Manufacturing far outpaces other industries in reaping the benefits of the adoption of 5G. The value realized by manufacturing from 5G is $4.687 billion worldwide in 2021; the industry closest to the feat is the information and communications industry, with a value realization of $1,569 billion. Such a stark difference reveals a seismic change in the industry with the convergence of a trinity of factors—the maturing of flexible manufacturing, the potent role of mid-band spectrum, and 5G private networks in accelerating innovation as enterprises have greater control over networking, and the impact of Covid.
Flexible manufacturing and use cases of 5G
Flexible manufacturing has opened a cornucopia of use cases for harvesting latent value long lost in the clunky operating technologies of the past. Downtime has been a sore issue for operating managers in the manufacturing industry—the signs of fragility of equipment are buried in the manufacturing labyrinths, unnoticed by human maintenance staff, until an entire system comes crashing down like a house of cards causing huge losses.
The cost of downtime is a staggering million dollars an hour in the automobile industry, according to Accenture. 5G private networks are a secure and hospitable environment for gathering data with sensors and using analytics to predict failures in real-time.
Manufacturing is deploying various technologies for the condition monitoring of equipment and their pinpointed repair. In collaboration with SAP, Siemens is one of the companies providing such services to the manufacturing industry.
The Internet of Things exposes data such as sounds of rattling, leakage, and temperature to anticipate failure. The maintenance staff no longer have to go scouting to find the elusive crack in a stack of equipment. Instead, they can see the equipment designs on their augmented reality glasses to help them track down the source of potential failure.
Digital Twins have come into vogue with the growing complexity of manufacturing systems and diminishing visibility of activities in its pores. They are a digital representation of industrial processes. When overlaid with data from the Internet of Things, they reveal vulnerabilities in industrial processes at a granular level and possibilities for improvement.
5G private networks work at the behest of enterprise users
5G private networks create a secure environment for sensitive data processing to be possible. Each user of the private network has a SIM card and an identity. Their use of any of the assets in the network can be traced back to their users.
Moreover, 5G networks lend themselves to a great deal of control by the enterprise. They can configure their factories to gain efficiencies and competitive advantages. Automotive factories, for example, have accelerated product differentiation with flexible automation. They don’t any longer have to keep product development and manufacturing processes management separate.
A faster pace of product innovation has become possible with the digitization of all workflows. The digital data from design can now be inserted into automated manufacturing with increasing recourse to robotics and numerically controlled machine tools. Companies like Nvidia have AI platforms to simulate the entire process from product conception to manufacturing before attempting production.
The extension of cloud services to the edge plays a significant role in bringing technology ecosystems to manufacturing.
Covid’s rude awakening about the future
Post-Covid, the manufacturing industry is acutely aware that the technology industry functioned uninterrupted. By contrast, the manufacturing industry was paralyzed. Some of the pioneers in the industry continued to operate with a minimal workforce supported by experts remotely. Indeed, the trained workforce in the industry is retiring rapidly and is unlikely to be replenished soon enough. In Japan, it is not uncommon for the retired workforce to work part-time, delivering remote assistance as routine. According to a 2021 survey by the Manufacturing Institute, 91 percent of the respondents agree that 5G is critical to their future, and 56 percent will complete testing and or using 5G by the end of 2021.
5G-powered innovation in the manufacturing industry is only going to grow apace. The entry of more prominent players like Cisco and Amazon is one indicator of interest in 5G private networks. The increasing numbers of global operators like NEC, NTT, and Kendryl are another indicator. The expanded use of mmWave and MIMO is an early indicator of the growth of high bandwidth applications, including the enterprise.
Conclusion
Manufacturing is in a virtuous circle of productivity growth and innovation as 5G adoption creates the environment to turn the manufacturing industry into another sector of the technology industry. The convergence of 5G private networks and cloud computing makes it a part of the ecology of the larger technology industry. The shock of Covid has changed the industry’s mindset with increasing recognition of the importance of automation and remote work. A faster pace of 5G is not in doubt as the industry attracts big names who will contribute to the speed of change.
Infographic: 5G Propels Manufacturing Forward – Private 5G Networks (privatelteand5g.com)
