About 74 per cent of manufacturing decision-makers surveyed plan to upgrade communications and control networks in next two years to advance digital transformation and Industry 4.0, a survey has found.

 

The survey conducted by Nokia, in partnership with ABI Research, found that 74 per cent of manufacturers are looking to upgrade their communications and control networks by the end of 2022 with more than 90 per cent investigating the use of either 4G and/or 5G in their operations. And just over 52 per cent believe that the latest generation of 4G/LTE and 5G will be necessary to meet their transformational goals.

 

More than 600 manufacturing decision-makers have been surveyed to assess investment strategies related to 4G/LTE, 5G and Industry 4.0.1 in the report, titled ‘Enterprise digital transformation through Industry 4.0’.

 

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 also identified key business use cases that would drive investment in 4G or 5G. Respondents reflected the need to digitalise and improve existing infrastructure (63 per cent), automation with robotics (51 per cent) and achieve new levels of employee productivity (42 per cent).

 

The report also found that 84 per cent are considering the deployment of their own local private wireless network in their manufacturing operations, with IIoT initiatives being a primary focus (41 per cent), followed by cloud infrastructure at (37 per cent). As for the leading priority buying areas, automation and machine upgrades stand at (47 per cent).

 

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 per cent), improving operations efficiency (42 per cent), and enhancing security (36 per cent). In comparison, OT drivers reflect a desire to replace aging infrastructure (43 per cent), improve efficiency (40 per cent) and increase capacity (38 per cent).

 

Ryan Martin, Principal Analyst, ABI Research said: “Importantly, research findings indicate a preference for deploying private fully-owned and operated wireless networks, with manufacturers favouring in-house management to allay security concerns. It’s evident that respondents are not entirely committed to Wi-Fi/WLAN and will consider latest generations of wireless technologies. As a result, 2020 is a critical year for networking suppliers to educate the market regarding the merits of 4G/LTE and 5G.

 

“Based on this research we also observe a pan-industry need to quantify not only the potential ROI of investing in private wireless, but also to clearly indicate the cost of inaction – vendors need to make the case for investing in Industry 4.0 today to gain a clear competitive advantage over those who choose to wait,” Martin added.—TradeArabia News Service