The Age of Digitalization in Industry: From Digital Twins to Digital Product Passport

Abstract

In the age of digitalization, new tools are emerging everyday accommodating Metaverse. Integration of digital world to the real world requires a flexible transition framework demonstrated by digital twins (DTs). By definition, DTs constitute a foundation enabling seamless connection using the existing and upcoming emerging technologies. The industry does not exempt from this shift as the digital transformation of industry is already on the way of updating from Industry 4.0 to 5.0. Currently, any transformation attempt is tightly associated to the sustainability development goals. The circular economy requirements challenge the efficiency of the ongoing production mechanisms phrased as smart manufacturing. Therefore, the digital product passport (DPP) envisioned being a way of pursuing the digitized information through the Internet of Things technology in a production life cycle chain. In this work, a guideline of digital transformation from DTs to DPP is provided on a smart manufacturing process implemented in a laboratory. The connection between DTs and DPP is shown for a factory model, while discussing possible avenues as well as challenges for further development of industrial Metaverse. As a result, this study serves as a foundation for companies under digital transformation in achieving better understanding of DT and DPP for a greener, sustainable circle economy.

Keywords

• Factory Model
• Industrial Metaverse
• IoT
• Smart Manufacturing
• Sustainability

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