Requirement-Driven Sharing of Manufacturing Digital Twins Along the Value Chain

Digital Twins (DTs) are key enablers of Smart Manufacturing, yet their adoption across the value chain is hindered by the lack of a standardized sharing framework. This paper addresses this challenge by identifying essential descriptive and qualitative elements of DTs based on standards and literature. Leveraging the Asset Administration Shell (AAS), it proposes a Submodel Template, which standardizes the packaging of DT models, interfaces, and computational and network requirements thus going beyond, and combining, existing AAS Submodels, i.e. for simulation models, to encapsulate the full multidimensionality of DTs. A case study on a Quality Monitoring DT (QM-DT) demonstrates the template’s ability to support seamless DT deployment, aggregation, and operation across heterogeneous manufacturing environments. Results show that the template enables structured transfer of subject matter expertise captured in DT models, real-time constraint support, and interoperability, laying the groundwork for improved DT integration and exchange.