10 Ways 5G Will Improve Manufacturing10 Ways 5G Will Improve Manufacturing

While it may be slow in getting adopted, 5G connectivity aims to alter the factory floor with improved connectivity, AR, AI, IoT, and a wide range of supply chain advances.

Rob Spiegel

March 11, 2020

9 Slides
5G, manufacturing, Industry 4.0, augmented reality, IoT, robotics, supply chains, connectivity, wireless networks

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Given that 5G is 100 times faster than 4G LTE or WiFi, it is likely to have a profound impact on manufacturing capabilities. 5G will make connections between devices and the cloud significantly faster. This can transform the notion of real-time.

Gartner says smart factories will receive major Industry 4.0 improvements from 5G. While some smart factory use cases can be achieved with existing 4G, most require the low latency and high reliability offered by 5G.

Manufacturers Will Spend Big on 5G

According to business intelligence company, Raconteur, manufacturers will be the biggest beneficiary of 5G connectivity. Raconteur forecasts that manufacturing will be responsible for $4,687B in 5G spending between now and 2035, which constitutes the lion’s share of the $13.2 trillion in 5G spending over the next 15 years. The transformation is not going to be easy, and many analysts following manufacturing believe that the ubiquitous use of 5G technology in manufacturing is years away.

Forrester Research reports that the 5G option will become more appealing as standards evolve and technologies become available. So far, only the initial set of 5G features is available. There are few devices on the market, and public 5G cellular networks are just starting to appear.

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Rob Spiegel has covered automation and control for 19 years, 17 of them for Design News. Other topics he has covered include supply chain technology, alternative energy, and cyber security. For 10 years, he was owner and publisher of the food magazine Chile Pepper.

About the Author

Rob Spiegel

Rob Spiegel serves as a senior editor for Design News. He started with Design News in 2002 as a freelancer covering sustainability issues, including the transistion in electronic components to RoHS compliance. Rob was hired by Design News as senior editor in 2011 to cover automation, manufacturing, 3D printing, robotics, AI, and more.

Prior to his work with Design News, Rob worked as a senior editor for Electronic News and Ecommerce Business. He served as contributing editolr to Automation World for eight years, and he has contributed to Supply Chain Management Review, Logistics Management, Ecommerce Times, and many other trade publications. He is the author of six books on small business and internet commerce, inclluding Net Strategy: Charting the Digital Course for Your Company's Growth.

He has been published in magazines that range from Rolling Stone to True Confessions.

Rob has won a number of awards for his technolloghy coverage, including a Maggy Award for a Design News article on the Jeep Cherokee hacking, and a Launch Team award for Ecommerce Business. Rob has also won awards for his leadership postions in the American Marketing Association and SouthWest Writers.

Before covering technology, Rob spent 10 years as publisher and owner of Chile Pepper Magazine, a national consumer food publication. He has published hundreds of poems and scores of short stories in national publications.

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