5G Use Cases For Manufacturing

5G has been released in Indonesia since May 2021. Since then, early adopters have been looking for ways to maximize its usage in manufacturing industries due to its reliability and flexibility. For one, 5G is able to transmit data in extreme conditions, such as very high temperatures, remote locations, and harsh environments. It can also support various devices including sensors and wearables.

Here are some 5G use cases that manufacturers can benefit from:

Process Automation

The benefit of having a smart factory is the ability to automate repetitive processes with precise data yields and OEE analytics for easy improvements. Although smart factories can use other connectivities, using 5G will boost its efficiency in automating highly complex operations that require extreme accuracy.

A German aircraft engine manufacturer uses 5G-based production technology with close to 1 millisecond latency to produce blade integrated disks or blisk. It is used to compress the air inside jet engines. The milling process alone takes 15-20 hours of complex and high accuracy work. By using 5G, the company successfully reduced their process design phase time by 75%. It also allows them to reduce the emissions from the production of blisk and their operation in jet engines by some 16 million tons annually on a global basis.

Predictive Breakdown And Downtimes

42% of equipment failures happen because of unplanned breakdown. It can cost manufacturers around US$50 billion each year. Through connected factory and predictive analytics, manufacturers can predict and prevent unwanted downtimes in a true prognostic way.

HIROTEC implemented this in their factories where IoT cloud platform and edge analytics are integrated to monitor its operations, measure efficiency and predict failures in critical systems. Using this system, the company has reduced manual inspections to zero.

Augmented Reality For Maintenance

5G’s low latency and stable connectivity helps expedite the repair of electronic boards in Ericsson. The company uses augmented reality (AR) overlays to skip referring to blueprints or word documents while repairing boards.

Apparently, technicians would spend roughly half of their time on finding and linking schematic with layout files while troubleshooting. This non-value activity can be cut off by using real-time diagnostics through AR to identify parts of the board that need fixing. The technology saves the time to fiddle with documents, train technicians and focuses their time to repair boards with efficiency.

The emergence of 5G has allowed manufacturing to increase their product quality, productivity, and operation efficiency. If you’re planning to implement 5G into your smart factory, our IoT experts are ready to help you in your transformation journey. Contact us here for a consultation.