Towards the Development of a Digital Twin for a Sustainable Mass Customization 4.0 Environment: A Literature Review of Relevant Concepts

Abstract

Digital Twins (DTs) are one of the disruptive technologies associated with the Industry 4.0 concept. A DT connects the physical manufacturing system with the digital cyberspace, via the synchronization of the simulation (i.e., physical configurations) and data models (i.e., product, process, and resource models) of the manufacturing system. This synchronization of both worlds—the physical and digital—allows one to address the issue of manufacturing customized products. This challenge of mass customization (1) puts forward the goal of achieving the highest level of customer satisfaction, and (2) creates the need for the optimization of the complete value creation process. Within an Industry 4.0 context, the latter is translated as the interlinking of production resources and systems, via a DT, as it is in the physical world where the actual value-creation process takes place. The success of an Industry 4.0 mass customization environment (or mass customization 4.0), depends on its degree/level of sustainability. For these reasons, the present paper presents a review of relevant concepts related to the role of DTs in the achievement of a mass customization 4.0 environment, plus some proposals of how to address the identified research challenges. A future research agenda is proposed at the end of the paper.

Proposal of Industry 5.0-Enabled Sustainability of Product–Service Systems and Its Quantitative Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Method

“…As one further step, the proposed Industry 5.0-enabled sustainable product-service system logic and framework should organically be fused with the configuration representation of the as-designed product in the three-dimensional design environment, and even in the digital twin environment [64]. With the help of the digital-twin-driven design method, ensuring the recyclability and disassembly of customized products, as well as implementing effective recycling programs, becomes possible and accessible to reduce waste and environmental impact.…”

The impact of digital twins on the evolution of intelligent manufacturing and Industry 4.0

“…According to Gartner, by 2021, half of the large industrial firms to use DTs in crucial business applications (Panetta 2016 ). DT's rapidly growing market suggests that demand will continue to escalate in the immediate future (Botín-Sanabria et al 2022 ; Martínez-Olvera et al 2022 ). A recent market analysis predicts that DT's market share will increase by $24.8 billion from 2020 to 2025.…”

Design of Customized Garments Towards Sustainable Fashion Using 3D Digital Simulation and Machine Learning-Supported Human–Product Interactions

“…Hence, classical garment design and manufacturing should be innovated to satisfy the requirements of the SF in a more optimized manner [6]. For this purpose, garment e-mass customization (e-MC), aiming at enhancing the quality of products and their manufacturing to fulfil the consumer's personalized demands, has been adopted by many fashion companies [7][8][9]. Conventionally, quality customized garments are obtained by repeatedly performing the circle of "design-evaluation-adjustment" using physical prototypes.…”