Digital twins are bringing “clear and visible benefits” to organizations, with almost one in five seeing reductions in costs and eight out 10 cutting carbon emissions, according to a global survey
The Digital Twin Industry Report from Hexagon found that 62% of executives and senior leaders see “immense value” in the technology.
Almost half (49%) cite improved efficiency as a major benefit.
The report surveyed 660 C-suite level executives and senior leaders across 11 industries.
Impact on RoI and financial health
While less than half of those surveyed (46%) have a structured system in place to track return on investment from their digital twin, those that do are seeing significant benefits, with 92% reporting RoI of more than 10%.
Almost one in five (19%) said they have generated an average cost saving, while another 19% reported average revenue growth.
Hexagon said the value generated by digital twin technology is reflected by a broad will to invest in the technology over the next 12 months.
Some 56% expect to increase investment by between 5% and 25% and another 16% expect it to increase by more than 25%.
An additional 19% expect their digital twin investment to remain about the same and just 4% forecast a decrease.
Digital twins performance exceeds expectations
The survey found that digital twins are delivering beyond the expectations of leaders.
While 19% of leaders who do not use digital twin technology expect it would increase collaboration, 44% of those who do use it reported an improvement.
Another 47% of digital twin users reported more proactive problem-solving against at expectation of 28%, 38% reported reduced carbon emissions versus an expectation of 23% and 44% reported reduced costs versus an expectation of 32%.
Organizations prioritising good data
The biggest challenges for organizations building digital twins are data quality (43%) and data integration/interoperability (42%), the survey found.
However, leaders are proactively working to tackle these problems and improving data collection is the number one area for investment over the next 12 months.
