A digital twin offers a risk-free way to test process changes. However, knowing how to develop and install one can be challenging. This useful six-step framework will help get you started on creating and applying a digital twin.

A digital twin helps deliver an effective business transformation

A digital twin is a virtual copy of an organisation. It’s used to help businesses understand the way they operate, and trial process changes to discover their effects.

The virtual aspect may have been developed fairly recently, but the digital twin concept has been around for some time. In fact NASA used twinning principles during its early missions, creating physical, earthbound models of its spacecraft.

This was particularly useful when the Apollo 13 mission hit trouble in 1970. Controllers mirrored conditions on the damaged craft and safely tested procedures that brought the stricken astronauts home.

Use a framework to guide your digital twin implementation

Hopefully your business process transformation isn’t quite as dramatic. Here on earth, a framework like this from BusinessOptix will help you develop and use a digital twin. Focusing on six key areas to cover, it provides a structured path to implementation.

Six steps to implementation

Diagram showing six steps to implementing a digital twin

1. Understand your business drivers

Why are you implementing a business transformation? Which market conditions are giving rise to it? It’s important to set a baseline so you know your start point and can measure changes.

2. Define goals and strategy

Set out your vision of where you want to get to. What is your ideal future state? What are you going to focus on at a high level? How can the team support this strategy with an action plan?

3. Strategy execution

Before rushing to the destination, you must understand where your organisation is today. This will help you identify gaps and opportunities to improve. And, you can decide whether to make major transformative changes or move gradually from one state to the next.

4. Performance management

Set and track metrics that show how your tests are performing. Be prepared to adapt your processes in response to the results.

5. Continuous intelligence

Make sure you constantly monitor and pull insights from your live data to learn how processes are working. Are they achieving the desired results? The software delivers insights in real time, allowing you to make informed decisions.

6. Decision making

This step combines the outputs from performance management metrics and continuous intelligence. Use the actionable insights you’ve uncovered to make data-driven decisions about the process changes. The digital twin remains, as a basis for test-and-learn initiatives to generate continuous improvement.

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Start your business transformation journey with a digital twin

At Cocoon, we deliver solutions to help you meet your organisation’s challenges. Contact us for help in developing a digital twin framework.

For more support on how to create a digital twin

This article is adapted from a more detailed white paper by BusinessOptix. Download the full white paper here: how to create a digital twin of your organisation’s business operations