Digital twins in warehouse management: a qualitative study of their construction, integration, and operational value
The rapid digital transformation of the logistics sector has placed Digital Twin technology as one of the main warehouse optimization tools. This thesis explores the implementation of Digital Warehouse Twin through a qualitative study, combining a theoretical study with nine semi-structured intervie...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis de maestría |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/442258 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/442258 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Business logistics Storage Logística (Indústria) Emmagatzematge Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Economia i organització d'empreses |
| Sumario: | The rapid digital transformation of the logistics sector has placed Digital Twin technology as one of the main warehouse optimization tools. This thesis explores the implementation of Digital Warehouse Twin through a qualitative study, combining a theoretical study with nine semi-structured interviews conducted with experts in this sector. The study aims to understand how Digital Warehouse Twins are built, integrated with current systems, and how they add value to warehouse management. The findings show that Digital Warehouse Twins are mainly used to simulate different sce- narios and support decision-making in the warehouse, rather than providing total real-time control. While the literature commonly points to advanced capabilities such as AI-driven automation and blockchain-based data integrity, most practical applications still rely on log- ical rules and simulation tools integrated with warehouse management systems. The study shows that some critical conditions, such as data quality, system interoperability, and orga- nizational readiness, determine whether a project will succeed or fail. These factors, which are essential to unlocking the full potential of Digital Warehouse Twins, are often the main barriers in practice, along with implementation costs and the lack of standardization. The study concludes that Digital Warehouse Twin offers great potential for improving ware- house operations, especially in manual warehouses where the flexibility and variability of processes are higher. To maximize the ROI (Return on Investment), it is recommended to start with a specific use case and then scale up to the complete integration of the digital warehouse twin for the overall management of the warehouse. This thesis contributes both theoretically and practically by supporting companies and researchers interested in starting implementation projects of Digital Warehouse Twin to improve their efficiency. |
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