Video: How John Deere deployed 5G in a cutting-edge manufacturing advancement
IndustryWeek’s Dennis Scimeca, also a Smart Industry contributor, this week debuted his occasional video series, called Smart Manufacturers, with an episode that looks at John Deere’s adoption of 5G wireless technology, which is still finding its place in the manufacturing world.
Deere, however, developed the internal expertise to manage its 5G system without dependence on any other company. Dennis toured the company’s Waterloo Works facility in Waterloo, Iowa, and spoke with Jason Wallin, chief architect of the plant’s 5G network, about why Deere chose 5G, how it takes advantage of the wireless technology, and how to measure the success of private cellular.
See also: Private 5G networks provide secure foundation for Industry 4.0
John Deere, founded in 1837, is best known for manufacturing heavy machinery for agriculture, construction and forestry. The company has evolved from manufacturing steel plows to selling smart farming systems and breaking ground on the development of fully autonomous tractors.
Reporter’s notes from Dennis …
While the term 5G has for years been familiar to anyone who uses smartphones, tablets, and other consumer devices, John Deere has set a standard for how manufacturers can tap the potential of private cellular networks to enhance their production operations.
The highly networked Waterloo plant generates millions of data points every day, from registering the position of tools on the shop floor and recording their performance, to analyzing product test results and recording safety step compliance for automated guided vehicles.
Wired ethernet, a tried-and-true networking technology on plant floors for decades, presents serious challenges for manufacturers that want to remain flexible in their shop floor layouts. Uninstalling and reinstalling cables takes time.
See also: Oh how far manufacturing has come in adopting emerging technologies
Wi-Fi provides one solution to maintain connectivity without depending on wires, but requires installation of physical nodes, or “hotspots,” where devices can access the network. But in a plant or warehouse, Wi-Fi is susceptible to interference from machines on the floor, which necessitates installation of more hotspots across a plant as the size of the network increases.
5G technology, the third option, offers higher network capacity with smaller infrastructure requirements and less vulnerability to the same interference. Manufacturers that want to take advantage of private 5G networks commonly depend on vendors such as Bosch-Rexroth, Rockwell Automation and Siemens to run their 5G networks.
But Deere did it on its own, and Dennis brings you the company's 5G story.
