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Context: Digital twins (DTs) have become integral in diverse cyber–physical production systems (CPPS), enabling dynamic interactions between physical entities and their digital counterparts. Yet their integration into such complex ecosystems raises substantial interoperability challenges. While these challenges and associated frameworks for DTs have been extensively theorized in scholarly literature, there are limited empirical investigations that capture industrial perspectives on these aspects. Objective: This exploratory study aims to empirically investigate real-world interoperability challenges in DT deployments and assess the relevance of a layered interoperability framework as a structured approach to address these issues. Methods: We addressed this gap by conducting interviews with 12 DT practitioners from 10 companies across five European countries. Interviewees are guided through two reference models: a simplified view of the DT ecosystem and a layered framework based on the Level of Conceptual Interoperability Model (LCIM). The thematic synthesis and systematic mapping of the collected data have used Grounded Theory (GT)-based open coding. Sentiment analysis was used as an illustrative complement to the qualitative findings by capturing expert attitudes towards the LCIM for DTs. Results: The analysis identified 26 practical interoperability challenges, thematically synthesized into 7 categories. Experts’ perspectives on the LCIM for DTs revealed two key outcomes: 4 drivers of the open and closed-ended nature of interoperability layers, and 4 value propositions highlighting the framework’s relevance for DT deployments. Further, the identified challenge categories are mapped across layers, highlighting the dichotomy of open-source and proprietary approaches, the need for Dynamism and Ecosystem-oriented Interoperability. Conclusions: This work advances empirical and theoretical understandings of DT interoperability within CPPS. Our findings contribute to addressing practical interoperability challenges, provide empirical values for the layered model in cross-disciplinary approaches to DT integration, and offer guidance for researchers and practitioners. Future work could validate and adapt the layered approach through domain-specific DT applications to assess its effectiveness in digital transformation initiatives.
Acharya et al. (Thu,) studied this question.