Ericsson has announced that it is planning to construct the company’s first fully-automated smart factory in the US. This factory will manufacture Advanced Antenna System radios to enhance network capacity and coverage in the rural areas, along with 5G radios for urban areas.
Both areas are important for rapid 5G deployments in the North American region, the company noted. Besides the US smart factory, Ericsson is also speeding up the launch of the next-generation smart manufacturing via a modular and flexible production setup in its existing own factories in Estonia, China and Brazil.
Fredrik Jejdling, executive VP and head of networks at Ericsson, says: “We continue to focus on working closely with our customers and supporting them in the buildout of 5G globally and in North America. With today's announcement, we conclude months of preparations and can move into execution also in the US. In addition, we are digitalising our entire global production landscape, including establishing this factory in the US.
“With 5G connectivity we're accelerating Industry 4.0, enabling automated factories for the future,” Jejdling added.
Writing for IoT News earlier this month, Louis Columbus explained why smart machines are the future of manufacturing.
“The era of the smart, connected machine is here, bringing with it the need to grow services and software revenue faster than transaction-based machinery sales,” wrote Columbus. “Machinery manufacturers are having to rethink their business models and redefine product strategies to concentrate on operating system-like functionality at the machine level that can scale and provide a greater level of autonomy, real-time data streams that power more accurate predictive maintenance, and cross-vendor shop floor integration.”
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