Poor Data Governance Threatens Digital Twin Investments, Experts Warn

Poor data governance and the failure to define clear operational objectives could undermine investments in digital twin technology, experts have warned.

According to analysts, digital twins can help companies reduce engineering rework, improve asset reliability and optimise production when deployed to address clearly defined operational challenges.

The country sales director for Process Automation, Sub-Saharan Africa, Schneider Electric, Elijah Daniel, said that organisations risk failing to achieve expected returns from digital twin deployments when the technology is introduced without clearly identifying the business or operational problems it is expected to address.

Daniel said digital twins could help resolve longstanding challenges associated with fragmented engineering data, in which mechanical, electrical, instrumentation, and process engineering teams operate separate systems. He said the use of disconnected systems often results in inconsistent datasets, duplication of work, limited visibility and delays in project execution.

According to him, creating a shared engineering data environment could enable organisations to work from a single source of information and improve collaboration throughout the lifecycle of industrial assets.

Daniel said the effectiveness of digital twin technology would depend on organisations’ ability to integrate multiple data sources, including enterprise platforms, cloud infrastructure, operational data, weather information, enterprise resource planning applications, and machine-learning models.

He added that data quality, governance structures and organisational readiness would be critical to successful deployment.

Also, another expert, Benson John, said industrial digital transformation was primarily a data management challenge before it became an artificial intelligence issue. According to him, interest in the technology is also growing across Africa as governments and private-sector operators increase investments in energy infrastructure, manufacturing, and other industrial projects.

Nigeria, with an estimated 37.01 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves and about 215.19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, presents opportunities to deploy digital technologies for managing complex industrial assets. The global digital twin market is projected to grow from about $21.14 billion in 2025 to more than $149.81 billion by 2030, according to MarketsandMarkets, driven by adoption across manufacturing, energy, infrastructure and process industries.