Digital Twin or Digital Flop? Why Companies Need Document Control Before 3D Models

Summary

The global digital twin market size overall is forecasted to increase from nearly $13 billion in 2023 to $259 billion by 2032.
 
In asset-intensive industries like utilities, oil and gas, mining and energy, digital twins can provide valuable insights that streamline maintenance, optimize workplace spending and extend asset life. When scaled to a building or portfolio level, real-time data can help users to monitor performance and predict outcomes, making facility management far more efficient and informed.

But despite the investment and buzz around photorealistic 3D twins and visually rich models, the real challenges are more fundamental. These industries have traditionally been slower to adopt new technologies and embrace digital transformation, meaning they won't be able to unlock the full potential of digital twins without first ensuring their house is in order and risk being left behind.

 

Using digital twins in asset management

The growth in digital twins indicates the technology is transitioning from early innovation to mainstream adoption, gaining broader attention across industries.
 
This technology can play a key role in asset management by creating a virtual replica of a physical asset, such as a drilling rig, power grid, or building. Not only can digital twins enable real-time monitoring and analysis of these complex systems, but it can represent the full lifecycle of an asset, from the initial design, through testing, construction, operation and maintenance.
 
In asset management, full-lifecycle visibility is vital for making strategic decisions that enhance asset reliability, safety and cost-efficiency. By linking operational data with historical design and maintenance records, organizations can get the insight needed to plan proactive maintenance, allocate resources effectively and mitigate risks. This holistic perspective helps extend asset life and reduce total ownership costs, preventing reactive approaches that can lead to unexpected failures and higher expenses.
 
So, what’s standing in the way of unlocking those benefits? For many organizations, it comes down to a simple truth: you have to walk before you can run.
 

Barriers to digital twin success

Because many of these organizations are still early in their digital transformations, there are four  foundational aspects they need to nail down before fully benefiting from digital twins:

1. Digitizing documents: Ensuring information accuracy is essential in achieving the full capabilities of digital twins, meaning organizations must first complete an important foundational step: digitizing their asset information. When it comes to Enterprise Asset Management, paper-based processes and siloed systems result in outdated or inconsistent information that leads to flawed simulations and unreliable decisions.
2. Data disorganization: Even once data is digitized, many organizations still struggle with fragmentation across departments. Different department teams such as reliability, maintenance and asset management often use separate platforms, creating outdated version conflicts that make collaboration difficult, limiting the value of a digital twin. This lack of integration creates confusion and limits the collaborative potential of a digital twin. To truly harness its power, organizations need a centralized, single source of truth that ensures consistency, enables cross-functional collaboration and supports data-driven decision-making.
3. Lack of governance: Questions like Who can read, write, or edit data? Who’s allowed to create new data values or initiate new business processes? Are often overlooked in the rush to deploy digital twins. Without a robust framework in place, this technology can quickly become vulnerable. With potentially hundreds of users and employees accessing and interacting with documents and information, the risk of data corruption, conflicting changes, or misaligned workflows increases. Oversight isn't just a supporting feature, it's the foundation that ensures a digital twin remains accurate, trusted and scalable.
4. Establishing the ‘why’: One of the most overlooked barriers to digital twin success isn’t technical, it’s strategic. Many organizations dive into digital twin initiatives without clearly defining their purpose or aligning them with operational needs. Without a well-communicated “why,” these tools risk becoming underused or ignored, especially by frontline teams who don’t see the immediate value. To ensure adoption and long-term impact, organizations must tie digital twin efforts to tangible business outcomes from the start.

 
Better document control leads to better outcomes 

To benefit from digital twin initiatives, leaders must take a step back and evaluate the most crucial aspect of operations: their data. This starts by centralizing and controlling their engineering data, integrating both legacy and current information into a single, reliable platform.
 
Cloud-based Engineering Document Management Systems (EDMS) enable this by digitizing and governing critical documentation. These systems are scalable, cost-effective and accessible without heavy IT involvement, making it easier for teams across departments and locations to collaborate using consistent, up-to-date information.
 
Cloud platforms also prioritize security, ensuring data is well-protected and safeguarded against potential hiccups from weak governance. With these types of solutions in place, manufacturers can harness the full potential of digital twins, BIM and beyond.
 
If an organization already has an EDMS, the next step is to evaluate and optimize their data by ensuring all legacy and current documents are centralized, accurate and securely governed. Leveraging a cloud-based platform enhances collaboration and data reliability, positioning the organization to fully benefit from digital twins.
 

Collaboration across teams

When everyone in the organization works from the same information, conflicts decrease and managing the business becomes far more efficient. But realizing the full value of digital twins, like monitored performance, predictive outcomes and streamlining maintenance of assets, requires more than just adopting the technology—it starts with a clear understanding of what teams actually need.
 
There’s a fine line between the desire to implement a digital twin and having a defined, practical use for it. That’s why early consultation across departments is critical. Before jumping in, organizations must engage stakeholders to plan the necessary changes, establish strong data governance and put controls in place to ensure consistency.
 
A digital twin is only as powerful as the data and collaboration that support it. This technology can revolutionize facility management—but only if companies stop chasing the future and start organizing the present.