The availability of 5G is becoming increasingly important for manufacturing companies and their products, as shown here in a machining centre from Reiden Technik at EMO in Hannover. (Image: DMAG, VDW, EMO Hannover)

Digitisation in manufacturing companies is not part of the natural (further) development path as it is in other sectors of the economy. Nevertheless, the advantages of additional information and possibilities to intervene in these processes through digital solutions are obvious – and are also being used by more and more companies.

For 85 percent of manufacturing companies, the availability of 5G is important – for 52 percent significant and 33 percent rather important – these are the surprisingly high figures of the industry association Bitkom. The figures are the result of a representative survey conducted by the digital association among more than 500 industrial companies with 100 or more employees in Germany.

“5G achieves exceptionally high data rates with a low delay time and, thus, ensures highly reliable, secure, and fast data transmission. This allows companies to make their manufacturing flexible, mobile, and efficient,” explains Nick Kriegeskotte, Head of Infrastructure and Regulation at Bitkom. “Industry in Germany has acknowledged these advantages, but has yet to establish the communication standard in companies.”

29 percent of companies are already using 5G in production – last year it was only eight percent – and 42 percent are planning to use it or are discussing it. Companies would like to use 5G even more intensively in the future. For example, one-fifth (21 percent) want to rely exclusively on 5G as a radio standard in 2025 – currently, five percent have 5G exclusively in use. Ten percent use 5G predominantly and 13 percent partially or only very slightly.

Investments in 5G on the rise

The companies that are using 5G, planning to do so or discussing it, estimate, that they will invest an average of more than 610,000 euros in the radio standard in 2022 – in the previous year, the investment volume was estimated at around 560,000 euros on average. “People and machines are interacting and communicating ever more digitally and networked. 5G creates the corresponding infrastructure with high-performance networks. It is worthwhile for companies to invest in the wireless standard,” says the Bitkom expert Kriegeskotte.