Ideally, Cideon also paves the way for data to be transferred directly to production at the touch of a button: for example, complete 3D models from which drawings can be derived and CAM processing data can be generated automatically.

Nowadays, the product twin is created long before its physical counterpart, which is manufactured on machines and systems that are themselves reflected in the digital system twin. Companies, their partners and customers can use the product twin to simulate and test planned functions of the future product, run through form and function variants, and simplify and shorten the order process.