Digital Twin Consortium Unveils Updated Definitions

BOSTON, MA, Oct. 03, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the Digital Twin Consortium® (DTC) announced revised definitions for digital twin and digital thread, aligning these concepts more closely with core digital engineering principles. These refined definitions underscore the central role of digital twins and digital threads in advanced digital engineering disciplines and methodologies, highlighting their importance in creating comprehensive, data-driven ecosystems across various industries.

"Our updated definitions reflect the evolving landscape of digital engineering. "By aligning our terminology with established digital engineering principles, we're fostering a common understanding that bridges multiple sectors and applications over the digital twin lifecycle,” said Dan Isaacs, GM & CTO of the DTC.  “These revisions underscore DTC's commitment to creating an aligned and more unified understanding of real-world application digital twins that bridge theoretical concepts with practical applications. DTC members are working together to foster greater understanding, more transparent communication for more effective collaboration, and accelerated innovation and adoption throughout the digital twin ecosystem."

"The revised digital twin definition emphasizes synchronization and data, with a model-based approach tied to engineering technology. Grounded in physics, it supports the full life cycle from simulation to decommissioning digital twins. By refining this definition, we enable more accurate, real-time representations, leading to better decisions, improved efficiencies, and deeper insights across industries,” said Dr. David McKee, Co-chair of the DTC Capabilities and Technology Working Group and Lead Author of the DTC Definition Team. "Intrinsically linked to the digital twin, the refined digital thread definition highlights critical elements, including seamless, secure data flow across the product lifecycle and all organizations, silos, and stakeholders. Focusing on trust, security, and reliability provides digital twins' assured foundation and lifeblood for confident decision-making and continuous improvement."

The DTC’s definitions have been updated to more closely reflect the language from the National Academy's Science, Engineering, and Medicine, including emphasis on the mirroring of systems' structure, context, and behavior, dynamic updates, bidirectional interaction, predictive capabilities, and value-driven decision-making, as published in the 2004 Foundational Research Gaps and Future Directions for Digital Twins report.

Learn more about the DTC’s digital twin and digital thread definitions on the DTC website.  Become a DTC member and join the global leaders in digital twin technology.

About Digital Twin Consortium
Digital Twin Consortium® (DTC) is Accelerating Digital Twin Innovation™.  DTC executes on the promise of digital twins and associated technologies by working closely with our members to accelerate the market. We do this by fostering development, raising awareness, increasing adoption, and improving the interoperability of digital engineering projects propelled by digital twins across many industries.  DTC is a program of Object Management Group®. For more information, visit https://www.digitaltwinconsortium.org.

Note to editors: Digital Twin Consortium is a registered trademark of OMG. See the listing of all OMG trademarks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Karen Quatromoni
Digital Twin Consortium
978-855-0412
Karen@omg.org