Digital Twins: How to Avoid the Pitfalls of BIM

The aim of this whitepaper is to highlight the possibilities of digital twins and to debunk the myths surrounding them.

Foreword

Over the past decade, we have witnessed an unprecedented transformation in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO) industry in the UK but also abroad.

From the early use of collaborative 3D technologies mandated as part of the UK Government Construction Strategy in 2011¹ (put into practice in 2016) which certainly accelerated the adoption of Building Information Modelling (BIM); to the introduction and eventual fall from grace of Virtual Reality (VR)², the buzzwords in this industry change as frequently as the trends at London Fashion Week. The nirvana of BIM supposedly promised the now infamous 20% construction cost savings that were nowhere to be seen. Therefore, there is no surprise the level of scepticism that any such a new concept receives. Thus, to avoid similar misconceptions from the past, we have contributed to the development of the Digital Twin Toolkit³ in order to first define what we mean by a digital twin and second to clarify the business case as well as the benefits this newly rediscovered concept brings.

This whitepaper therefore expands on the toolkit by providing advice and suggestions from our own experience and the journey of the past ten years so as to avoid the same pitfalls that BIM has led to. A client claiming they have “BIM getting delivered next Thursday” only for the team to discover it is just a computer with a pre-installed Revit is one such example.

Jozef Doboš CEng
Founder and CEO, 3D Repo

Introduction

In a nutshell, Digital Twins (DTs), as the name suggests, provide a form of a digital counterpart for a physical asset. They promise to transform construction delivery and Facilities Management (FM), boosting operational productivity, quality and ultimately profitability in the process. But the clients’ ambition for the technology will fall flat if important lessons are not learnt from the prolonged and often painful BIM roll out from the past decade that finally after some amount of “emotional scarring” resulted in an ISO standard4.

Assuming you have read the Digital Twin Toolkit by Centre for Digital Built Britain available for free online: https://digitaltwinhub.co.uk/files/file/62-digital-twin-toolkit/ and decided a DT can bring tangible commercial benefit to your organisation, the aim of this whitepaper is to then highlight the possibilities of digital twins and to debunk the myths surrounding them. It also draws on the experiences of implementing BIM while challenging the industry to avoid the same pitfalls by approaching digital twins in a radically different way.

This white paper defines:

• The status quo of digital twins and how the concept fits into today’s AECO industry;
• The power of mutual understanding and agreement of what determines a digital twin;
• The advice on how to avoid the potential to overwhelm and overcomplicate;
• The questions on how to determine whether tools you need are right in front of you;
• The misunderstanding of old vs new data;
• The benefits of implementing 4D BIM for the purposes of DTs;
• The need to streamline coordination between all parties for a DT to succeed.

Download the free white paper below to learn more.