Digital twins deliver enhanced service and customer engagement in EPC projects
Written by Mikko Yllikäinen
Posted on April 05, 2023
EPC companies operate in a highly competitive environment. It’s no surprise that many are looking to improve customer relationships and build longer and deeper co-operation by delivering additional value with digital twin offerings during EPC contracts and beyond.
Within the traditional EPC project scope, a digital twin allows for smoother communication during the design, construction, and handover phases of projects. Beyond handover, the operation and maintenance phases are excellent areas for EPCs to provide value-added services for plant owners.
The plant 3D model plays a crucial role in digital twin services and can be leveraged to assist plant owners with preemptive maintenance, energy management, inspections, retrofitting, modernizations, and operator training. In the constantly evolving industrial landscape, offering such services helps EPCs to remain relevant and stay ahead of the curve by meeting the changing needs of their clients.
During the engineering and construction phase of projects, an up-to-date digital twin can be used as a hub for information sharing where all participants can work on the same digital twin and share relevant information. This level of transparency and openness requires some control over what information is available to different user groups. Ideally, it should also be easy to assign new licenses with different access levels as the project evolves.
Cadmatic has worked hard over the years to make this type of scenario a reality. CADMATIC eShare, our digital twins platform, is built on the idea that you can control who sees what, so EPCs can easily control what information users can access. eShare user permissions can be easily configured to allow access to specific information relevant in specific roles, such as at the team level.
We extended this ideology to a new area in the most recent release by granting the EPC fine-grained control over licenses. Several companies can now co-work in the same environment without fear of a subcontractor blocking access to the end client by consuming all available licenses. Now, EPCs, their subcontractors, the end client, and all other project partners can each have their own set of licenses, ensuring that the EPC can provide the end-client with consistent and smooth access. As a cherry on top, since our most recent release, the installation-free web user interface has made it incredibly simple for all project parties to access the information they require.
All of this means that by using CADMATIC eShare as the communication tool, EPCs can retain control and ownership of the digital twin while relieving the plant owner of the burden of setting up the digital twin and keeping it up to date during revamp projects. As a result, the customer is free to focus on their core competency – operating the plant as efficiently as possible - while also ensuring that the required service can be provided by an EPC company they trust.
This represents a win-win situation for both EPC companies and their customers. The plant owner gets comprehensive lifecycle services from their EPC supplier and the EPC can deliver these services without forgoing the intellectual property generated during the project.
Contact us for more information about CADMATIC eShare can deliver Digital twins deliver enhanced service and customer engagement in EPC projects.
