Digital Twins in Vietnam Manufacturing?
Vietnam is becoming a major exporter of textiles, footwear, electronics, and other manufactured goods. We believe that Digital Twins technology can create significant value in these industries.
Textiles Industry
When it comes to some of the benefits that digital twin technology will provide, there’s a huge amount of potential for textile quality, production, and manufacturing.
By “twinning” wool harvesting farms, monitoring weather conditions and simulating future events that could accurately predict a farm’s productivity every single month, digital twin technology will aid farmers in using the data that is being generated in order to predict the best wool harvesting times. This will help farmers achieve optimal wool quality which will have a direct positive impact on the quality of textile and cloth that is being produced.
One of the biggest factors that determine the productivity of a textile factory and the number of goods that it produces every year, is plant health. For instance, in order to harvest cotton, farmers have to determine the most optimal time of the year it needs to be harvested in order to retain the quality and thickness of the cotton. This can be quite tricky to determine because if there is a huge plant illness or virus that is deteriorating the crops, the amount of cotton that will be produced will be very limited and the quality of the material itself will be poor. Things like viruses and illnesses will be easily prevented using digital twin simulations. By simulating every single plant in the farm field and constantly monitoring their health, cotton producers will be able to use data to simulate the future and how the plants will act during specific weather conditions.
Footwear Industry
In the past, CAD systems evolved from a need to engineer products — that is to create patterns, to design and develop tooling, and to grade to the sizes required. In parallel with this was the recognition that document version control, standardised parts and data management were also needed. In footwear, even if 3D was used, it seems there was little need to create a rendered image as the industry was geared up to create product samples — and the expectation from design, product and marketing teams was therefore to make decisions based on real samples. We should also remember the fact that computer hardware through the 80’s, 90’s was limited and very expensive and the software at the same time didn’t do a great job of rendering — with the exception of some high-end applications that were not typically used for footwear or apparel.
Fast forward to today. Covid lockdowns have changed the way we live, shop and relax. Consumers are used to almost seamless integration between the real and virtual worlds, whether in films, social media, advertising or shopping. Brands that have not adapted quickly are losing market share.
The result of this is the need to bring more products to market, faster and with less overhead — and to engage a consumer that’s accustomed to interacting with (and paying for) digital items. This is the perfect situation for virtual products to thrive — either as digital fashion, which is a subject we’ll tackle another time, or as digital twins of physical products still in production, allowing the brand to showcase a shoe before any examples of it are held in inventory.
Electronics Manufacturing Industry
Electronics manufacturers face the constant pressure of needing to introduce new, innovative, and durable products, at a faster pace, and sooner than their competitors. For many who have seen the value, and embraced the digitalization brought on by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the deluge of information on hand is often overwhelming. The key to success, lies in making sense of the information, knowing which data streams to pay closer attention to, and then implementing the learnings, to achieve improved productivity, increased efficiencies, decreased costs, and streamlined processes.
Over the past two years, digital twins have increasingly been used to consolidate all this information through the creation of “living”, digital, simulation models that continuously learn, and update, from the real-world data that streams from the embedded sensors in their real-world double.
The market, which is being led by the Electronics and Electrical/Machine Manufacturing industry, is forecast to reach $15.66 billion by 2023 from $1.82 billion in 2016, at a CAGR of 37.87%, and is driven by the growing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT). The key players operating in this market include General Electric (US), IBM Corporation (US), Microsoft Corporation (US), Dassault Systèmes (France), and Siemens AG (Germany).
Conclusion
We believe that Vietnam has the potential in moving up the manufacturing value chain and will become a major manufacturing hub for textile, footwear and electronic goods. As manufacturing is becoming more and more digital, industrialists should consider digital twin technology to enhance productivity, efficiency and quality.
For more information, please contact contact@ach-worldwide.com or visit www.ach-worldwide.com
References
https://www.challenge.org/insights/digital-twin-in-textile/
https://www.theinterline.com/2021/04/23/retooling-why-the-future-of-footwear-is-digital/
