We paired up with Parks Associates, surveying executives and decision makers at 30 companies in manufacturing, energy and transportation to learn about the Industry 4.0 roadblocks they’ve encountered and what they’ve done to overcome them.
The starter’s pistol went off years ago in the race to Industry 4.0 but a lot of companies are still hunched in their blocks — and many that hit the track have stumbled at the hurdles. So what challenges are they running into, and how can they get to the finish line of operations revolutionized by data-driven insights, real-time automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning?
Hostile industrial environments
Harsh physical conditions and obstruction-filled facilities make it hard to deploy the kind of high-speed, low-latency, ultra-reliable connectivity many Industry 4.0 applications require. But that doesn’t mean the benefits of digitalization are out of reach.
The ‘overcome’: Don’t look for a one-size-fits-all solution. Remote locations may require private wireless networks for reach, while tight spots where interference is a concern may call for a mix of wireline, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and RFID. For fleets on the move, mobile networks with private tunnels into communications service provider (CSP) networks may deliver the best results. Use all the tools at your disposal.