Traceability

WHAT IS IT?

The term traceability is used in two different contexts: on one hand, it refers to the traceability of products, machines and their parts right back to the raw material. On the other, it refers to the traceability of requirements throughout the entire development process.

WHAT DOES IT DO?

Both contexts are interesting in terms of the digital information twin: in order to maintain an up-to-date digital twin, the digital model and the  real product must be identical at all times. Modifications to the product – for example, if an updated part needs to be integrated during  maintenance – need to be applied to the digital model immediately. The performance of a product is best measured by comparing the originally requested performance data with the real-time usage data from IoT sensors.

WHAT ARE ITS BENEFITS?

To ensure the digital information twin includes the exact information that fits a certain individual product, the actual status needs to be compared with the target status at all times. If the service technician only ascertains on site that they need another version of a spare part because the machine was actually delivered with ‘part A1’ but has been retrofitted with ‘part A2’ in the meantime without updating the digital information twin, this represents a loss and means traceability has not been ensured.