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Digital Twin Day at the Innovation Campus Lemgo: The digital twin is alive!
Inspiring presentations by top-class experts, practical workshops, and interactive exchange formats on the future-oriented topic of digital twins attracted around 120 internal and external experts to the Innovation Campus Lemgo on October 7, 2025, for the “Digital Twin Day” jointly organized by the OWL University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer IOSB-INA.
What exactly is a digital twin? And what is it used for? A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or process that is used when companies want to plan, simulate, analyze, and optimize products or systems throughout their entire life cycle. Prof. Dr. Benedikt Latos, Professor of Production Management in the Department of Economics at TH OWL and co-moderator of the event, described how a digital twin, continuously enriched with information, enables real-time assessment of characteristics such as technical specifications and sustainability, right through to condition and behavior. The actual added value of the digital twin is created by intelligently linking the digital master (containing, among other things, 3D models of the object from development and design) and the digital shadow (containing operating, status, and process data from real-world operation).
A special highlight awaited the expert audience immediately afterwards with the keynote speech by Dr. Felix Reinhart, head of the Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence team in the Smart Home division at Miele. Driven by his enthusiasm for teaching machines to learn, he used practical developments to illustrate that the digital twin is a living system that changes over time. “The digital twin is alive!” said Felix Reinhart. His goal in the Smart Home division: “We want to improve the tangible quality of our products and leverage new functions digitally through connectivity as the backbone of digital twins.” Afterwards, visitors immersed themselves in the diverse fields of application for digital twins in one of four themed sessions – in specialist presentations, real-world laboratories, or directly on the test field.
In the session organized by Florian Pethig (Head of the Machine Intelligence Department at Fraunhofer IOSB-INA) at SmartFactoryOWL, specific applications of “digital twins in production” were presented and demonstrated. Digital twins of machines, systems, and entire factories enable optimizations, e.g., through material flow simulation and virtual commissioning, increase sustainability by avoiding paper documentation (keyword: digital product passport), and help to detect cyberattacks in good time. "The main challenge for the development of digital twins remains data integration. But now is exactly the time to implement interoperable digital twins! The necessary international standards are available, and we are happy to support you!" says Florian Pethig. This appeal is also supported by the other organizations and companies that contributed to the practical session: Industrial Digital Twin Association e.V., Centrum Industrial IT e.V., Digital Twin Factory, Miele, Hadi-Plast, and inIT at TH OWL.
At the same time, the deep dive “Digital Twins in Food Production” took place at the Future Food Factory and the Centrum Industrial IT, led by Nele Jantz, head of the Future Food Factory OWL office. The content showed how digital twins can help make production processes along the value chain from farm to fork more sustainable and transparent, thereby contributing to food security for future generations. Participants also had the opportunity to immerse themselves in an industrial metaverse with the help of VR glasses in live demonstrations and to learn about the digital product passport as a business model in system catering using a coffee robot.
The session “Digital twins in transportation” took place in the MONOCAB assembly hall in Dörentrup. The joint journey to the venue in one of the new e-buses from the KVG partner in the research project provided a fitting start. The session was led by Thorsten Försterling, the brains behind the MONOCAB system and head of public relations and marketing. The focus was on the MONOCAB system and the 30-meter test track in the hall. There, participants were able to gain a direct impression of how digital twins can be used in the MONOCAB system. Martin Griese, M.Sc., transfer manager in the TRiNNOVATION project, clearly explained the possible uses in development and illustrated the connection between the digital model and real-world operation. Phillip Matschoß from F7 Digital GmbH showed how a digital survey of the test fields in Extertal was created and how this data is used for planning and implementing route upgrades. Kim Marc Salscheider from KreativInstitut.OWL added how technical data and design can be combined with the help of virtual reality. Finally, the participants were able to experience the connection between theory and practice. During a ride in the Thusnelda test vehicle, the interaction between the digital twin and the real system became tangible. The excursion resulted in new ideas and new contacts, and the participants were enthusiastic. “The digital twin not only makes the MONOCAB system plannable and controllable, but also tangible – we were able to experience this impressively today,” said Thorsten Försterling.
In the workshop “Digital Twins in the Energy Sector,” led by Prof. Michael Blauth and Prof. Georg Klepp, current issues from practice and research were discussed in depth. The focus was on applications in the fields of renewable energies, energy forecasts, service life analyses of connection technology, predictive maintenance of pump systems, intelligent traffic management, environmental monitoring, and energy management. Key topics included ensuring data quality, promoting standardization and interoperability, and developing concrete business cases for the digital twin. The interdisciplinary exchange provided valuable impetus for future research and innovation projects.
In his concluding summary of the results, Benedikt Latos, who currently holds a focus professorship on data-based value creation models as part of PROFuture@TH-OWL (funded by the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space) and also holds a group leader position at the Fraunhofer Institute in Lemgo, called for stronger networking between industry and research in order to shape the digital future together. “The objectives of today's event were to bring together ideas from research and practice on current developments in the field of digital twins, to discuss and identify practical needs, and to facilitate interdisciplinary exchange across various industries: from transportation and manufacturing to the food industry and digital twins in the energy sector,” said Benedikt Latos. He thus underscored the introductory remarks by Prof. Dr. Stefan Witte, Vice President for Research and Transfer at TH OWL: “The digital future can only emerge where exchange takes place, where ideas are spun, where innovation is lived.” The event was supported by the TRiNNOVATION OWL project, funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Aerospace as part of the federal-state initiative “Innovative University.”
