Strategically evaluating the deployment of 5G in your own company is the first step. (Image: Pixabay)

According to an assessment by Horváth, automation and drive technology companies should examine the use of 5G technology with a strategic lens. Here is the set of questions the consulting company is working with. 

With the questions…

  • Does performance, the degree of differentiation of your product portfolio or customer requirements increase when large amounts of data can be transmitted, low latency can be used, high throughput can be enabled and many devices can be connected?
  • Do you see efficiency potential from industrial applications such as mobile robots, autonomous logistics and transportation, augmented reality, remote sensing and – machine maintenance?
  • Will the opportunities created by 5G change or even threaten your business model and environment?

… actions can be derived that give a company some guidance as to whether they should OBSERVE, ACT or even LOSE for the service offering and their own manufacturing.

Observe: If the answers are largely a no, then it is still a case of keeping an eye out for 5G use cases or events such as trade shows and conventions. Actively checking whether customer requirements for networked products and the degree of automation are changing is helpful here.
Act: If these strategic hypotheses are basically correct, it is advisable to identify relevant use cases in production and customer requirements for 5G-enabled products. Participation in campus network collaborations, for example, creates clarity and learning curves.
Get going: Once the test questions posed have been clearly and approvingly formulated, then the search for cooperation partners to set up a campus network and the tests for concrete use cases get underway – also so that competitive advantages can be created.
With the “5G Cross-Industry Roundtable,” Horváth offers industry-related experience that can open up numerous innovations and new business models. Use cases will be discussed with industry representatives and experts, focusing on success factors, prerequisites and experiences in implementation across industries, which will be highlighted with innovation experts from RWTH Aachen University and cooperation partner Drees & Sommer. Previous roundtable participants learned more about wireless connectivity comparisons, 5G status and expansion plans in Germany and abroad. Current challenges and ongoing B2B collaborations were explained by experts from the telecommunications industry. During a tour of the 5G Industry Campus Europe, participants gained insights into the infrastructure and applications of the 5G campus network. Afterwards, the participants were able to discuss selected use cases such as Augmented/ Virtual Service, Predictive Maintenance, Autonomous Transport industry experts.
Fittingly, Dr. Natascha Pavlovic-Höck, responsible for the telecommunication sector at Horváth, gave an insightful interview in the series “5 Questions on 5G”. Her comments on 5G use cases and cross-industry exchange are particularly interesting.