Sterilcentral, the sterilisation provider serving hospitals in Denmark's capital region, uses a digital twin of key parts of its Herlev facility to model how surgical instruments move through the site. The twin was built by SAS on SAS Viya, with 3D environments from Epic Games' Unreal Engine, and is used to keep sterile instruments flowing reliably to operating theatres.
The facility supports approximately 1,000 surgeries each day across seven hospitals, so changes to its processes carry real operational weight.
How the twin is used
- The 3D model, enriched with real-world data and analytics, let the team find and resolve disruptions in the sterilisation process.
- Staff could trial process changes in the virtual environment rather than in the live facility.
- The same environment generated synthetic data to train computer vision models that check workers are wearing protective gear correctly, such as hairnet, mask and gown, to reduce contamination risk.
Reported impact
Sterilcentral's CEO, Thomas Bogeskov, says the twins helped the company challenge its assumptions about where delays were occurring, pinpoint bottlenecks, test changes before they affect operations and improve the reliable flow of sterile instruments. In a segment at SAS Innovate 2026, SAS Chief Technology Officer Bryan Harris presents how the digital twins help Sterilcentral optimise the cleaning, logistics planning and delivery of surgical instruments across hospitals.
