A Maturity Model for Digital Twin Implementations in the Commercial Aerospace OEM Industry

The latest advancements in digital and computational technologies are increasingly enabling original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to create digital ‘living’ replicas of their products, commonly referred to as Digital Twins (DTs). This concept is especially relevant for Commercial Aerospace Industry (CAI) OEMs, whose business models rely heavily on high-quality service delivery, and learning about the status of each individual product could translate to cost savings of the order of millions of dollars. However, while extensive debate has taken place about the specifications of a complete, idealized DT, there is comparatively little discussion about the process and key decisions necessary for implementing such concept. This makes it difficult for managers and executives to devise strategies for implementing their DTs, as well as understanding where improvement is needed or where a competitive advantage exists. This work seeks to alleviate that gap through the development of a 10-dimension maturity model for DT implementations in CAI OEMs. Using a design science research methodology, the dimensions and their corresponding maturity levels are derived systematically. A novel framework for the derivation of maturity dimensions is presented as well. The maturity model will be helpful to industry practitioners in CAI OEMs who are seeking to benchmark their own DTs or develop an implementation strategy. For academics, this maturity model advances discussions about contextual DT implementation processes. Finally, a contribution is made to the maturity model development literature through the proposed maturity dimension derivation framework.