By
Stefan Keller
Expert, Wind Energy
5 minute read
A structural calculation on a modern wind turbine draws on inputs that all have to agree with each other: the 3D geometry, the loads a specific controller version produces, and the material data behind the parts goes through production. In most engineering organizations, these still live in separate systems, updated on separate timelines. Every input can be individually correct and still not match the others. And while the consequences of this mismatch can be slow at revealing itself, it can be quite damaging to the operations of an OEM.
A turbine gearbox can weigh 15 tons, suspended 250 feet in the air. A version mismatch found a decade into operation can become a serious fleet-wide problem, and what was thought to be all aligned in the master data can turn into an unfortunate experience of why they coined a term called ‘cost of poor quality’.
Most of that risk has nothing to do with hard engineering skills or the capability of the organisation that is designed around the product life cycle. It comes down to the complexity that arise from too many systems applied to the life cycle of a single product that consists of hundreds or thousands of components. When a component fails in the field, root cause analysis means pulling records from half a dozen databases and reconciling them by hand, often when speed matters most.
CREADIS’ answer to this risk is what we call the digital thread. A digital thread connects requirements, design, materials, manufacturing, and field data into one traceable line. At every step, the engineer working from it is working from the production version, instead of an approximation from an earlier revision cycle.
CREADIS has built this for two of the world’s leading wind turbine manufacturers, across drivetrain design and electrical grid modelling. In one case, the thread retraces a full engineering workflow, from geometry and loads through to manufacturing. In another, it rebuilds the electrical model required for every wind farm project sold, not just new products. These digital threads automate the workflows and processes that require very little engineering prowess but takes the resources that can drain any R&D setup.
The digital thread processes CREADIS develops together with our partners never replace engineering judgement. It removes the manual work around it, so that time goes into validating results instead of cross-checking databases and chasing around the organisation for the accurate numbers. That is where investing in digital threads pays off.
With imbedded digital verification across the product lifecycle, you can change the entire process of product development. In the past, validating i.e. a new blade design meant physically building one or two full-scale prototypes, at roughly a million euros each, before production could even start. A properly designed and implemented digital thread has the capabilities to remove that cost without cutting a single corner on verification.
Done right, digital threads have immense potential to improve the economics of OEMs. It’s many applications across the product life cycle offers a wide range of engineering optimizations that shows up on the bottom line. Both in time and resources that can be dedicated to more valuable work than data chases and in the more operational avoidances that can be achieved.
It does require taking on a digital transformation of at least some parts of the R&D program in the organisation, but with the right partner, we have shown that it is perfectly feasible.
We witness first hand that the organizations getting the most from digital transformation right now are those who can identify the workflows where a mismatch is most expensive and can build a thread that holds there first, before expanding into more widespread adoption. We believe that digital threads is a significant opportunity for OEMs wanting to seriously tackle cost of poor quality across the product life cycle and get more bang for the buck from their R&D investments.
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what the data shows
McKinsey research on digital twins in product development found total development time cut by 20 to 50 percent for some users, with products that start out as digital twins showing 25 percent fewer quality issues once they reach production; some companies cut the number of physical prototypes needed from two or three down to one. Siemens Energy’s 2023 disclosure that quality issues on its onshore turbine platforms would cost around €2.2 billion to fix, with remediation running for years, shows what a mismatch can cost once it reaches the field at scale. Gearbox bearing failure research from the US Department of Energy and NREL points to the same root cause: small inconsistencies between design assumptions and what actually gets built or operated.
Background data: McKinsey & Company, “Digital twins in manufacturing & product development” (figures are reported results from specific companies, not industry-wide averages); Siemens Energy, press release on remediation charges at Siemens Gamesa, 7–8 August 2023; US Department of Energy / NREL, wind turbine gearbox bearing failure research (white-etch cracking), Wind Energy Technologies Office.
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