The Value of Digital Twins and IoT Based Services in Creating Lifecycle Value in B2B Manufacturing Companies

The objective of the ongoing research was to understand, through B2B manufacturing case companies, what role digital twins connected to the real-world asset, using the industrial internet of things, has in innovating asset-based services. The relationship between collected data and Digital Twin to create lifecycle partnership value between the equipment provider and operator were of interest. The research approach used was design science and data collection method were semi-structured interviews. The initial results show that the case companies can improve service case management initially when using IoT to collect operational data. However, the challenge is identifying the relevant services to develop and offer to the customer that create a lifecycle value and partnership on the long-term. The value created is difficult to quantify to the customers in the case companies and this limits the strategic investments. The benefits from data driven services is seen, but how to connect the collected data into new services is limited. Often the potential benefit was only realized once the services were being used by the customer, and it was typical to pilot these services in the real-world. From this ongoing research, the conclusion is that the role of the digital twin is important in verifying these new service offerings and testing them prior to implementation.