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Great Expectations for Industry 4.0


5G and the edge, two technologies at the heart of our fourth industrial revolution, primed to deliver improvements industrial leaders crave.


The fourth industrial revolution is well underway, defined by technology and the automation and virtualization of traditional industrial manufacturing processes. It’s a revolution that is underpinned by connectivity, cyber-physical systems, and an intelligent edge network – all interconnecting to create an ecosystem intent on pursuing product innovation, production efficiency and enhanced security.


The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major disruption to the global economy and has been deeply transformational for businesses across the world. The manufacturing sector is no exception, with operations and supply chains severely disrupted due to lockdowns and social distancing measures. The pandemic has shone a light on the importance of Industry 4.0 initiatives and manufacturers will be keen to innovate quickly, getting back on a track to deliver improvements and supply chain optimizations that they have long craved, and require now more than ever.


Marrying expectations with reality

At the heart of this industrial revolution are 5G and the intelligent edge, two technologies that are completely re-engineering how the industrial world works. 5G has the potential to be hugely transformative in the manufacturing sector, with its low latency and network slicing capabilities able to support a variety of real-time use cases. Coupled with a distributed network architecture that sits at the network edge, manufacturers have their sights firmly set on autonomous, self-healing factory floor settings.


Expectations amongst industrial leaders for what 5G and the intelligent edge will deliver are high. 2020 saw industrial and manufacturing giants like Ford UK, Lufthansa and Toyota all announced plans to work with partners on the development of their own private 5G networks. Industrial players have been bullish about accelerating the adoption of 5G and the intelligent edge, well aware of the benefits it can bring. In fact, in recent research carried out by ARC and Wind River, it was revealed that 60% of industrial leaders expect to adopt 5G within two years.  


By building their factories of the future around 5G and the intelligent edge, industry players are confident that they will see numerous operational and logistical improvements. The research also revealed that nearly two thirds (62%) of respondents expect to see a 50% lift or more in customer satisfaction as a result of pursuing their improvement initiatives through 5G and technology. According to the research, industrial leaders rank optimizing the supply chain as the most important initiative for Industry 4.0, closely followed by innovations and then enhanced time-critical control. Of course, 5G and the intelligent edge can be hugely influential in achieving these key Industry 4.0 initiatives, but for industrial leaders, the proof will be in the pudding – and time is of the essence.



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