Ep: 42 Make Sustainability Easy with the Virtual Twin Experience

Transcript for Sustainability and the Virtual Twin Experience

Introductions

THERESE: Welcome to our DELMIA podcast, Global Operations on the Go. I'm your host, Therese Snow. Today we have a very special show featuring two guests. We will be discussing sustainability and the Virtual Twin Experience. Here with me are Wendy Klotz, DELMIA Strategic Business Development and Marketing Director and Prashanth Mysore, DELMIA Senior Offer Marketing & Strategic Business Development Director. Welcome, Wendy and Prashanth!

WENDY: Thank you, Therese. I'm very happy to talk on this topic with you and Prashanth.

PRASHANTH: Thanks Therese and Wendy. Thanks for having me here, which is such an important topic on sustainability. Thank you for having me here.

THERESE: Yes, absolutely. My pleasure, and I concur, sustainability is a very important topic. So eager to get going. Why don't we do this: Let's start with telling our listeners a little bit about yourselves. Wendy, why don't we start with you.

WENDY: I’ve been involved in a marketing and business development role for the past 25 years, specifically for the manufacturing industry, and one of the things that I have become very aware of and interested in, as in my professional role and my personal life, is the role of sustainability and its importance in our everyday lives and the future of where we're going to be living, and especially our children. So it's something I've taken a particular interest in pursuing, and how we can communicate better and promote better solutions for our environment.

THERESE: That sounds great, and I think that's really an important topic, not just in the workplace, but also at home. So thank you, Wendy, for sharing that. Prashanth, what about you? Why don't we start hearing a little bit about your background please.

PRASHANTH I have just over two decades of hardcore manufacturing experience. I worked with Japanese automotive majors in my previous life, and sustainability. It all started with while I was working for Japanese companies on lean manufacturing, as we all know, lean manufacturing is a starting point of sustainability that started around three decades ago. Concepts like Muda, Mura and Muri are the three Japanese terms that describe the types of ways that can impact companies’ workflow, productivity and customer satisfaction. So we practiced that thoroughly during those days, and it continued, and we continue to practice waste elimination and sustainability, and that's that has been my favorite topic, both personally and professionally.

The Benefits of Sustainability and the Virtual Twin Experience

THERESE: I feel like I have the right people to talk to today and am interested to hear more about sustainability. So, for our listeners, we are going to discuss sustainability and the virtual twin experience. You know, really, as you both have mentioned, sustainability is such an important topic. I know many companies talk about being eco-friendly, about being green, but why exactly is that important, Wendy?

WENDY: Companies have a corporate and social responsibility to operate sustainably and design sustainable products. However, industrial operations can create further environmental damage from emissions, excessive material, waste, energy consumption and disposal methods, some important areas that manufacturing companies can take a look at are reducing their waste and improving their use of energy, water and raw materials, which will enable them to lower their costs and also boost their profit margins. Sustainable plants are better placed to meet governmental and industrial regulations, cutting the burden of compliance and reducing the risk of costly audits. And lastly, customer expectations are evolving. Today's customers are more conscious of environmental issues and tend to prefer brands that demonstrate a commitment to sustainability and meeting these expectations not only helps in retaining customers, but also strengthens the brand reputation and loyalty.

THERESE: Both of which I think are very important topics for sure, the reputation and the loyalty as all brands would like. Wendy, you already touched a little bit upon the benefits, but let's go further. Are there more benefits to a company being sustainable?

WENDY: Yes, there are. Becoming a more sustainable company helps them to become more efficient, especially by using fewer resources by stream. Aligning processes and optimizing resource use, companies can operate more efficiently, utilize fewer resources while maintaining or even enhancing output. It not only lowers operational costs, but also improves their overall productivity. Energy conservation is another major benefit. Through sustainable practices, companies can significantly reduce their energy consumption, which helps the environment and cuts energy costs. And by adopting innovative technologies and processes manufacturing, businesses can ensure they are using energy in the most efficient manner possible. By proactively adopting sustainable measures, companies can ensure compliance and avoid potential fines and improve their standing within the industry.

THERESE: Thank you, Wendy. I'm going to move on to Prashanth, as this topic is sustainability and the virtual twin. Prashanth, would you mind enlightening our audience on what exactly the virtual twin experience is?

PRASHANTH: Thanks, Wendy, that was a useful update, and I'm really picking up some points from you. Dassault Systemes’ Virtual Twin, which is not so far away from the latest industrial definition of digital twin, which is which has been quite famous. Most people know about digital twin, but as far as we are concerned, digital twins are static, whereas virtual twins are a faithful virtual representation of physical and functional entities that can be evaluated, validated and verified. Virtual twin facilitate optimization of behavior, behavior of plan, behavior of processes, behavior of supply chain or any functional element under any number of operating scenarios using real time or experimental data.

THERESE: So Prashanth, how exactly can a virtual twin help a company become more sustainable?

Rethink Products, Processes and Business Models

PRASHANTH: I would like to bring in a brief perspective here Therese, the following footsteps of European sustainability norms. Countries like Australia are making it mandatory--climate related financial disclosure, which by July 2027, will capture most Australian companies with more than 100 staff, or $25 million gross assets, or $50 million in revenue, and all of them have to disclose their GHG, which is greenhouse gas emission. This is mandatory. So mandatory climate disclosure for the largest companies, ahead of the equivalent regime in Australia, is planned to commence on January 1, coming year itself, like most of the mining companies have to disclose their GHG emissions. This is where the DELMIA virtual twin can really help the companies, not only in Australia, but globally, using virtual twin technology, which can help companies to rethink their products, processes and business model, to realize radically how they can actually interpret, how they can validate GHG emissions. And this is where DELMIA comes into picture, right? So, the DELMIA Virtual Twin Experience supports sustainability through GHG Emission capturing or reconciliation as well profitability. The first and the foremost being the use of a 3D model-based approach to capture all information related to sustainability, like land utilization, water consumption, the source of power or source of energy, whether it is coal fired or oil and gas fired, or it is solar or wind power. Those things will also define your CO two emission, your methane emission, or even other greenhouse gas effects, emission.

Use 3D Modeling and Simulation to Improve Sustainability

PRASHANTH: We can actually model either a new plant or augment an existing plant using 3D modeling and simulation. So, we do have a large database within 3DEXPERIENCE platform, which has a reference database to actually model this carbon footprint. All right. So next comes the simulation; simulation to experiment the whole process, be it manufacturing process or be it supply chain process, even asset management process, one can actually capture GHG emissions and CO to production so that they can actually monitor and contain or even optimize or reduce the emission sources as well. So that's the second point, right. We also monitor the closed loop real time updates from virtual to physical world, which means that you continuously monitor your power consumption, CO2, footprint, methane production, carbon monoxide production, all of them, which eventually results as equal and CO2.

Now you keep hearing the word “eco two”, emission reconciliation, which is actually mandatory, so we can actually monitor through DELMIA Apriso manufacturing operations management, right? And we have it and OT contextualization through advanced manufacturing techniques. It ot contextualization means bring in the source of information from it, which is information technology sources to Operation technology sources they can contextualize to validate the Sustainability Index as well. And then last but not the least, DELMIA has the best in class technologies like augmented reality for improved processes, execution management, quality management, or, most importantly, worker productivity, which contributes a lot by way of training towards the sustainability goals.

THERESE: Sure. I can see that. I think that's a really very good point. Expanding on that, Prashanth, can you explain what some of the benefits of the virtual twin are?

Key Benefits of VTE in Going Green

PRASHANTH:  Some of the things which I which I can improve upon my previous description, virtual twin plays a critical role in sustainability. As I said, it's GHG greenhouse gas effect and the reconciliation emission management right. There are multiple benefits of it. Virtual twin experience plays a huge role in monitoring and reconciling emission processes, which helps eventually in optimizing or reducing the greenhouse gas effect. It also plays an important role in the circular economy, wherein through what if analysis, what if scenario simulation, one can get into circular process, right? As I said earlier, virtual twin experience is also the foundation for validating the sustainability KPIs. Obviously, we define KPIs based on the global standards. Platform has these standards available already. One can actually use these standards to ensure that we are adhering to some of the predefined KPIs. And the third and the last important point is that virtual twin experience help reduce Product Development Life Cycle product development life cycle times with improved manufacturing processes, quality control, asset management and rest of the business process within manufacturing more efficiently and ensure that resource utilization is less. Do more with less is the goal of sustainability.

THERESE: Do more with less. I like that. Very good points. Prashanth, thank you. So back to you. Wendy. What would you say are the steps that are needed, for example, for achieving more sustainability in manufacturing and supply chain?

WENDY: I would say the important steps include to assess your current processes, begin by thoroughly evaluating your existing manufacturing and supply chain processes, which involves identifying areas where waste can be reduced, energy consumption minimized, and your overall environmental impact, a comprehensive assessment can provide a baseline from which manufacturing companies can keep accurate measurement. Another step is to integrate advanced technologies such as del Mia's virtual twin experience. This allows for virtual simulations to optimize production processes and can help in reducing a manufacturing company's waste and energy usage while also improving efficiency and quality. Obviously, another way would be to use digital tools to optimize supply chain operations, this includes improving resource management and reducing transportation needs, which can significantly, significantly cut out those harmful carbon emissions, and to consider the entire life cycle of products and materials, from sourcing to end of life to ensure you have a true sustainable supply chain. And lastly, like Prashanth mentioned previously, a continuous monitoring and evaluation process. This involves tracking key performance indicators related to your environmental impact, resource use and your efficiency. Regular assessments enable you to make necessary adjustments and improvements as you go along, and also ensure that you are continuously meeting your sustainability goals and mandates.

Why Consistent Monitoring is Imperative

PRASHANTH: Yes, Wendy, very well-articulated. In order to achieve more sustainability in manufacturing and supply chain, some of the recent research, which I've been doing in this part of the world, and mostly in Asia and Australia, I would also recommend our prospects and customers to go on path of design and simulation to optimize, to execute. You know, these are the main steps to achieve sustainability goals. What do I mean by this design and simulate design and simulate your new plants or existing plants, upgrade existing plants into sustainable plants? What do I mean by that leveraging DELMIA for designing and planning new, more sustainable manufacturing plants with controlled EG emissions? We do have a huge database and 3DEXPERIENCE platform to do it.

As I mentioned earlier, some of the keys are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide. All of them are actually converted into ECO 2 monitoring, which is equivalent of CO2 monitoring, which can be done with DELMIA digital manufacturing and simulation, right? So once you have this plant ready, which is sustainably-enabled plant, obviously, as Wendy mentioned, we go on to monitor. Monitor the production performance, more monitoring of the supply chain performance, or even asset management performance, continuously monitor and evaluate various emission standards. And then, this is where DELMIA Manufacturing Operations Management really comes into picture, and one can make necessary adjustments to ensure ongoing improvements and adherence to sustainability targets using DELMIA Manufacturing Operations Management.

Last, but not the least, is optimizing the supply chain and logistics using DELMIA Supply Chain and logistics planning tools to optimize resource management. This is the key emission source, having a much better resource optimization, resource management within supply chain and logistics eventually reduce transportation needs and also the emission of CO two and equal and CO two as well, and improve overall sustainability goals across the supply chain, optimizing resources.

THERESE: There's so much information, and I'm sure our listeners have learned quite a bit. It's been a pleasure speaking with you both today on sustainability and the virtual twin. Thank you so much for being guest on the show.

WENDY: Thank you Therese and Prashanth. It was great to have this conversation with you both.

PRASHANTH: Thank you both. It's wonderful to discuss this topic of sustainability, which is we are so passionate and close to our heart.

THERESE: it's so important to get to convey the message. So right now, I would like to thank our listeners for tuning in. To learn more about DELMIA is sustainability and the virtual twin click on the links where this podcast is posted. I'm your host, Therese Snow, and you've been listening to DELMIA’s podcast, Global Operations on the Go!