74% of manufacturing decision-makers in the manufacturing sector are looking to upgrade their communications and control networks by the end of 2022 with more than 90% investigating the use of either 4G and/or 5G in their operations. Just over half of respondents (52%) believe that the latest generation of 4G/LTE and 5G will be necessary to meet their transformational goals.
These are the findings of a study carried out by ABI Research and Nokia that surveyed more than 600 manufacturing decision-makers to assess investment strategies related to 4G/LTE, 5G and Industry 4.0.
The research also identified key business use cases that would drive investment in 4G or 5G. Respondents reflected the need to digitalize and improve existing infrastructure (63%), automation with robotics (51%) and achieve new levels of employee productivity (42%).
Manish Gulyani, Vice President Marketing, Nokia Enterprise said: “We have reached an inflection point in Industry 4.0 transformation as the fast, secure, low latency connectivity underpinning its implementation now becomes available. This research indicates the strong marketplace appetite for industrial-grade wireless networking to capture the transformational benefits of digitalization and automation. We believe that demand, combined with easy-to-deploy private wireless solutions, will drive adoption.”
The research examined near-term drivers influencing buying decisions for new industrial systems across IT (information technology) and OT (operations technology). IT drivers primarily focus on reducing downtime (53%), improving operations efficiency (42%), and enhancing security (36%). In comparison, OT drivers reflect a desire to replace aging infrastructure (43%), improve efficiency (40%) and increase capacity (38%).
Further highlights indicate:
• 88% of respondents stated that they were familiar with private wireless (4G/5G) networking
• 84% that are considering 4G/5G will deploy their own local private wireless network in their manufacturing operations
• leading priority buying areas are automation and machine upgrades (47%), IIoT initiatives (41%), with cloud infrastructure following at (37%).