Digital twin has become a buzzword in the supply chain industry, and refers to a virtual representation of a physical process. A supply chain’s digital twin is a simulation of that supply chain as a whole. In this episode, we challenge the claims that digital twins are delivering on their promise of conducting accurate simulation and what-if modeling to immediately see the impact of various supply chain decisions.
If the idea of having your supply chain condensed into a computer screen, gamified with the ability to accurately predict the consequences of your actions sounds too good to be true - indeed because it is. Unfortunately, this future foreseeing crystal ball is shattered when it comes to matching a simulator to reality. “A real life supply chain simulator” is shiny wrapping paper on a software whose technology is far more simple than that. A series of vendors are repackaging decades old concepts for simulators. The only thing that has changed is that the processing power has become cheaper.
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0:00:00 - Introduction
0:00:34 - What does a digital twin look like for the user?
0:2:55 - Are there any hard core innovations within digital twins?
0:03:30 - Vendors who sell digital twins phrasing it as a supply chain simulator. Would you say that it’s supposed to be similar?
0:03:54 - What is a virtual supply chain?
0:05:54 - Are fancy descriptions nothing but a way to package a software?
0:08:16 - What are the supposed benefits of digital twins?
0:08:56 - Some of the claims of a digital twin is being able to project all different types of scenarios and see the impact of that. Is that similar to what we do at Lokad?
0:11:47 - Is your opinion that a digital twin is a forecast packaged inside a digital twin label?
0:17:59 - How does a digital twin blend with a classic ERP system?
0:22:03 - One of the claims from vendors is that a digital twin has an intuitive dashboard that can show the output of what-if scenarios. What is your criticism of that and equally what benefits can we get from a digital twin?
0:26:01 - What are your ideal qualities in a simulator?
0:28:47 - The forecast behind the simulator curtain that can tell you the output of any decision does sound great, as if it was this magic ball. But what can be said about its accuracy?
0:31:22 - If we tweak something and see the output of that, that sounds like a time-series forecast to me - is it?
0:34:11 - Sounds like an RFP process with many different variables, how can you compare two digital twins?
0:35:33 - The question still remains - what decision is the best to take?
0:37:08 - What is your definition of a digital twin?
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