Towards Digitalization in Bio-Manufacturing Operations: A Survey on Application of Big Data and Digital Twin Concepts in Denmark

Abstract

Digitalization in the form of Big Data and Digital Twin inspired applications are hot topics in today's bio-manufacturing organizations. As a result, many organizations are diverting resources (personnel and equipment) to these applications. In this manuscript, a targeted survey was conducted amongst individuals from the Danish biotech industry to understand the current state and perceived future obstacles in implementing digitalization concepts in biotech production processes. The survey consisted of 13 questions related to the current level of application of 1) Big Data analytics and 2) Digital Twins, as well as obstacles to expanding these applications. Overall, 33 individuals responded to the survey, a group spanning from bio-chemical to biopharmaceutical production. Over 73% of the respondents indicated that their organization has an enterprise-wide level plan for digitalization, it can be concluded that the digitalization drive in the Danish biotech industry is well underway. However, only 30% of the respondents reported a well-established business case for the digitalization applications in their organization. This is a strong indication that the value proposition for digitalization applications is somewhat ambiguous. Further, it was reported that digital twin applications (58%) were more widely used than Big Data analytic tools (37%). On top of the lack of a business case, organizational readiness was identified as a critical hurdle that needs to be overcome for both Digital Twin and Big Data applications. Infrastructure was another key hurdle for implementation, with only 6% of the respondents stating that their production processes were 100% covered by advanced process analytical technologies.