Digital twin-based services

Abstract

We are witnessing an increased interest and advanced developments of
Digital Twins (DT) across different industries; manufacturing,
construction, oil and gas, aerospace, energy or healthcare among others.
Some actors are already realising that the power of DTs goes beyond
efficiency gains and cost savings for internal processes, and recognise
the potential of DT to enable the design of new service offerings.
Uncovering the potential of DT in the development of new value
propositions may lead firms to business model transformations,
particularly to the expansion of servitization strategies. Thus, there
is a need for more research exploring DT as a service enabler, and
shedding light on the typologies and characteristics of these innovative
digital services. To address the need for a more comprehensive
understanding of DT-based services, we develop a taxonomy able to
classify and characterise services enabled by DT. To develop this novel
DT-based services taxonomy, we drew upon literature review and use
cases. In our ongoing research, four main dimensions emerged to
configure a taxonomy of digital twin-based services: service recipient,
target operand resource, service content and service pricing model. The
proposed taxonomy is intended to be useful in the understanding of the
current DT-based service offerings and design principles. In addition,
the taxonomy has potential to be used as a practical tool for service
providers in the development of new DT-based services.