The digital twin is becoming increasingly important as a central prerequisite for the implementation of cyber-physical systems in the context of Industry 4.0. The development of a successful digital twin concept is not only associated with considerable effort, but also requires a fundamental examination of the development concepts already available in the literature, as the use of the technology has not yet become widespread in certain areas, such as production. In recent years, conventional production has often been converted to smart production. As a result, recent research work has also focused on the topic of the digital twin. Specifically, the work examines processes in the concept of digital twins. The basic information and functionalities of classic and current digital twin concepts are explained. Since the respective works are dedicated to different domains and the processes dealt with differ significantly in some cases, the question therefore arose as to whether there is a generally valid process model that spans the domains and can be used for the development and further development of digital twins. The advantage of the model developed is that the underlying process steps do not have to be evaluated for each individual development and domain of such a digital twin. The generally applicable process model therefore facilitates the introduction of the concept in practice and thus reduces the implementation time and costs.

Wolfgang Heindl

o.Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Christian Stary