Survey: nearly three quarters of manufacturing sector planning imminent comms upgrade

The survey - which involved 600 key industry figures - also found that more than 90 per cent are investigating the use of 4G and 5G, while 84 per cent will deploy local private wireless networks. The research was carried out in conjunction with ABI Research.

Key business use cases identified in the document include the need to digitalise/improve existing infrastructure, automation with robotics, as well as the achievement of “new levels” of employee productivity.

Current buying decisions meanwhile, are being influenced by the potential to reduce downtime, improving efficiency, security and capacity, and the replacement of aging infrastructure.

Speaking of the findings, Manish Gulyani, vice president of marketing, Nokia Enterprise said: “We have reached an inflection point in Industry 4.0 transformation, as the fast, secure, low latency connectivity underpinning its implementation now becomes available.

“This research indicates the strong marketplace appetite for industrial-grade wireless networking to capture the transformational benefits of digitalisation and automation. We believe that demand, combined with easy-to-deploy private wireless solutions, will drive adoption.”