A 5G-Enabled Approach: How it helps manufacturers build the factory of the future

Technology never stands still. Change is inevitable with the dominant technologies of the day eventually giving way to new waves of innovation that push an industry forward. This trend is currently at play in the world of manufacturing and B2B operations as 4G, the dominant communications standard of the past decade, is now being replaced by 5G.

While eventually 5G itself will be usurped by the next generation, right now it offers manufacturers the promise of being a viable, wireless technology to augment, and even replace, traditional wired industrial network connections. This has the potential to be a paradigm shift that can help define and build the factories of the future. One that helps reduce expenditure and time-to-market while simultaneously improving organizational flexibility and communications.

For manufacturers, 5G is now an enabler of digital transformation in smart manufacturing to help deliver business outcomes that range from encouraging agility to improving sustainability. Industrial operations can take advantage of the rise of 5G to meet their need for high-performance wireless connectivity and use it to evolve into a more connected enterprise.

Flexibility in a 5G World

The factory of the future is one built on a foundation of flexibility. The past few years have illustrated the need to be able to pivot quickly to deal with a changing situation and have demonstrated how the ability to maintain operational capability during times of flux is paramount to success.

This could be altering machines to produce a different end product or tweaking systems to incorporate new designs, however it always comes back to having the necessary operational flexibility in place from the start.

5G offers this flexibility and agility on a production floor through shortening lead times for data driven insights and the seamless transfer of data quickly, either from machine to machine or machine to robot. One key element that 5G can provide is the low latency, greater reliability and higher capacity communication technology compared to previous generations of mobile networks, which means that more data can be transmitted faster and with less delay. This is important for enabling collaboration between devices and systems in real-time in order to operate effectively and mitigate unplanned downtime which can be extremely expensive for manufacturers.

Enabling Immediate Communications

Achieving a greater level of flexibility however requires communications to be instant. With more autonomous machines operating independently and unmanned vehicles becoming commonplace on the factory floor, communications between operators and machines take a higher priority. In the age of smart manufacturing, where flexibility and agility reign supreme, being able to communicate immediately and accurately matters greatly when needs are changing.

Here, 5G can be an enabler for seamless communications. Low latency messages, where a robot can talk to a centralized operator framework about the required operations, allows manufacturers to have greater visibility over an entire process. But this is all built upon trustworthy communications. Currently, communications can run through all scenarios on a plant floor, either through closed loop Wi-Fi, or wired cables, however, more can be achieved through wireless communication.

By creating a wireless communicative mesh of hundreds, even potentially thousands of sensors, actuators and machines, seamless communications between humans and machines can be achieved to help define the 5G factory of the future.

The 5G Workforce

With faster communications between machines comes faster communications between people. The factory of the future is one which facilitates the connected worker. Moving forward, it isn’t simply a case of connecting a worker to a machine or an asset, but also about connecting people to people.

With a more mobile, disparate workforce, smooth operations require real time communication. This helps workers understand where they're needed next or what they next job will be, all facilitated with 5G wireless capabilities. Even if they are receiving this messages or support from another worker who is potentially thousands of miles away. Put simply, 5G removes geographical borders and makes the world a more connected place to work within.

5G can also enable a safer factory for workers. Workers can carry variable devices and chips in their pockets that are hybrid sensors which requires wireless communications to alert them when they get too close to a machine or enter an area that is potential dangerous to them. With these sensors in place and communicating in real time, problems can be detected before they happen and can therefore be prevented.