
Digitalization for the chemical and plastics industry
Make people, technology and processes work as one
Increase productivity and worker safety in your plant while being sustainable
Chemical manufacturing companies around the world are looking for ways to increase productivity and worker safety while making their operations more sustainable. Digitalization and Industry 4.0 technologies can help them achieve these ambitions by enabling them to gain better control of their assets, generate meaningful insights from data and support 24/7 operations.
Many manufacturers are taking the first steps towards chemical Industry 4.0 by ramping up their deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. ABI Research predicts that by 2030, manufacturing and industrial firms will have deployed more than 49 million 5G-connected IoT devices inside their facilities. In the chemical industries, 5G connections are forecasted to reach 4.8 million in 2030.*
But deploying connected devices is just part of the digital transformation strategy for the chemical manufacturing sector. The key to realizing the promise of Industry 4.0 and successful chemical industry automation is to combine new applications and devices with pervasive, reliable enterprise wireless connectivity and industrial edge computing. This combination of capabilities can make it easy for people, processes, sensors, robots and legacy machines to work as one to achieve better business outcomes.
* ABI Research: Digital Factory Forecast, 2022

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Best practices and use cases to drive productivity, sustainability and worker safety
Digital chemical plants need end-to-end connectivity
Industry 4.0 will enable many exciting use cases for chemical manufacturing companies, from digital twins and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to remote maintenance and rich group communications. These use cases promise to help your company expand your site and plant automation, improve asset tracking and quality assurance, increase data transparency, and augment workforce safety and productivity.
To turn these promises into operational realities, you need a comprehensive networking platform that can:
- Connect your end-to-end production processes to gather data, and
- Provide monitoring and optimization for more efficiency, reliability and security
- Support industrial edge computing applications while protecting your data
- Transform data into operational insight and support autonomous actions
- Ease your digital transformation and avoid disrupting your operations
This platform must be easy to set up and integrate with your legacy networks and operational technology (OT). It must also work seamlessly with the Wi-Fi networks you rely on for basic IT connectivity, typically in indoor areas, and offices.
Transform chemical manufacturing with connectivity that enables devices, people and machines to work together as one
Nokia can help you unleash the value of chemical Industry 4.0 at your manufacturing facilities with One platform for industrial digitalization to drive your enterprise digital strategy, which includes industrial-grade connectivity, edge computing, devices, and applications. This unified platform enables people and machines to work together in a safe, efficient, and sustainable way.
New applications for increasing efficiency demand robust wireless connectivity that is beyond the capabilities of Wi-Fi. You need solutions that can connect and cover indoor and outdoor areas by extending ubiquitous wireless connectivity across your plant. Our private 4.9G/LTE and 5G industrial solutions deliver pervasive, flexible mission-critical connectivity. Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) lets you complement private wireless with Wi-Fi 6/6E to meet the connectivity as well.

One platform to make digital transformation simple
To succeed with digital transformation, you need the ability to capture and act on data, often in near-real time. Data from IIoT sensors must be processed by industrial edge computing systems that can use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to model and analyze it. The results must then be used to make split-second decisions, reconfigure processes and achieve new efficiencies, especially around automation.
We can help you address these challenges by providing you with one digital platform that simplifies and accelerates chemical 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 computing capabilities for mission-critical communication
- A digital application ecosystem that supports chemical Industry 4.0 use cases
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