Private 5G Networks: How Siemens has changed the nature of Industrial Production

Article in partnership with Siemens. Coauthor Sander Rotmensen, Director of Industrial Wireless Communication Products at Siemens

Nine years ago, I was challenged to come up with an automation plan for a factory that produces plastic containers. The production manager insisted that there would be no need for lights — that it should, in theory, be able to run entirely by machines and robots.

At the time, the entrepreneur’s vision was highly complex, almost impossible, to realize. After all, autonomous production requires multiple coordinated operations, starting from the initial order through to quality control and exiting the warehouse. As a consultant, the first barrier I had to navigate was determining how to pass information between machines to coordinate operations.

Allow me to walk you through it. Whenever a new order would arrive, the robots would have to pick up the raw materials and feed the machines involved in the warehouse’s production cycle. Once their processing wrapped up, the machines would then have to order the robots to move the semi-finished products to the next station, and so on. All of this requires a reliable communication network.

At this point, you might be thinking: But doesn’t Wi-Fi enable machines to communicate without wires? Why not just install a powerful router and go from there?