Industry 4.0 has to adopt all the paradigm shifts and technological advances available if it’s going to truly establish itself in the economic reality of the future. As we’ve already explored, some companies are already implementing 5G in their manufacturing and production processes, but still somewhat slowly, with just 30% of them making progress to date. Despite data proving the practically immediate benefits of adopting 5G in manufacturing centres, we still have to look further afield: artificial intelligence will also play an important role and its integration in the industry needs to be taken into account.

AI and 5G – from autonomous management to proactive improvements

Two of the main areas of focus, which so called Industry 4.0 will develop from, are connectivity and automation (or robotisation). With the former, it’s particularly important to provide factories, business incubators and production and logistics centres with 5G connectivity that’s capable of managing data exchanges through wireless bandwidth with very high capacities and very low latency. This will have a notable effect on mobility, flexibility and the range of operations possible in a multi-device environment.

What’s more, robotisation — which has been establishing itself in the industrial sector for years now — will also significantly boost the adoption of Industry 4.0 throughout Europe. This will be driven, on the one hand, by advances in automated processes and machinery over the previous decade; on the other, due to the interaction of robotics with 5G itself and, furthermore, owing to the intervention of artificial intelligence as a catalyst for an entirely different process, one that facilitates autonomous management without external intervention — or very minimised intervention, in any case — and the progressive and proactive learning of AI, both to improve how production centres operate and to increase the effectiveness of processes and reduce potential errors.

To what extent are 5G and AI really being adopted in the industrial sector?

Although the benefits of implementing 5G and AI in Industry 4.0 are clear, it’s interesting to look at the real penetration rates of these technological innovations in companies within the sector. These figures were the subject of a study carried out by the Digital Intelligence Centre in Alicante, in collaboration with the regional council, the University of Alicante and the Miguel Hernández University in Elche. Researchers analysed the connectivity needs of the industrial sector, its actual technological capabilities and identified the challenges that need to be addressed to adequately integrate these two technologies, which the study identified as key for development.

The study — a collaboration between three independent research projects — creates a digital model of real industrial plants and links it to a database full of information on the behaviour and day-to-day operations of the factories involved in the study.  This data will be key to applying AI to proactively manage factories, according to one of those responsible for the project, María del Carmen Lucas from the Miguel Hernández University. The main conclusions of the study show that:

• 2% of organisations don’t have an R&D department and invest under 5% of their income in this area.
• Improved relationships with suppliers, customers and even competitors and other technology hubs are a major incentive for companies to adopt digital technology.
• The bulk of the effort involved in digitalisation has gone into the areas of internal organisation and marketing, something identified in 70% of the 150 companies that took part in the study.
• 40% of organisations admit their employees have “limited” or “very limited” knowledge and skills in technology intelligence. Another 40%, by contrast, are introducing training programs to reduce this gap.

Although 5G and artificial intelligence will be of paramount importance when adopting improvements and developing Industry 4.0, current data shows that the road ahead is still long and the efforts of both the public and private sectors to smooth that journey must be maintained, or even increased.