They have employees for that-people they do trust.Īlthough conversations about Industry 4.0 often center on artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, or other burgeoning technologies, there’s a critical human element at work too. But have you ever made a sales call to one? Probably not on purpose, and for good reason since most businesses don’t trust robocallers with purchasing decisions. Have you ever had a sales call from a robot? The answer is probably yes. The optimal nearshored facility attains maximum agility, adaptability and production capacity through Industry 4.0 technologies and applications, enabled by the reliable, secure and business-critical connectivity of an on-premises private wireless network, the underlying edge network, and a wide area network linking the facility with corporate resources across its cloud infrastructure.The human factory in Industry 4.0 continues to be critical.
#Industry 4.0 elements full#
Taking full advantage of nearshoring means thinking network first. Data center networks must be equally agile so they can synchronize with changing applications while delivering the connectivity needed.
Manufacturers and warehouse operators will need ready access to corporate assets living in the private cloud, like design documents and production specifications, and resources for essential activities such as email and enterprise resource planning.Īlso critical is an elastic and flexible computing pool spread across data centres and the public cloud, enabling enterprise applications to scale and evolve to support more users and new use cases. Nearshored facilities don’t operate in a vacuum, making high-performance, on-premises wireless just one requirement for the Industry 4.0 facility. Edge-compute is a reliable solution for such technologies, demanding a robust wireless network on-premises and an equally agile Ethernet network. Time-sensitive Industry 4.0 applications, such as augmented reality and process automation, require real-time data processing, making it important to keep them on-premises for the fastest response times. And AI and AR/VR technologies can enhance the day-to-day of workers, from immersive on-the-job training to interactive digital representations of factory environments and machines. For instance, autonomous mobile robots can seamlessly operate across the factory floor to move product parts and tools, speeding up final assembly. A private wireless network offers the high bandwidth, high reliability and very low response times that are required for many applications. A private wireless network (either 4.9G/LTE or 5G) is well-suited for the untethered devices and business-critical applications that operate in these environments. Factories also tend to have challenging layouts filled with obstructions, which can make it difficult to hardwire devices to a network. Product lines often need to be reconfigured or adjusted to respond to market needs. Flexibility on the factory floorĪ factory is not a static environment. That means a robust, on-premises wireless network to connect to machines and workers, and an agile edge cloud infrastructure to connect the wireless network to applications running on local servers. But making it real requires the right networks and connectivity. Highly automated and flexible operations equipped with human augmentation will also help companies struggling with the availability of skilled labor in some markets and will give rise to a “new collar worker” according to Bell Labs Consulting.
Augmented reality and virtual twinning can create detailed digital representations of products, eliminating the need to reconfigure factories to manufacture prototypes and test models. Sensors throughout the plant collect data that’s analyzed by cyber-physical systems and artificial intelligence, improving agility and real-time optimization of operations and workflow processes. In an Industry 4.0-enabled facility, advanced robotics can move products to, from and around production, warehouse and loading areas, streamlining operations while protecting employees from potentially dangerous work.