In Stay Sharp Episode 128, Business Digital Twins: Modeling for Resilience and Growth, co-hosts Jonathan Scott and Juliann Grant sit down with John Biagioni, president of Lampin Corporation, who brings a unique perspective on manufacturing, operations, and problem-solving for business. He walks listeners through the how and why of expanding your digital twin beyond the product and beyond the factory to your entire business.
John Biagioni, Lampin Corporation
Explaining the Large-Scale Model
What the business digital twin allows a company to do is plan for the survivability of the business. With the twin, you can simulate different scenarios that could impact operations and apply financial modeling that can help you understand leverage and how to get your business to thrive. “Why is this important?” John asks. “Because most markets are cyclical in nature, so having an understanding of how your factory might look in terms of the nuts and bolts of the finance side in a digital modeling, that’s huge.”
Jonathan appreciates the layering of ideas that help manufacturers plan for the unexpected. “You think about that business continuity plan. How do I run end to end? What if I get disrupted here, here, here, or here? What does it mean? That makes you think about what is your model of the overall business,” he explains. “The core of a model is, do I have things that let me run my ‘what if’ calc?” According to John, the time implementation aspect adds another layer that can help an organization decide if your problem will be better solved by workers or a faster machine, for example.
Creating Value
Value stream mapping, a lean manufacturing tool, is fundamental to the process of creating the business digital twin. At John’s company, they start with those “what if” discussions in a conference room and go to paper before going digital. When things go wrong, he says, “A digital model can help you actually understand and communicate with your customer more effectively and build a higher sense of trust inside of that network.” Jonathan compares that to a virtual twin, which is “I think my business works like this. A digital twin is, I’ve checked it at various points, and I’ve recalibrated it so now it really reflects what happens today in my business,” he says. No model is ever static, so iteration is key, as are the active inputs—whether the temperature in your facility or electricity usage.
The digital twin creates value for stakeholders, too. As a business leader, John has three groups to satisfy—employees, board of directors, and customers—and each benefits in different ways. He says, “In terms of the digital twinning, it’s really establishing the trust across all those groups that in the face of change, we will be okay.” Lampin Corporation is relationship-driven, and the digital twin enables John and his team to respond to customers when they ask if Lampin can solve their problems or ease their pain points—not just once for one customer, but over and over for hundreds of customers.
Transparency is another benefit that a business digital twin helps companies realize. John explains that the digital model helps Lampin predict what’s possible, and if the customer’s request isn’t doable, the model helps him offer alternative solutions or strategies. “I think that it always tends to better outcomes when you’re as transparent as possible, even with your problems,” he says. “Not communicating has always led to the worst results. It’s the surprise that usually loses work. And that’s something we have to work on—I think everyone has to work on. Because we’ve all been in circumstances where the downside surprise is not communicated until after the expectation has passed.”
The business digital twin is a practical way to finally do all the things that manufacturers ought to or want to be doing, Juliann says. “We hear a lot about, we need to be more agile, we need to mitigate risk, and we need to do all these things. But what you’re offering is an approach to actually do those things, take those steps.” John closes with the lesson manufacturers learned during the pandemic. The focus on efficiency has been replaced with a focus on resilience, he says. “Modeling provides resilience that previously wasn’t there.”
Learn More About Digital Twins for Your Business
The full podcast contains more discussion and details on a variety of topics, including what rheology is and why John is such a fan, how to make your own house the kind of data-rich environment that can help you anticipate energy use, why he says “seasonality does not exist,” and more.
Be sure to check out Stay Sharp Episode 128: Business Digital Twins: Modeling for Resilience and Growth and join us each week for a new podcast.
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