Using Digital Twins for Managing Change in Complex Projects
Jennifer Whyte (Imperial College London, University of Sydney)
Ranjith K. Soman (Imperial College London, TU Delft - Integral Design & Management)
Rafael Sacks (Technion)
Neda Mohammadi (University of Sydney, Georgia Institute of Technology)
Nader Naderpajouh (University of Sydney)
Wei Ting Hong (University of Sydney)
Ghang Lee (Yonsei University)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Complex systems are not entirely decomposable; hence, interdependencies arise at the interfaces in complex projects. When changes occur, significant risks arise at these interfaces as it is hard to identify, manage and visualise the systemic consequences of changes. Particularly problematic are the interfaces in which there are multiple interdependencies, which occur where the boundaries between design components, contracts and organisation coincide, such as between design disciplines. In this paper, we propose an approach to digital twin-based interface management, through an underpinning state-of-the-art review of the existing technical literature and a research agenda to identify the characteristics of future data-driven solutions. We set out an approach to digital twin-based interface management and an agenda for research on advanced methodologies for managing change in complex projects. This agenda includes the need to integrate work on identifying systems interfaces, change propagation and visualisation, and the potential to significantly extend the limitations of existing solutions by using developments in the digital twin, such as linked data, semantic enrichment, network analyses, natural language processing (NLP)-enhanced ontology and machine learning.