South Korea has officially published two international standards for manufacturing digital twins through the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). These standards establish guidelines for connecting product, equipment, and process data from manufacturing sites into virtual models, allowing for the integration of multiple digital twins to expand at the production line and factory level. This is expected to facilitate the spread of autonomous manufacturing and the transition to manufacturing artificial intelligence (AI).
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on July 28 that the two international standards for manufacturing digital twins proposed by South Korea have been officially published by ISO. Digital twins are technologies that create digital virtual models of actual products, equipment, processes, and factories to verify real-world conditions and predict issues for optimized operations.
South Korea has been at the forefront of international standardization for manufacturing digital twins, contributing to the establishment of standards for the principles, reference structures, information representation, and information exchange of digital twins. The newly published standards are ISO 23247-5 and ISO 23247-6, which include methods for connecting and utilizing digital twins for specific purposes.
ISO 23247-5 outlines the data connection standards for digital twins. It enables the integration of information from various manufacturing stages, such as product design, production processes, equipment status, and inspection results, into a single flow, allowing for the identification and utilization of necessary data. When specific quality issues arise, it facilitates the tracking and analysis of design information, production conditions, equipment history, and inspection data.
ISO 23247-6 presents the standards for combining digital twins. It describes how to integrate smaller digital twins of products, equipment, and processes like building blocks to create complex digital twins at the production line or factory level.
This standard was proposed by the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) with government support, based on domestic technology. Global companies and institutions from the United States and Sweden also participated in the discussions. This signifies that South Korea's manufacturing digital twin technology has secured a foundation for international applicability. While the effectiveness of digital twins is limited when confined to individual equipment or processes, connecting data and combining multiple twins is essential for optimizing entire factories and expanding into autonomous manufacturing.
Kim Dae-ja, head of the National Institute of Technology and Standards, stated, "With the publication of this international standard, our domestic digital twin technology has been reflected in international standards, ensuring its global applicability. We will actively support standard development activities in collaboration with industry, academia, and research institutions to facilitate the rapid spread of AI transformation in domestic manufacturing."
* This article has been translated by AI.
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