Digital twin technology — awareness, implementation problems and benefits

Abstract Aiming to ensure current market needs, manufacturing companies search for tools and methodologies that would help them deliver their products efficiently and cost-effectively and enable them to become a part of Industry 4.0. Digital twins are a technology created based on the idea of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The solution helps recreate physical devices in virtual space based on gathered data. It supports performance tests, configuration changes, and predictive maintenance without engaging existing machines. The paper aims to gain knowledge about the awareness level of the digital twin technology among industry representatives and identify the most important problems that stand in the way of implementing the technology in enterprises. The research focused on market awareness of the described technology. It also examined how companies use employee suggestions to improve their organisations and the factors that influence process efficiency. The methods used for the research were a literature review and cross-sectional survey conducted with 50 employees of manufacturing and IT companies. The research showed the need to implement digital twins in enterprises. Half of the survey respondents replied that the technology would help improve the efficiency of the company’s processes. The main benefit of the conducted research is identified awareness of the technology among industry representatives. In the future, the research will be extended to include the analysis of specific cases affecting the implementation of digital twins in enterprises.