Integration concept of Digital Shadows and BIM for a long-term optimal decision support in factory planning

Abstract

Industrial objects nowadays rapidly transform due to the development of digital technologies. The concept of the Factory of the Future (FoF) involves digitization of all parts of the factory. In this paper two technologies are motivated and considered as the basic technologies that should be used in FoF: Digital Shadow (DS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM). Basic theory on these issues is given and potentials of BIM and DS integration is formulated. Based on the ability of digital technologies, their integration and convergence to generate value, definition Digital Asset is introduced from the economic point of view as a digital resource which brings economic benefit. A concept of integrating BIM and DS technologies for decision support in factory planning is formulated, including Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and semantic modeling. The concept includes a description of the aggregate of technologies and their interconnections as a Digital Asset of the FoF. Further research objectives are focused on integration of BIM and DS which requires their interoperability ensured by an Ontology-Based Data Access (OBDA) approach, based on the Semantic web.