technology could be game-changing for UK manufacturing

In 2018 Worcestershire launched the UK’s first 5G testbed trials into manufacturing.

The objective of the £11 million project was to assess how this new technology could boost manufacturing productivity.

Following two years of rigorous research, the final report has been published. And the results look promising.

They reveal that up to a two per cent efficiency gain in manufacturing may be possible. If you think that a single percentage is negligible, consider this: these results extrapolated to a UK level would be equivalent to a contribution of £2.6 billion in productivity.

5G could transform the UK economy, and not just in manufacturing. It’s much faster than previous generations of wireless technology. It also offers greater capacity, allowing thousands of devices in a small area to be connected at the same time.

The reduction in latency (the time between instructing a wireless device to perform an action and that action being completed) means 5G is much more responsive.

In fact the capacity offered by 5G is opening up the potential for many new, innovative services, ranging across pretty much every area of our lives, from supporting social care to farming.

However, the Worcestershire 5G Consortium testbed trials focused on manufacturing, with the team working with world-class companies such as Worcester Bosch and Yamazaki Mazak, cyber security experts including Malvern-based QinetiQ, mobile network operators, system integrators, academia and public bodies.

Manufacturing is a particularly critical sector of the Midlands’ economy and the consortium was tasked with discovering if the adoption of 5G with industry 4.0 principles (shorthand for what is known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution –the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices) would lead to a potential one per cent improvement in productivity.

That it appears to have achieved a two per cent improvement is impressive.

But manufacturers’ ability to generate efficiency savings is not only dependent on the availability of 5G, says the report, but also on other technology such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and – critically – on the identification of applications for those technologies.

There is as yet no single application that will work for all manufacturers; each needs to consider how to leverage new technologies, including 5G, to address their specific requirements.

The Worcestershire 5G Testbed consortium (W5G) was led by Mark Stansfeld who is also chair of Worcestershire’s Local Enterprise Partnership. He said: “The programme afforded Worcestershire a once-in-alifetime opportunity to take early-mover advantage within the 5G ecosystem.

“The work delivered through W5G forms part of a wider programme in Worcestershire aiming to build a connected and dynamic economy for the county; sitting at the centre of the wider national 5G ecosystem.”

Ste Ashton is Broadband, 5G and Connectivity Manager at Worcestershire

County Council. He has been leading Worcestershire’s 5G programme, including the Worcestershire 5G Consortium and the West Mercia Rural 5G project.

He is also working closely with Malvern Hills Science Park and BT to ensure that following the project there are lasting benefits for smaller companies which would like to run their own trials.

He said: “Following successful completion of the project with the major manufacturers such as Worcester Bosch and Yamazaki Mazak, we are now applying all we have learned to develop a testbed for large businesses and crucially for SMEs too, along with our technology partner BT.

“SMEs make up a large proportion of the UK manufacturing sector and we want to hear from businesses interested in accessing the ‘Testbed