Benefits & Challenges of Process Plant Digital Twins in Process Industries : A Single Case Study Approach in the Mineral Processing Industry

Abstract: Background: The Digital Twin is an increasingly trending technology that utilizes many of the key technologies relevant to the digitalization of industries and Industry 4.0, such as AI, Big Data, and IoT, to bring a virtual asset and a physical asset together to perform analysis and execute real-time decision making backed up by data (Grieves & Vickers, 2017; Rasheed et al., 2020). Current research on the benefits and challenges of Digital Twins in process industries is sparse and under-developed, and the significance of Digital Twins in their operational lifecycle phase requires investigation (Perno et al., 2020; Schleich et al., 2019; Sjödin, 2013). Research Questions: RQ1: What are the benefits of industrial process plant Digital Twins for companies in process industries? RQ2: What are the challenges that companies will face with industrial process plant Digital Twins in process industries? Literature Review: A theoretical framework was developed based on the applications, challenges, and enablers researched in other industries which acted as a foundation for the data collection process. Research Method: The thesis follows a qualitative research approach. A single-case study was employed with a large equipment supplier in the mineral processing industry, where data was collected through 17 semi-structured interviews with people possessing in-depth knowledge about the needs of the mineral processing industry. Findings: Five main benefits of industrial process plant Digital Twins in process industries were identified, Process performance, Monitoring and control, Predictive maintenance and scheduling, Business opportunities, and Safety. Correspondingly, four main challenges were identified, Perception and presentation, Privacy and security, Data management and performance, and Mutual scope and focus. Conclusions: The thesis project's managerial and theoretical implications include providing equipment suppliers in process industries with what benefits there lie with industrial process plant Digital Twins and which challenges must be overcome. By providing these benefits and challenges to equipment suppliers, they can prioritize which of these are most important to consider in their situation. The thesis contributes to the research of Digital Twins and adds to the sparse existing knowledge of what the benefits and challenges are of industrial process plant Digital Twins in process industries. The main limitation is the absence of process plant companies during the data collection phase.