4 Ways The Indian Manufacturing Sector Will Benefit From 5G enterprise

Modern-day machines can not only sense their deteriorating health but proactively schedule and predict their own maintenance and downtime as well. The age of Industry 4.0 has officially kickstarted but not without its limitations.

The contemporary connectivity systems and modules are good but do not allow emerging technologies like IoT, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and more to completely leverage their full potential. That’s why the need for more efficient, powerful, and futuristic connectivity standards are required.

4 ways the Indian Manufacturing Sector Will Benefit From 5G Enterprise

1. Optimized Functionality in Predictive Maintenance

Fascinating aspects of predictive maintenance have been unlocked for modern machines. However, for manufacturing units to ensure productivity is uninterrupted and that unforeseen circumstances can be accommodated, we need real-time visibility and data transmission among devices.

This can happen only when the bandwidth of a network complements its wireless ecosystem equally. For remote installations such as machines in offshore oil rigs, unmanned drones, and towers and data generation systems close to the poles, in the oceans, or deserts, we need the best of connectivity standards to ensure the smooth functioning of devices for intended purposes. This can be powered only by the futuristic 5G.

         2. Reliable Inventory and Supply-chain Tracking
Supply-chain management is one of the biggest challenges manufacturing companies handle on a daily basis. From ensuring prompt dispatch of goods to vendors and customers to ensuring they reach recipients on time, a lot goes on at the backend. While companies today make good use of fleet management tools, functionalities with respect to real-time transmission and management of dense ecosystems still take a significant hit because of existing 4G standards.

Thanks to the power of 5G, more nodes can be connected to a network at once, which only translates to more asset management in real-time.

3. Additive Manufacturing
A plaguing concern has been infecting manufacturing companies in the recent past – the lack of availability of spare parts. The unavailability of intricate spare parts has been stalling production processes in a number of industries. Spare parts for a lot of obsolete machinery models are being 3D printed and even the aircraft mammoth – Boeing – 3D prints its most replaced spare parts. This complementary module ensures a disruption-free manufacturing environment and to further empower this deployment, 5G will be nothing less than revolutionary.

4. Augmented Troubleshooting
While predictive maintenance helps prevent breakdowns, there are still certain inevitable situations that demand the presence of an expert or a designated technician. To minimize the time taken between calling a technician and the maintenance time, a concept called augmented troubleshooting is gaining pace.

Augmented Reality (AR) technology is used to virtually summon a technician, who examines a machine and troubleshoots it remotely. This is also used in training new personnel for hands-on virtual exposure. Called ART – Augmented Reality Troubleshooting, Ericsson is already testing its waters with this technology. To make this concept a reality, 5G will play a crucial role as augmenting a human in a real environment with zero latency requires impeccable connectivity standards and efficiency.

Final Thoughts
While the conversations about Industry 4.0 is going strong, we often fail to acknowledge the other technologies and practices that make Industry 4.0 a possibility. 5G is one such technology that is not just laying the foundation strong for the future but fueling transformation across diverse industries, too. It will be interesting to see what other changes the massive deployment of 5G would bring to the manufacturing space.