The fourth industrial revolution is under way. Enterprises in all industries are looking for ways to embrace data-driven operations, adopt zero-touch automation, and help people and machines work together more efficiently. The pressure to succeed is intense. But the goal is clear: a rapid digital transformation that makes industrial processes safer, more productive and more sustainable without disrupting critical operations along the way.

Let’s explore the most important challenges and milestones you’ll encounter on your transformation journey to Industry 4.0.

Is your industrial campus ready for Industry 4.0?

Today, 70 percent of industrial assets, machines and field workers are unconnected. This means they don’t provide real-time data that can be used to gain insight into industrial operations. What’s more, information technologies (IT) and operational technologies (OT) are often incompatible for reasons such as complex protocols and skills gaps within the workforce. All of this makes it more challenging for enterprises to embrace Industry 4.0 and adopt new applications and devices.

To bring Industry 4.0 to your industrial campus, you need a connectivity solution that can interface with your legacy environments and provide robust security, flawless 24/7 availability and deterministic performance for your mission-critical processes.

A secure, reliable, high-performance infrastructure that connects machines, people and processes can give you the basis for collecting deep insights, introducing more agile and proactive operations, and managing quality on any scale.

But while the need for new digital infrastructure may be clear, your path to implementing it could be complex. In particular, you will need to navigate a fragmented landscape of applications, industrial devices, connectivity and edge computing suppliers. This can lead to long integration times for legacy and new solutions, which can increase your costs and make it difficult to predict your return on investment.

One Digital Platform to make digital transformation simple

Nokia is helping industries address these needs by providing one digital platform that simplifies and accelerates Industry 4.0 transformation. The platform includes four essential components:

• Industrial-grade private wireless and Wi-Fi connectivity
• Certified and ruggedized industrial devices
• On-premises Edge compute capabilities for mission-critical communication
• A digital application ecosystem that supports Industry 4.0 use cases

One Digital Platform for operational transformation by Nokia.

To implement autonomous actions, robust, reliable, mission-critical connectivity is a central element in our platform and the foundation of Industry 4.0 success for every industry.  Take manufacturing, for example – a huge industry with more than 10 million¹ facilities worldwide. An ABI Research study found that more than 90 percent² of manufacturers are considering using 4G or 5G networks to support their operations with reliable, low latency connectivity.

This uptake in private cellular network technology reflects the fact that most manufacturers face connectivity challenges today. (Learn more about the state of the private wireless market) The Wi-Fi networks at their plants and campuses weren’t designed to connect everyone and everything or turn data into meaningful insights. They often can’t interface with legacy environments and enable mission-critical processes that demand high bandwidth coverage, low latency, strong security and 24/7 availability. But it takes more than connectivity for an enterprise to reap the full benefits of Industry 4.0. For example, manufacturers need to complement high-performance wireless networks with technologies such as edge computing, cloud-managed digital applications and industrial-grade ruggedized devices so they can meet the demands of sensors, machines, robots, mobile workers and more. With the right mix of technologies, they can transform production operations with exciting use cases such as digital twins, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), remote maintenance and rich group communications.

Get ahead in the race to implement Industry 4.0

Manufacturers aren’t the only enterprises that can gain an edge by using digitalization to make their operations smarter. No matter what vertical you’re part of, Industry 4.0 promises to help make your operations more flexible and efficient, which will lead to increased productivity, faster time to market, reduced waste, improved safety and security, and higher employee satisfaction.

We’re ready to help you turn these promises into operational realities with a unified digital platform that can:

• Connect your end-to-end production processes in real time
• Support edge computing applications while protecting your industrial data
• Provide high performance, reliability and security so you can digitalize your mission-control and communications applications
• Transform data into operational insight and support autonomous actions
• Ease your digital transformation and avoid disrupting your operations

(Understand the five common misconceptions about private wireless networks.)

Find out more

Want more insights relating to your industry? Check out our eBook, which describes best practices and case studies in digital transformation and the best applications and use cases for four verticals:

• Manufacturing and logistics
• Energy and natural resources
• Transportation
• Mining

 
^{1, 2} ABI Research: Enterprise digital transformation through Industry 4.0