Digital Twin at Fresenius Medical Care: Changing the Way of Product Development

Michael Bitzer & Jeffrey Norton & Larry Dube

Fresenius Medical Care (FMC) is operating in the area of life science. This industry is highly regulated. In order to ensure high quality and regulatory compliance, product and process innovations typically can be seen more as evolutions than revolutions. At the same time, the industry is facing new competitors addressing the market. Moreover, new technologies are available which also increases the pressure on the industry to keep pace with innovations. One focus area to enable this innovation pace is the Engineering department. For this, FMC is constantly evolving the business capabilities toward Digital Engineering. A strategic building-block on this journey is the Digital Twin. The right set of Product and Process Data is required as the foundation of a Digital Twin. In addition, new technologies like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality make the Digital Twin become "alive." This session will present the actual achievements and challenges along this journey.