Driving the Electric Revolution Industrialisation Centre (DER-IC) North East invited businesses to a webinar to find out how efficiencies, factory processes and productivity can be improved with 5G.
The webinar opened with an introduction to DER-IC North East delivered by COO Rachel Chambers, who outlined the centre’s capability and equipment.
The DER-IC North East centre has received c£6m of investment of an innovative, scalable, machine and power electronics assembly line, which is a critical enabler for power electronics, machines and drives (PEMD) growth in the UK.
Our centre will also provide 5G wireless infrastructure, providing an industrial grade mobile network which will:
- Support new innovative services in our manufacturing process;
- Develop flexibility to rapidly reconfigure and retool assembly lines for quickly responding to changing demands;
- Enable and support seamless collaboration between humans and robots, helping to increase productivity and efficiency;
- Support the continual drive for operational efficiency a key focus for the sectors we work with.
We then welcomed Simon Parry, CTO of Nokia Enterprises UK&I, who explained what 5G is and why it is important, as well as how it can benefit manufacturing, processes and production plans.
Simon outlined the benefits of a private 5G network for businesses, including
- Wide and deep coverage
- Predictable performance
- Military-grade security
- A single network for all apps
- High-speed mobility.
The ability of this network to enhance industry 4.0 was demonstrated through a range of case studies, from a fleet of 50 connected autonomous trucks at an Australian iron ore mine, to Bosch’s blueprints for the smart factory of the future.
To find out more about Nokia’s work with 5G, take a look at the presentation and white paper here.
Finally, Executive Consultant and Head of Business Development at Perform Green Richard Barrington introduced the 5G Connected Automated Logistics project – CAL Create.
This $4.9million project, led by the North East Automotive Alliance, will look at 5G’s ability to boost productivity through a proof of concept in the use of autonomous 40-tonne truck at the Nissan factory in Sunderland and provide findings for future uses of 5G CAL across the country.
The 5G CAL initiative will establish a technology subset that makes commercial deployments of autonomous vehicles in logistics a viable means to increase efficiency in the near term. Operational and functional safety will be paramount, with learning around how open-source autonomous driving can lower barriers to entry.
The speakers’ slides can be viewed here:
Rachel Chambers – DER-IC North East – PDF
Richard Barrington – Perform Green – PDF
If you’d like to find out how your business can benefit from 5G, please get in touch.