Towards a Cyber-Physical PLM Environment: The Role of Digital Product Models, Intelligent Products, Digital Twins, Product Avatars and Digital Shadows

Over the last year, there was rarely a day without industry announcing a new project involving Digital Twins or a scholarly publication with Digital Twin in the title. However, given the novelty of the concept and the pace of these developments, there are several fundamental open questions yet to be answered. In this paper, we take a step back and holistically discuss the Digital Twin and its related concepts. We aim to explore the “engineering requirements” for developing a Cyber-Physical Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Environment to support the cyber-physical product lifecycle – the foundation of functional and effective Digital Twins. Furthermore, we provide definitions for a digital product model, an intelligent product, a cyber-physical product, a product avatar, a digital shadow, and a digital thread, and discuss their interrelations as the main building blocks for developing a CyberPhysical PLM Environment.