On September 12th, 2023, the joint efforts of the Innovation Booster Databooster and Microtech brought to life a transformative workshop on « Digital Twin and Data Usage » in Zurich.
The workshop aimed to bring together experts from various fields, and it delivered on that promise in every sense.
Exploring Current Challenges: Our gathering of 20 passionate participants from both the German and French-speaking parts of Switzerland delved deep into the dynamic world of Digital Twins. We uncovered current challenges, unlocking profound insights that will shape the future.
Four Enlightening Keynotes:
- Joël Grognuz from CADFEM led the way, sharing experiences of implementing Digital Engineering. He illuminated the concept of a Digital Twin as a « virtual representation of real-world entities and processes » with real-world examples, propelling us toward a future where « machines as a service » will redefine industries.
- Antoine Jeanrichard from Digiinov emphasized that the « Digital Twin journey starts with Data Ingestion and Integration. » He delved into technical aspects, sparking important questions about data governance and problem modeling.
- Shaun West from the HSLU took a delightful detour, pondering, « What could a digital twin do for me to improve the coffee? ». He explored the service design approaches to innovate new value propositions that Digital Twins could enable around a coffee machine. Digital Twins, indeed, are our allies!
- Philipp Schmid from CSEM illuminated the intricacies of « Production Data for Predictive Quality » in the context of complex machinery. Switzerland’s famed quality standards and the growing consumer demand for traceability. Philipp explained how AI can unlock competitive advantages from machine data while avoiding data waste.
Workshop Breakout Sessions:
The journey continued with three subject-specific workshops, each brimming with ideation and solutions.
Here’s a glimpse:
Group 1, led by Joël Grognuz, explored problems like « how to make supervised learning super easy for SMEs? », and also the predictive maintenance with data analysis and virtual sensors.
Group 2, under Antoine Jeanrichard’s guidance, delved into B2B data sharing, emphasizing the critical role of data quality validation and agreements between manufacturers and SMEs. One of the problems discussed was » How to share data between equipment users and manufacturers in a trusted way? »
Group 3, facilitated by Shaun West and Philipp Schmid, began with the simple coffee machine. Problems discussed were for example « How to get a quantitative indication of the factor attribution for the differences in characteristics between Starbucks shops globally? » or « How to better schedule machines maintenance between peak times? »
Workshop Outcomes:
The day culminated in these vibrant discussions, fueling our drive to innovate and collaborate. We hope the Data and Microtech boosters can finance collaborative and innovative feasibility studies around those topics.
Our heartfelt thanks to all participants and speakers for making this workshop an enriching experience.
Let’s continue this journey of discovery and transformation, harnessing the immense potential of Digital Twins to shape our future.