Simulation and Digital Twins

Agnostic solutions for total integration

With digital twin software, industries can build virtual replicas that help drive real-world performance improvements.

African american engineer operating a supervisory control and data acquisition system, checking schematics and process flow on multiple screens in a modern control room

Portrait of a ship worker is walking in the ship's engine room

With digital twin software, industries can build virtual replicas that help drive real-world performance improvements.

Turn a Plant’s Potential into Performance With Process Digital Twins

Industrial digital twin software is more than a visualization tool. By creating virtual replicas of industrial assets and processes, digital twins can provide insights into past performance, present operations and future scenarios. Digital twin technology can deliver particularly strong ROI wherever precision, compliance and uptime are essential: in critical manufacturing sectors including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, gigafactories and chemical manufacturing, as well as in oil and gas, LNG, refining, petrochemicals, renewable fuels and mining operations.³By testing changes in a secure virtual environment before implementation, organizations across industries can reduce operational risk—and unlock their plants’ full potential.

Asset, process and system-level modeling

Industrial digital twin software can create systematically tuned virtual replicas of physical plants based on their actual operating conditions. Our steady-state and dynamic process digital twin technology is designed to:

Perform near real-time performance management through KPIs, soft sensors and calculation management
Track constraints and analyze optimal operating points across asset, process and system levels
Advanced modeling capabilities help troubleshoot potential issues before they become critical

Integrated data ecosystem for Industry 4.0 capabilities

Enable Industry 4.0 transformation through connectivity, near real-time data and decentralized collaboration. Our digital twin technology is designed to help connect siloed systems with out-of-the-box Operational Technology (OT) connectors and democratized access.

Source-agnostic, open and interoperable across multi-cloud environments
Pre-packaged data preprocessing can turn raw data into actionable KPIs for near real-time transparency
Consistent views of plant capabilities across teams helps enable end-to-end optimization

Scenario simulation and low-risk testing

Access a virtual simulation center to run powerful what-if analyses that can help teams understand the impact of changes before implementation. Experiment, compare outcomes and plan for the future without risking costly downtime.

Test different operating strategies in a virtual environment before implementation
Evaluate equipment modifications or assess the effects of feedstock changes
Make data-driven decisions with confidence by validating changes before they affect production

Predictive maintenance and operational optimization

Move beyond reactive maintenance to predictive strategies that can help prevent unplanned downtime. Industrial digital twin software can provide a view into past performance to spot potential issues, conduct root cause analysis and help teams predict future performance scenarios.

Set targets based on current plant capabilities rather than theoretical limits
Operate closer to actual constraints while helping reduce utility usage
Help improve operational efficiency, margins and yields while reducing operational risk

Democratized access across all skill levels

Honeywell’s Process Digital Twin helps provide a consistent, up-to-date view of plant capabilities for everyone from planners to operators to process engineers.

Users can benefit from insights no matter what their level of expertise
Helps turn complex first-principles models and material balance flowsheets into actionable information
Helps teams improve performance, make faster decisions and respond to changing conditions

Purpose-built for critical manufacturing operations

Honeywell's digital twin technology delivers proven value in industries where precision, compliance and uptime directly impact profitability. From pharmaceutical manufacturing to semiconductor fabrication, industrial digital twin software helps critical manufacturing operations improve performance while meeting stringent regulatory requirements.

Support compliance-critical industries including pharma, semiconductors, gigafactories and chemical manufacturing
Aids complex process industries including oil and gas, LNG, refining, petrochemicals, renewable fuels, mining
Industry-specific modeling capabilities help teams address unique operational challenges

Up to $37.9 billion in annual benefits

National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) research approximates the potential aggregated manufacturing industry benefits of digital twins to be $37.9 billion annually if adopted throughout the U.S. manufacturing industry.¹
$245 billion per year in potentially preventable downtime losses

Production downtime costs U.S. discrete manufacturers $245 billion annually, with defects adding another $32-$58.6 billion in losses.¹

NIST research indicates these losses are significant and many are preventable, with costs that can potentially be reduced by digital twins.²
$16-$39B validated impact range

NIST analysis of digital twin adoption across U.S. manufacturing establishes a 90% confidence interval between $16.1 billion and $38.6 billion in annual economic impact, with a median of $27.2 billion.¹

Frequently Asked Questions About Digital Twin Technology

Traditional simulation models are often static representations used during design or specific studies. Digital twins are dynamic, continuously updated virtual replicas that can synchronize with actual plant operations. They're systematically tuned based on current operating conditions and connected to synchronous data streams.

While teams may use traditional simulations periodically for broader analysis, digital twins provide ongoing insights into past performance, present operations and future scenarios. This continuous connection can make them valuable for day-to-day decision-making (as opposed to one-time studies).

Honeywell Process Digital Twin is purpose-built for complex process industries. Teams can create digital replicas at multiple levels: individual assets like compressors or heat exchangers, entire process units like distillation columns or reactors, or complete plant systems.

The technology can work across critical manufacturing industries—including pharmaceutical production, semiconductor fabrication, gigafactories and chemical manufacturing—as well as oil and gas operations, liquefied natural gas facilities, refineries, petrochemical plants, renewable fuel production and mining, minerals and metals processing. Using advanced process simulation capabilities to model steady-state and dynamic behaviors, the platform is suitable for most process equipment and systems within these industries.

Our industrial digital twin software is source-agnostic and comes with out-of-the-box connectors for multiple operational technology applications. To create more complete simulations, teams can integrate data from distributed control systems, historians, laboratory information management systems and other plant data sources. Pre-packaged data preprocessing capabilities help turn raw data into meaningful KPIs and calculations, using operational data to systematically tune itself based on actual plant conditions.

While specific data requirements may vary by application, the platform is built to work with the data sources plants already have, which can help avoid major infrastructure changes.

Put digital twins to work for you

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Sources:

Agnostic solutions for total integration

Turn a Plant’s Potential into Performance With Process Digital Twins

Asset, process and system-level modeling

Integrated data ecosystem for Industry 4.0 capabilities

Scenario simulation and low-risk testing

Predictive maintenance and operational optimization

Democratized access across all skill levels

Purpose-built for critical manufacturing operations

Up to $37.9 billion in annual benefits

$245 billion per year in potentially preventable downtime losses

$16-$39B validated impact range

Frequently Asked Questions About Digital Twin Technology

01 How do digital twins differ from traditional simulation models?

02 What types of industrial assets can digital twins model?

03 What data sources do digital twins need to maintain their accuracy?

Unlock more value from your plant facilities