How manufacturers can use 5G for a factory of the future

Transcript

Stan Miller: Hello everyone and welcome to ROKStudios. I’m Stan Miller, I’m the PR & Analyst Manager for Rockwell Automation in the EMEA Region, and I’m here with Sachin Mathur. He is our Director of Software & Control in the EMEA Region. Sachin, welcome to the studio.

Sachin Mathur: Thank you, Stan.

Stan Miller: I’m so excited because we’re here to talk about 5G and 5G can help manufacturers build a factory of the future. So, to get us started, maybe help us understand what do we mean around 5G when we say, as Rockwell, 5G technology, how do we see 5G technology?

Sachin Mathur: So, you know, firstly of course, Rockwell is working towards that factory of the future for our customers. We are providing state of the art new technologies – emerging technologies to ensure that it’s well connected and integrated for our customers.

5G is essentially that next generation of communication layer that is going to help us prove to our customers how they can achieve the future of manufacturing, whether that be lights out manufacturing, a self-autonomous production line or production facility, or a connected worker type of a strategy. All of that is possible through the power of 5G as a connectivity enabler.

Stan Miller: So, let’s talk about the conversations you have with customers around 5G. What are the questions or what are the needs that you’re hearing in these discussions?

Sachin Mathur: It’s a good segue, right? So, we talked about the big things, lights out manufacturing, and so on and so forth, but what it comes down to, if I have to boil it down to a few words, it’s flexibility and agility in manufacturing.

Needless to say, we talk a lot about the challenges we all faced and the industry faced in the last three years, how our customers, the manufacturing industry in general, had to really evolve and adopt technologies very quickly. I mean, we hear things like 20 years of technology evolution in two.

So, what 5G is going to give us is the acceleration to be more flexible and agile in production operations. For example, we talk about not just machines communicating with each other through providing data between each other, to be able to learn. Using machine learning, you’ve got robots in your production and they need to talk to machines, to be able to have that real time data communication so you can provide that agility in the production process. 5G is going to be the enabler there.

Now, that’s just machines. We’ve got humans in this mix as well. You’ve got a humans, and we see a lot of our customers asking for something called a connected work strategy, which essentially boils down to a worker who’s got information in his hands, who’s walking around the plant floor every day, looking at the machines, looking at the production line, reviewing the throughputs and the outputs - for him to have information in his hands, the power that will give him, to be able to react to what’s happening in his production facility, on the floor, and be able to react quickly on it, is pretty powerful.

Stan Miller: I think that’s a really good example. Let’s talk about sustainability. Are there any sustainability benefits to 5G technology?

Sachin Mathur: Yeah, I mean, this is a big topic these days. Sustainability, whether you talk cloud, you talk 5G, whatever, we have to talk about sustainability. So, I think the answer is yes. And I think where sustainability plays a part with 5G: so, we did talk about flexibility and agility - the way a production process, whether you’re in an autonomous cell or in a line, 5G has that power to be able to give that flexibility.

What comes with that? Agility, right? And that agility to be able to react to changes in your production facility will give way to a little bit of the sustainability topic. And I’m going to dive a little bit deeper. So, I’m going to come to that point. You don’t have to re-cable your cell, you don’t have to re-cable your production line.

If you’ve got a change in requirements, you’ve got to react to customer needs and specifications. You don’t have to find another hundred kilometers of cabling to change your production facility. If you want to have 5G in your production facility, what you’re saving is on cables. Now, those cables are produced - copper, plastic, so there is a point where sustainability will play a role in driving the adoption of this enabling technology for real time communication.

Stan Miller: That’s some great perspective. Let’s talk about strategy and partnership. How is Rockwell Automation partnering to drive forward its 5G strategy?

Sachin Mathur: I mean, for us, I think the answer’s kind of in your question. So, the communications part of our strategy fits right into that connected enterprise production system strategy, which is also our tactical advantage, as we talk to our partners and customers.

So, 5G for us sits right in that communications layer, which is very much an ecosystem play for us. We’re testing technologies today with our partners, and being able to deliver that to customers will very much be an ecosystem approach for us, which we are currently working on.

Stan Miller: Sachin, thank you so much for joining us in the studio today. It’s always a pleasure.

Sachin Mathur: Thanks Stan. Thanks for that time.

Stan Miller: And thank you for watching. If you’d like to learn more about Rockwell Automation and 5G technology, visit www.rockwellautomation.com.