Establishing production environments requires joint decisionmaking by stakeholders from many disciplines at different levels of aggregation, because of the significant, unpredictable, and risky investments involved. Pilot plants offer a platform to develop, test, improve, and upscale (parts of) a production environment. They consist of physical and virtual components that are integrated, based on the digital twin concept. This concept synthesises sensoring/measurement (in situ and ex situ) with the modelling and simulation of existing and evolving resources/processes at operational, tactical, and strategic levels. Virtual dashboards supplement the pilot plant to provide an insightful basis for decision-making for all the perspectives and stakeholders involved. OPSOMMING Om produksie-omgewings te ontwikkel, vereis gesamentlike besluitneming deur belanghebbendes uit baie dissiplines op verskillende vlakke van aggregasie, weens die beduidende, onvoorspelbare, en riskante beleggings betrokke. Proeffabrieke bied 'n platform om (dele van) 'n produksie omgewing te ontwikkel, te toets, te verbeter, en op te skaleer. Hulle bestaan uit fisiese en virtuele komponente wat geïntegreer is gebaseer op die digitale tweeling konsep. Hierdie konsep verskaf waarnemings/metings (in situ en ex situ) met modellering en simulasie van bestaande en nuwe hulpbronne/prosesse op operasionele, taktiese, en strategiese vlakke. Virtuele gebruikerkoppelvlakke vul die proeffabriek aan om 'n insiggewende basis te bied vir besluitneming vir alle betrokkenes en belanghebbendes.