We are glad from 5G-INDUCE project to share on the progress in automation and optimization of manufacturing logistic processes, supported by 5G, and being piloted in Ford factory in Almussafes (Valencia), the largest factory of Ford in the world outside USA.
The vision, progress and lessons learned in this project so far have been recently shared by Manuel Lorenzo (Ericsson Spain; 5G-INDUCE WP6 leader) in two major open events: Valencia 5G Days 2022 (link to event, link to briefing) and FITCE Technology Forum 2022 (link to event, link to presentation). A summary of the disseminated information follows.
Ford factory in Valencia is already very advanced in this subject, with more than 50 AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) manufactured by ASTI Mobile Robotics -now part of ABB Group- in operation. In fact, Ford has published its strategy to move to zero industrial vehicles, 100% automated vehicles in their floor shop (link to youtube video here). Then, on top of such great transformation platform, innovation in new use cases and horizontal solutions is propelled by the ecosystem of 5G-INDUCE partners made up by Ford, Ericsson, ASTI, YerbabuenaVR, Fivecomm, UBU and with the support of Gestoos, Intel, Telefónica, and UPV. As a result, key business priorities for Foprd have been matched with pervasive use cases jointly specified and implemented by the 5G-INDUCE ecosystem.
In order to support these use cases, and their evolving needs, an end-to-end 5G SA based solution has been crafted, addressing both superior network performance and deployment flexibility requirements. The overall solution is being validated by all the ecosystems partners involved, both over 5TONIC lab Rel16 infrastructure and at Ford factory premises’ dedicated 5G SA network environment, being all 5G network equipment supplied by Ericsson, 5G CPEs by Fivecomm, AGVs by ASTI and VR/AR apps by YerbabuenaVR.
Clearly, firms and institutions engaged in this initiative within the 5G-INDUCE project, may, by working as a team, achieve way more than separately, and can transit from learnings and innovation to exploitation of results through a smoother and faster path, with higher chances of success for all parties.