Digital Twins as an Economic Enabler

As Ontario embarks on significant infrastructure building, digitalization has never been more important. Productivity has been in decline for decades, and as a province, we need to build faster than ever to enable other sectors of our economy, such as manufacturing and natural resources, to scale more quickly. Design and construction of infrastructure that supports the growth and competitiveness of Ontario’s economy needs to be faster, less expensive, and of higher quality. That infrastructure also needs to be operated and maintained more effectively, unlocking operational costs to be used as capital spending on other priority areas. 

In March, I had the pleasure of presenting research into this topic at the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade's Digital Twin Cluster Meeting. The cluster brings together leaders from multiple levels of government, industry, and academia to share ideas around digital twins and discuss challenges facing their implementation. It was an incredible opportunity to learn from digital leaders in Ontario, and explore digital twins more deeply. 

This research was done in collaboration between Digital Built Ontario and Tiree.

Before we dive into examples from other regions around the world, it must be recognized that Ontario, and Canada more broadly, of course have different governance structures and challenges than the jurisdictions explored in this study which must be reconciled to find success locally.  However, the technology, expertise, and methodologies exist already, and we can learn a lot from the success found with digitalization.

The United Kingdom has developed a digital twin and are studying several aplications to determine their effectiveness on productivity and cost savings. One great example from their program is the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR). This digital twin implementation adds below grade services' 3D geometry and parametric information to a centralized 3D digital twin, allowing stakeholders to see what is underground before they start digging. NUAR allows for better planning and on-site coordination, leading to significant savings. Specifically, money is saved from reducing overhead and administration related to finding and providing accurate data. It also improves on-site efficiency, reducing coordination time. These improvements are predicted to see annual savings of £91M and £16M, respectively. Even more astounding is the £240M annual savings from reduced repair costs of accidental utility strikes. Overall, they predict the NUAR program will lead to a 30:1 return on investment, a substantial return. 

It should be noted that these estimates are debated, and generally thought of as optimistic. For example, the analysis relies on having existing accurate data and locations of all current underground infrastructure, which is highly unlikely. However, even when building in tolerance, the benefits are overwhelmingly positive. Furthermore, by establishing a standard for digitally delivering future underground assets, the NUAR will grow more accurate as it evolves. More information, including the financial study, can be found here. 

Another example of digital twins was a study of how site validation and reviews can be done more efficiently. By replacing physical site surveys with high-resolution 3D reality meshes, planners can conduct virtual site reviews and resolve spatial issues remotely. This streamlined approach was used for the due-diligence process for planning schools and hospitals. 

They are projected to save $200 million across a 10-year period by drastically reducing travel, administrative duplication, and costly subsequent rework. This use case directly addresses multiple funding challenges facing Ontario in healthcare, education, and infrastructure. Savings in planning can unlock funding that can be reallocated to provide better service to Ontarians. 

Singapore has developed an optimized regulatory approval process in their digital twin. Integrating all departments and stakeholders into a single system called CORENET X, Singapore reduced the required permit and approval submissions from 20 to just three. The results are impressive, cutting approval times by 25%. The results also permeated into the rest of the project lifecycle. By requiring digital and model-based submissions, the entire design and construction phases leveraged the advanced data and coordination capabilities, realizing a 30% efficiency gain during design. More impressively, cost overruns during construction were reduced by 60% as a result of digital methodologies. 

These examples of successful digital twin implementations are clear indicators that digitalization of our industry can have a significant enabling effect on the greater economy. We can build faster with less cost and higher quality. The technology, expertise, and methodologies exist already. For Ontario to grow and diversify its economy, it must embrace digitalization and take a leadership position. 

Establishing clear, consistent requirements for digital data exchange on government projects is critical. It will allow industry to work more efficiently across projects and align expectations of both the government and supplier. It will also set a culture of strong data governance beyond public projects, increasing the digital maturity of the industry. 

A collaborative partnership approach must be taken. At the end of the day, digitalization is a cultural and methodology transformation, and managing that change responsibly is critical to success. Funding for adoption and training will help offset the risk and cost of the industry's transformation. Sharing the successes and lessons learned from local projects will also allow industry to learn faster and collectively. 

The Digital Twin Cluster Meeting is an incredible platform for this type of collaboration and knowledge sharing. There are promising signals from the Ontario government toward digitalization. In their presentation, the Ministry of Transportation presented the lessons learned from their first BIM project and their plans to continue its adoption. In the discussion portion of the day, the Ontario Ministry of Infrastructure shared they have conducted similar analysis of jurisdictional twins, which opened a deeper conversation in the room about the UK NUAR program's methodologies of measuring returns.  Infrastructure Ontario also shared more about their Digital Twin pilots in transportation and healthcare. Ontario is preparing to  digitalize, and we must help build and maintain momentum.

Digital Built Ontario is committed to working with governments, organizations, and industry to grow Ontario’s capabilities and expertise. By connecting industry leaders, sharing knowledge, and studying the challenges we face, we can achieve our mission and become a global leader in digitalizating the built environment. I have seen first hand the incredible amount of passion and creativity of the people who design, build, and operate Ontario's buildings and infrastructure. Together, we can make this a reality. If you are interested, reach out and let's collaborate.