Utilising Digital Twins to Bolster the Sustainability of Logistics Processes in Industry 4.0

Abstract

Industry 4.0, characterized by the integration of advanced technologies, has allowed industries to optimise operations, reduce waste, and minimize environmental impact. Digitalization has become a cornerstone for achieving sustainability goals, and one of the key enablers of Industry 4.0 is the digital twin. The digital twin provides real-time insights and simulations to optimise processes. Organizations can thus optimise not only their operations but also contribute to a more resilient global supply chain. The aim of the paper is to present a comprehensive methodology for implementing the digital twin principle in the Tecnomatix environment. The Tecnomatix model is connected to Siemens PLC SIMATIC S7-1200 utilizing the OPC UA (Unified Architecture) method and through KEPServerEX, V6.14.263.0. The described approach enables continuous monitoring of critical indicators to optimise production efficiency and address downtime issues.

Immersive Digital Twin under ISO 23247 Applied to Flexible Manufacturing Processes

“…Within the state of the art, it is observed that most of the works presented by other authors do not follow a standard for the design of DT architectures; however, as a developing technology, several industries and universities have focused their attention on it. For the design of 3D environments, several CAD version 2022 softwares are used: among the main ones are Blender and Solid Work; for communication, the most used protocols are OPC UA, TCP/IP, AMQP, MODBUS, and MQTT; and in the physical environment, the process data are obtained by PLCs or embedded systems [20,29,31,32]. In addition, the integration of several technologies is evidenced to enhance the characteristics of the DT.…”

“…The results obtained indicated that the use of DTs increases the accuracy of the system representation, allows for monitoring the state of the process, and provides information that can be used for decision-making at different levels of the process. In [28,29], they present the design of a high-fidelity DT for an articulated robot and an architecture to reinforce the sustainability of logistics processes in Industry 4.0; they rely on Matlab 2023 software, the Simscape Multibody tool, and industrial devices. A PLC, Open Platform Communications United Architecture (OPC UA) communication, and data transmission through KEPServerEX V6 software were used for further processing.…”