India’s next step towards digital transformation will involve 70 million 5G connections by 2025, according to GSMA. While every single industry in India is poised to benefit from the 5G rollout, it’s the manufacturing sector that looks set to particularly gain from this innovative new technology. But just how will manufacturing businesses utilize all that 5G has to offer?
A smoother production line
5G promises to reduce latency times to approximately 10 milliseconds. As a result, the connection between components is seamless, and issues can be detected in real-time. This benefits production lines, as it provides ample opportunity to halt the process before an error is made. This ultimately saves time and cost on materials. 5G provider, Ericsson, previously demonstrated how effective this new technology is when 5G was able to reduce the error rate on a milling machine by 10%.
More efficient troubleshooting
Research shows that technicians spend 50% of their time focusing on items such as paperwork rather than circuit boards during the troubleshooting process. This effects productivity and output during the manufacturing process. However, augmented reality (AR) that utilizes low-latency 5G provides a high-quality, sustainable image that keeps a technician’s focus on the main issue. In time, AR and 5G can be linked to additional systems that provide additional information to the technician to aid them with their diagnosis. Ideally, this type of technology will need to be linked to a custom-made data app, such as the ones designed by Joshua Baker, who emphasizes the need ‘to build secure and scalable digital products or services.’
Cutting maintenance downtime
Broken down machinery makes up 42% of unplanned maintenance in the manufacturing industry. Downtime is detrimental for a business, as it results in production ceasing and costs rising. But 5G technology can prevent severe maintenance issues arising. The realtime data it offers provides enough time for businesses to swiftly power off a piece of machinery that’s showing signs of malfunction before it completely burns out and requires replacing rather than repairing. This keeps downtime to a minimum, helps to keep costs down, and ensures that production resumes as quickly as possible.
5G will digitally transform the way that manufacturers, both in India and elsewhere in the world, run their businesses. Thanks to its high speed, multiple errors and issues can be prevented, thus keeping costs down and productivity up.
Read more about the Impacts of 5G here from LIveTiles
