Richard Irwin, senior product marketer for digital twin and industry marketing, Bentley Systems, has highlighted the benefit of digital twin integration to simplify daily operation and maintenance activities, as well as boosting operations and productivity
Asset-intensive industries, such as oil, gas, and process industries, mining, electric, gas, and water utilities, and rail and transit transportation, rely on accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date information for effective operations. However, through maintenance, procurement, modifications, and upgrades, asset information is always changing, and all these functions use the same information.
Therefore, it is imperative that asset information is consistent across all consumers to ensure safe, reliable, and efficient operations. But the information is often held in disparate and unconnected silos with limited management of change across the digital ecosystem, resulting in personnel spending a lot of time trying to find the information they need and verifying its validity and accuracy. This can result in making wrong decisions and increasing costs due to duplication or the wrong work being carried out, which ultimately puts the safety of the workers and the reputation of the organisation at serious risk.
What is required is a digital solution that connects these disparate sources together, validates the information, brings visibility to all changes across the asset lifecycle, and ensures reliability at the point of use.
Market-leading asset lifecycle information management software, such as Bentley’s AssetWise® ALIM, can help you unlock the value in your digital information from the day it is deployed. Whether you are in the planning stage of a new project, or operating an existing asset, you need a flexible system that is easy to implement and ready when you take the first step on an asset management or digital twin journey to save costs, improve safety, and reduce risk.
Reliable information is the foundation of a digital twin
A digital twin is a virtual representation of real-world entities and processes, synchronised at a specified frequency and fidelity. Digital twin systems transform business by accelerating holistic understanding, supporting optimal decision-making, and enabling effective action.
Ideally, an ALIM system should operate in an open, interoperable, and connected environment, offering a set of cloud-provisioned services that provides support to digital workflows, context, and concepts, enabling access to accurate, reliable, and consistent information. A set of standard connectors to multiple third-party systems, such as SAP and Maximo, ensures all users are accessing a common, validated, and up-to-date source.
Support your digital twin
Used as the starting point of your digital solution, ALIM is integral for keeping your digital twin evergreen through formal change management and workflow automation. This is achieved within AssetWise ALIM via an iTwin viewer that enables access to your asset’s operational information in the context of reality models, 3D models, and 2D drawings. ALIM users can search for assets based on specific criteria and then visualise them within the iTwin platform for further analysis.
Remote familiarisation and control of work
Safety requirements, workforce flexibility, remote sites, and infrequent maintenance are driving the need for virtual, simultaneous familiarisation and control of work. A digital visualisation layer, such as that provided by Bentley within their ALIM application, allows a facility to enable dedicated teams, workers, and contractors to prepare work safely and efficiently, while reducing the need for on-site visits.
For more information, visit www.bentley.com/en
