Frost & Sullivan: 5G a ‘key catalyst’ for Industry 4.0

Research firm Frost & Sullivan has released a report that has found that limitations to 4G are enabling 5G technology to encourage the development of Industry 4.0. The report, titled, ‘5G in Process Industries’ discovered that the high bandwidth and low latency provided by 5G networks are driving process industries to partner with strategic 5G providers.

It also concluded that, in addition to the organisational and economic benefits of industrial digitisation, falling prices of technologies such as machine learning and Big Data analytics push manufacturers toward technological solutions that improve their quality and efficiency.

5G capable of addressing the challenges of increasing data traffic requirements

"Industry 4.0 and the industrial IoT (IIoT) are increasing the number of smart sensors at a manufacturing plant and enabling machine-to-machine communications," said Marina Salaber, Research Analyst, Industrial Practice, Frost & Sullivan. "5G broadband's capabilities enable connections to numerous devices and simultaneously process large masses of data, addressing the concern about the increasing requirement of data traffic that modern factories need."

Salaber added: "high reliability allows businesses to incorporate automation processes that depend on the correct network operations. 5G, in this regard, surpasses the boundaries of digitisation, allowing a dependency on network processes and protecting companies from high production costs and stoppages that connection dropouts cause."

According to Frost & Sullivan, market participants should focus on several prospects. The first of these is the fact that the pandemic pushed traditional face-to-face inspections toward virtual platforms.

In addition, manufacturers must partner with AI, 5G network, and data management software providers to achieve suitable energy management. They can also utilise cutting-edge software, such as ML and deep data analytics, to process the information collected and provide an end-to-end solution. 

Frost & Sullivan also states that a digital twin must ally with innovation in every operational process. This offers growth opportunities for manufacturers by reducing financial inputs, shortening learning curves, and minimising manpower. Autonomous and collaborative robots can also increase the reliability and efficiency of production lines.