How Could Digital Twins Support Systems Engineering Processes? Insights from the Literature Review

The digital twin (DT) is an important element of digital transformation. Due to the complexity of the developed systems and DT, a system engineering (SE) approach is used in designing and developing these systems. In the literature on DTs, there have been examples of the uses of SE and DTs for system design and development. The present study aims to analyze these examples based on a systematic literature review and answers the following research questions (RQ): What value do DTs provide to what SE processes? What are the opportunities and threats of using DTs in systems engineering activities? These questions were investigated using quantitative and qualitative research methods. The study is based on secondary data analysis. Quantitative research was performed in three layers: (1) C-authorship analysis, (2) bibliographic coupling analysis (documents and sources), and (3) keyword co-occurrence analysis. In the third step, 83 publications were selected for further analysis using abstract screening. The qualitative analysis was carried out in terms of adequacy to answer the research questions. DTs are utilized in the whole life cycle. DTs are usually used in the generic system lifecycle’s concept, development, utilization, and support stages. The present paper also includes characteristics of the use of DTs in different SE activities. The research area seems promising for more in-depth study, particularly on how DTs can support new system design and development. One of the essential aspects of this research would be the road mapping of technologies used in DT, which will also have an impact on the use of DT in practice.