Secondment Diaries: Digital Twin Journey Begins in Cape Town

Approaching Cape Town by air is a unique experience. You first start to recognise the distinct Atlantic shoreline of the West Coast, and the undulating ridges of crumpled mountain ranges, as you can just make out the faint but obvious outline of Table Mountain, slowly emerging from the fuzzy blue horizon. The flat-topped mountain creeps up on you and, as if in an unexpected instant, displays itself majestically in full glory in the spring sunshine, as the plane approaches, and circles around the bay to land in Cape Town. I was home again.

My visit to South Africa is a technical mission, under the auspices of the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and HAUS, the capacity development centre for the Finnish government. Beneath the diplomatic surface, the substantial goal is to bring the advanced Finnish knowledge and expertise of digitalization to the South African context, specifically under the umbrella of Digital Twins: a set of practices and technologies for computational modelling and simulation of buildings, along with all operations and activities within, based on live, real-world situational data.

Having lived in Finland for the last decade, where I completed my doctorate, established a company with Finnish partners, and built a log house by the woods with my Finnish significant other, I can say that I’ve become quite accustomed with the Finnish ways. Returning my attention, and indeed myself, to South Africa through this project is an exciting breath of fresh air, after many years of advising and creating AI applications in the Finnish context. At the same time, having grown up in a South African country town, this project is especially close to my heart and allows me to combine my two big professional passions, that is, civil engineering and artificial intelligence, to serve none other than the beautiful Mother City. It’s a matter of personal aspiration and pride that this Digital Twin project would continue to create value for Cape Town and beyond with lasting impact.

The start of my secondment is graced with the most warm and welcoming hosts at the City of Cape Town. My biggest question prior to the mission was whether I could get ample engagement to properly carry out the discovery and modelling of the operational contexts of Facilities Management. This would be the only way to develop a highly practical Digital Twin Framework that doubles as a realistic and feasible roll-out plan. I must say that this concern quickly vanished as I realized the amount of ground work and buy-in that the folks at the city had already done in preparation for this project. This is a crucial factor for ensuring sustained holistic developments in an innovative AI-driven initiative. The support and proactive agency from the Facilities Management team at the city is a cardinal contribution for which they should be very proud, as I have yet seen few innovative projects with this level of commitment, not only in rhetoric, but through devoting tangible resources to the digitalization vision. I’m deeply inspired and thankful to play a role among the diverse colleagues of the city, all of whom have made me feel like a part of the family!

During the past month, I managed to have deep one-on-one discovery dialogues with more than 35 directors, managers, heads, professional officers, clerks, from all functionaries of facility management, including building design, renovation, repair/maintenance, occupational health and safety, security, building electronics and technologies, asset management, as well as support services such as procurement, human resources, and capacity development. In addition, we also conducted several detailed site visits and planning meetings across different facilities in the metropolitan region. This turned out to be especially important for capturing and appreciating the diverse facility management challenges across the large socio-economic and geographic spectrum. These provided valuable frames of reference against the state-of-the-art Cape Town Civic Centre, where I’m hosted, housing the city’s many directorates, departments and council chambers. I also had the pleasure of speaking about Finland and Digital Twins at a departmental Leadership Connect event, alongside the first official address by the current director of Facilities Management. Despite the technical topics and the large audience, there was a good amount of laughter and post-speech personal engagements, which are reassuring signs of interest among the broader Facility Management audience.

What I found most encouraging from all my interactions was the depth of enthusiasm and sincere care from all levels of Facility Management staff. There is an intimate understanding of complex challenges, not only in technical terms, but also the socio-economic and organizational dimensions, fortified with an extraordinary sense of purpose. I find this especially admirable given the many challenges of the South African municipal service delivery landscape, often entangled with political and criminal pressures. Yet, despite being bombarded with seemingly overwhelming problems on a daily basis, most public servants remain positive and work tirelessly to solve them with what limited resources they have. Oddly enough, I contemplate whether it may be these very problems that incite a culture of constant change amid the city staff. The highly dynamic environment I experienced with Cape Town’s Facility Management team exudes a vibrancy that is rare to find outside of young technology startups. Such a spirit of change, hope and excitement for the future is an attitude we in Finland, or even Europe at large, may need to work on fostering ourselves, especially amid the heavy climate of austerity in recent years.

Cape Town’s forward thinking leadership gives me a great deal of inspiration to see the Digital Twin activities flourish, from the most mission-critical to the least of the 1000+ buildings under the city’s care. We are now in the process of defining the Digital Twin Framework and Implementation Plan focussed around a dedicated pilot facility, the well-known Bellville Municipal building. It is a historic multi-use facility in a major economic hub consisting of a full-sized theatre, banquette hall, conference centre, offices, and walk-in service areas for the public. Digital Twin applications, together with the broader digitalization of facility management, aim to utilize data and real-time information to improve decision-making, customer experience, optimize maintenance planning and execution, while saving time and reducing rework and uncertainty risks. The impact, when scaled up to all of the city’s facilities, is obviously immense. The values not only align with the Finnish Digital and Green Transition goals, that drives this Digital Twin project, but enables huge future commercial potential for new business ecosystems in South Africa and Finland.

This marks the first step of a long Digital Twin journey for Cape Town, and there are certainly many more challenges to be discovered along the way that must be solved with a healthy harmony of skepticism and conviction, and of technical know-how and social empathy. All the while, we remind ourselves that each challenge is really an opportunity in disguise on the long road to success. Ultimately, my wish is that this Digital Twin project can ignite perpetual knowledge creation, collaboration, and sustainable advancement between the people of South Africa and Finland for years to come.

-Vincent Kuo, VXT Research; Seconded Expert under the Finnish Digital and Green Transition (FDGT) Project; FDGT is funded by the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and implemented by HAUS.