In Episode 80 of Razorleaf’s Stay Sharp podcast, Digital Twins Unlocked: PDM’s Version Power, co-hosts Jonathan Scott and Juliann Grant tackle the next installment of their series on digital twins. This time they focus on products and digital twins with hardware components, noting that while hardware isn’t a part of every product, many will have it and the type of hardware that’s involved can vary wildly. Together, Juliann and Jonathan dive deep into the where, why, and what of digital twins with hardware.
Product Hardware Usually Means PDMs
Hardware components typically live in a product data management (PDM) system. While other software, such as employee resource planning (ERP) or product lifecycle management (PLM) systems, can contain PDM capabilities, and some computer-aided design (CAD) systems can even have PDM add-ons, companies usually store their CAD files in PDM. Jonathan says, “Sometimes it’s going to be on a file system, sometimes people are going to store on their hard drive, on the network, on a cloud app or something. But a lot of times, PDM is where you’re going to want to find this stuff.”
PDMs evolved specifically to handle and more importantly manage mechanical CAD files. “We started making better and better models of the physical design of the thing and then realized … they’re a lot easier to manipulate than paper drawings were,” Jonathan explains. “And once it was easier to change, then you made a lot more changes, which meant you made a lot more files, which made meant you could have a mess. And so you need a system to manage it.”
Configuration Management is Critical
Hands down, the most important functionality that PDM offers is configuration management. That means the ability to manage full assemblies made up of sub-assemblies made up of individual parts, as well as to track versions of every item. Configuration management is not “Get me the latest, it’s get me what I want, get me the accurate representation of whatever I’m asking for. That’s a key piece of digital twins, because you need to be able to get what you’re looking for, not just the latest or best.”
Because PDM systems focus on configuration management, they can also easily handle and organize the different formats and needs each engineering discipline has for their files. Mechanical CAD files are primarily assemblies, one file per component in your hardware. “You’re going to put them together in an assembly file,” Jonathan says. “You’re not actually making copies of all that data, of the geometry of the nut or the bolt. The assembly is pointing to the other file. There’s no duplication of data.” Electrical CAD files, on the other hand, have different needs, such as being able to reference an external library of components or including multiple schematic files for different layers. “They manage it differently, but they still need some PDM to keep the right versions of the files together in the right way to give you the right version of the total design that you’re looking for,” he notes.
What Else You Need to Support Digital Twins
Fundamentally, you have to think about the purpose you have in mind to identify the specific capabilities you need in a PDM system, though there are capabilities that likely apply across the board. Effective data synchronization is one, because you need something to collect and handle different inputs from different systems at different stages of completion. While bills of material (BOMs) can be one tool to manage large models—such as a motor, Jonathan offers—robust configuration management needs to be able to bring all the data together, each piece in its current state, and to be able to update those states as they change.
Feedback loops are another component that might be important to your digital twin, whether that’s getting feedback from internal testing or from products in consumers’ hands. Further, there isn’t just one kind of test data. “Two pieces of testing,” Jonathan says. “There’s simulation, digital testing, and then there’s physical testing, literally put it on a lab bench, hook up the wires, or stick it in a thermal chamber, whatever it might be. And those are two different animals.”
Learn More About Hardware and Digital Twins
The full podcast contains more discussion and details on a variety of topics, including how BOMs can complement digital twins in multi-discipline product manufacturing, how to track exactly how you built your product last Tuesday, where the first iterations of digital twins developed, and more.
Be sure to check out Stay Sharp Episode 80: Digital Twins Unlocked: PDM’s Version Power and join us each week for a new podcast.
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