Schneider Electric Urges Industry to Tie Digital Twins to Business Value

Fadekemi Ajakaiye

Schneider Electric has urged industrial companies to focus on measurable business outcomes when deploying digital twins, warning that investments in advanced digital technologies can deliver limited returns when they are not linked to specific operational challenges.

The company said organisations should identify the problems they intend to solve before selecting digital technologies, as the value of digital twins depends largely on how effectively they address business and operational needs. Country Sales Director, Process Automation, Sub-Saharan Africa, Schneider Electric, Elijah Daniel, said digital transformation initiatives should be built around clearly defined use cases rather than technology adoption for its own sake.
Daniel said digital twins could help industrial companies address long-standing challenges created by fragmented engineering and operational data, particularly where different teams work with separate datasets and systems.
He said a connected engineering environment could provide a common source of information across mechanical, electrical, instrumentation and process engineering teams, reducing duplication and improving collaboration throughout an asset’s lifecycle.

Digital twins can also combine engineering information with operational data from control systems, sensors, maintenance records and performance monitoring tools, creating a broader view of how industrial assets are designed, operated and maintained. The global digital twin market is projected to grow from about $21.14bn in 2025 to more than $149.81bn by 2030, according to MarketsandMarkets, as adoption expands across manufacturing, energy, infrastructure and process industries.

However, Schneider Electric said the availability of sophisticated technology does not by itself guarantee a successful digital transformation programme.

Advanced digital twin systems can require integration with enterprise applications, cloud platforms, operational historians, weather data, enterprise resource planning systems and machine learning models. Such systems also depend on reliable historical data, sound data governance and organisational readiness.

Without those foundations, industrial companies risk deploying digital twin systems that demonstrate technological capabilities without producing measurable operational improvements.

The company said this was particularly relevant as African industries undertake increasingly complex projects across energy, manufacturing and infrastructure.

Nigeria, with substantial oil and gas resources, continues to invest in energy infrastructure and industrial development, creating opportunities for digital engineering technologies to improve project execution, asset reliability and operational efficiency.

Schneider Electric said the broader shift towards industrial digitalisation also highlights the importance of data management, as organisations need trusted and connected information before they can effectively deploy advanced analytics, artificial intelligence and predictive maintenance.

Digital twins should therefore be regarded as an enabling capability rather than an end in themselves, with their value ultimately determined by their ability to address specific business problems such as reducing engineering rework, improving asset reliability or optimising production.

Schneider Electric’s position reflects a broader shift in industrial technology adoption towards measuring digital investments by operational results rather than the sophistication of the technology deployed.