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What is a virtual twin and how is it used in business and manufacturing processes
Virtual twins are essentially another human being or a machine designed to replicate your actions and reactions. They are often used for training purposes, but many companies have created virtual twins for the hospitality industry, so that employees can train with someone virtually without impacting the guest experience. In manufacturing processes, virtual twins are often used to do predictive analysis. For example, if you walk up to the drive-through lobby at Burger King, your movements and face will be scanned by the cameras in the lobby. The virtual twin of you then proceeds to take your order. This is a very useful technique in order to predict customer reactions and reactions of others.
Virtual twins are also used in business, especially in marketing and sales. Many companies have created virtual twins for their sales teams to learn how to sell more effectively. Theoretically, if you can duplicate the actions of someone else, you can improve your sales skills by a large number. This allows companies to test new products or approaches to a client before they are introduced. In the hospitality industry, virtual twins can be used in restaurants and hotels to learn more about their customers. This helps system managers and managers of the restaurant to anticipate customer demand and improve customer service.
How to create your own virtual twin for product development and testing
A virtual twin is typically created by equating your performance with that of a human counterpart , and then controlling them as though they were actually you. Virtual twins can be created from the same employee or from different employees, often times from someone who goes through the same training as you. To create a virtual twin for testing, gather all of the input data for your product and create physical test cases for each possible scenario the product could encounter. Once you have collected the inputs, build an algorithm that creates virtual twins from those inputs. Each input record is a virtual twin. This data can be fed into a predictive analysis tool. The predictive analysis tool will create a model based on the virtual twins.
The virtual twin is used for situational testing; it is used to evaluate your product and scenario performance as if it was in real life. The data that is collected from the predictive analysis is a result of what can happen within the product or scenario. You can use incremental testing or behavioral based techniques to test your virtual twins. Once the predictive analysis is done, you can test the product scenarios one at a time to see if there are any issues with using the model in the predictive analysis.
The benefits of using virtual twins in business and manufacturing
Virtual twins can help businesses understand the impacts of actions earlier than they normally would. This allows a business to discover negative outcomes sooner, giving them a chance to pivot, rather than experimenting and then discovering that they have wasted all of their time. Virtual twins can also predict the impacts of your actions on other aspects of your business, such as supply chain and operations. Virtual twin research is essential for any manufacur turing process in order to meet quality standards. It can also help with market research and product development.
In a business setting, virtual twins can be used to record the actions of co-workers or to test a concept. A positive example of what virtual twins can do is the J.D. Powers Automotive Reports, an automotive industry test market. For this test market, virtual twins are used to record cars at a dealership in different cities and their sales figures are compared with that of other dealerships in their respective areas. The results of these tests can be helpful for other dealerships, who may pick up on trends and patterns that could help them as well.
Virtual twins are great for testing just about any product or service. The benefits of using virtual twins in business and manufacturing is that time is often a premium in business, especially at the beginning. Virtual twins can save you time, allowing you to test your product without wasting hours on a sample size that you won’t be able to use in your real-world launch. Along with saving you time, virtual twins allow you to test your product at an early stage, which will save you money. If you are able to see flaws in your product earlier, then these flaws won’t be there in the real world launch. There are many areas of business that this can apply to, including manufacturing and marketing.
Case studies of companies that have successfully implemented virtual twins into their operations
GE healthcare has created virtual twins for several reasons. One reason is that it takes too long to test their products on patients in the hospital, so virtual twins are a faster alternative. GE also uses virtual twins in customer service training to replicate real customers (and their attitudes) and put employees through their paces before they have to deal with real patients. In an aviation application, virtual twins were used to test the airplane with a hammer and throw passengers around during flight tests.
GE healthcare created virtual twins for several reasons. One reason is that it takes too long to test their products on patients in the hospital, so virtual twins are a faster alternative. GE also uses virtual twins in customer service training to replicate real customers (and their attitudes) and put employees through their paces before they have to deal with real patients. In an aviation application, virtual twins were used to test the airplane with a hammer and throw passengers around during flight tests.
How to get started with virtual twins if you are interested in using them in your business or manufacturing process
GE has begun using virtual twins on several projects. They are also training their employees to understand the concept of virtual twins and their use for predictive analysis. However, using them in customer service and development is still not as common as it could be, mainly because many companies do not understand the benefits they can provide. For example, a customer service representative or developer may have to spend 15 minutes or more getting documents created (or in the case of manufacturing, waiting for available tools and equipment). Virtual twins can reduce that time to less than one minute. They can also be used with customer orders and production orders to learn what those orders will do and how they will affect the company’s business while they are in progress.
