Edge IoT and 5G Will Transform Our World, Starting on the Factory Floor

The abundance of IoT devices are producing massive amounts of data on today’s factory floor. According to IHS Markit, the installed base of IoT devices will rise from 27B in 2017 to 73B by 2025, with manufacturing being a key industry driving IoT market growth. The number of connected devices in the manufacturing industry is expected to double between 2018 and 2020.

Automation is the backbone of manufacturing, so it’s no surprise that manufacturing is shaping the next industrial revolution, which is all about connectivity and processing (speed and precision of automation). IoT and smart devices are already increasing performance metrics of factories, boosting productivity by 40-60%, according to a recent study by MobiDev.

The introduction of 5G (projected by IEEE to hit critical mass by 2025) will unleash more devices and data traffic. Edge Computing processes data closer to where it originates (on or near the sensor) rather than distant data centers or clouds, allowing for business-critical decisions to be made in near real-time and with fresh data. Edge is capable of handling our growing appetite for more, faster, smarter data.

Edge intelligence and low latency combined with 5G’s bandwidth will allow IoT to thrive. Edge IoT use cases will be compelling in 2019, creating exciting new business models and giving rise to rapid automation and deployment of new applications that require artificial intelligence at the Edge in order to make sense of the vast amount of data generated from IoT devices and adjunct networks. Applications like 3D printing, machine vision, augmented and virtual reality (and not just for games), security, quantum physics and predictive analytics will live on the Edge.

Edge IoT use cases in manufacturing, such as environmental monitoring, smart metering, inventory intelligence, renewable plants supervision and operator productivity, will yield business value from manufacturers’ IoT strategies. With manufacturers at the vanguard of IoT, these very use cases will also unlock the business value of IoT operations across industries, stimulate economies with global IoT market adoption and pave the path for the fourth industrial revolution. Yes, Edge IoT and 5G will transform our world, and it starts on the factory floor.

Tags: Industry Predictions

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2019 at 00:10. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.