Chapter 9: Improving Workplace Health and Safety Through Digital Twins

In recent years, the emergence of digital twins has revolutionized multiple industries and has the potential to fundamentally transform the domain of workplace health and safety (WHS). This chapter closely examines the application of digital twins to WHS practices and considers their potential for risk mitigation, safety protocol enhancement, and positive impact on the wider organizational safety culture. Further, this chapter explores the contemporary challenges of WHS and assesses the current limitations in compliance, safety monitoring, and incident reporting, which often serve as precursors to workplace accidents and injuries. This chapter includes a cost–benefit analysis of implementing digital twins and highlights the long-term value that these can provide in significantly reducing workplace incidents and safety outcomes improvement. For a more practical perspective, this chapter includes case studies of multiple firms that successfully implemented digital twin technology for WHS. It concludes with the current trends of digital twins’ evolution and their future implications for WHS while considering potential challenges and ethical problems that must be addressed. Overall, this chapter asserts that digital twins are a groundbreaking facet of WHS, seriously empowering organizations to improve safety measures, prevent accidents, and ensure a safer work environment for all workers involved. It is expected that digital twins’ evolution will drive their increasing application to WHS in the coming years, which would ensure future developments in the domain of occupational health and safety.