Digital Twin for Sustainable Manufacturing: Integrating Networking and Factory Assets

The novel Industry 5.0 concept leverages data gathering and communication between the Information Technology (IT) and Operation Technology (OT) segments to drive efficient and sustainable manufacturing processes. However, how to properly integrate IT and OT ecosystems to achieve effective industrial asset management has to be further investigated. We propose an architecture that provides an integrated view and unified control of networking and industrial equipment. This paper describes how the proposed architecture can enable energy-saving decision-making policies and support sustainable predictive maintenance in manufacturing through the Asset Administration Shell concept. Part of the architecture is implemented using the Eclipse BaSyx tool, an Asset Administration Shell-compliant framework, to bridge the IT and OT segments by providing a virtual representation of both network and factory assets and a unified control interface.