Mr. Ehrlich, what significance does 5G have for the manufacturing industry?

Stefan Ehrlich: 5G primarily creates new opportunities for networking system components in manufacturing companies. 5G is an international standard with higher bandwidth, shorter latency times and the ability to align infrastructures more flexibly with the specific requirements of customers. The automated data exchange between machines supported by 5G - M2M - is particularly promising for companies, with the word machines here including various types of end devices or applications. As 5G also enables the use of private or local wireless networks, so-called campus networks, we expect a significant increase in the networking of production-relevant system components at manufacturing companies and their customers.

Is there really a need for 5G in the manufacturing industry
?

Two potential needs are repeatedly raised by customers: The first is about collecting and evaluating sensor data from machines. Not least the number of start-ups with this performance promise shows that there is a need here among companies. In future, 5G will make it easier to collect data from sources that are more distributed than today. Sensors in large areas or different locations can be connected just as easily as products in use at the customer's premises. The data collected in this way promises new insights into manufacturing processes and, above all, optimization potential for the manufacturing processes and the products themselves. However, whether these possibilities are then used to their full extent will certainly continue to depend heavily on the customer.

The second demand is for the direct networking of planning and control software such as ERP or CAD systems with the control units of the production machines. The driver here is the increasingly relevant goal of batch size 1 with the unit costs of mass production. Consumers want ever more individualized products, but they don't want to pay factory prices for them. You can already configure your shoes online and the price is not significantly higher than that of mass-produced goods.

What potential do you see for 5G in the manufacturing environment?

5G makes sense in the manufacturing environment, especially where there is no cable or WLAN-based networking yet. WLAN is currently no longer considered secure, the WPA2 standard was cracked and WPA3 was also cracked before the market launch, at least under laboratory conditions. In principle, real cabling is still considered the most secure option for data exchange, but also the most complex and inflexible. If the layout of production is changed, wireless systems come into their own. But 5G is also ideal where parts of production are outsourced, logistics systems are used and products need to be monitored at the customer's premises. Alternative cable-based infrastructures are often impractical and expensive.

"5G makes sense in the production environment, especially where there is no cable or WLAN-based networking yet."

What does 5G actually make possible, where are the limits?

In very focused and technical terms, it's about better networking. Better means more end devices, higher bandwidth, shorter response times. The limits are initially defined by the available resources such as personnel and money. We will also have to wait and see how quickly the new potential and possibilities can be translated into real, viable business models. And as with other, earlier new standards, the technical specification of 5G will soon be exhausted and we look forward to 6G.

What does a company need to invest in order to be able to use 5G fully and, above all, securely?

I believe that the actual prices for 5G components are yet to be determined. The important thing is that booking a 5G campus network and installing end devices is not enough. The existing network infrastructure needs to be adapted to the new player. The approach of "We'll send everything to the cloud" would be too short-sighted here and is viewed critically by many German companies anyway, especially when it comes to production data. The company's IT staff must also be familiar with 5G in the future, in the same way as with current network technology, in order to be able to continue to guarantee the security of the data and the network.

What will it take for 5G to be a success for the manufacturing industry?

5G alone will not be enough. In any case, integration software that connects the new interfaces, the new data streams and the existing systems must be considered. Without such a software layer, the increase in data and interfaces is unlikely to be manageable and the goal of batch size 1 is unlikely to be achieved. The business expectations of 5G and the predicted developments from the connected factory to connected value chains and connected products will not be fulfilled without a flexible integration layer. The requirements for such a layer coincide with the new possibilities of decentralization, high availability, ensuring data protection mechanisms and information security.

Added to this are predictable acquisition and operating costs - the TCO. With such an integration layer, versatile, highly flexible scenarios - such as plug-and-produce -, virtual factories and flexible end-to-end processes could be established across the entire product life cycle right through to recycling. Even the evaluation of sensor data from production makes much more sense if it is supplemented and correlated with tool data, order data, material data and other data available in the planning and control systems. Ideally, this additional data is collected by an integration layer, which can then also feed back results and run automatic processes.

How do you assess the security risks associated with this mobile technology?

A lot of emphasis was placed on security during the development of 5G. Even the approach of private 5G networks shows the fundamental considerations here. However, as with any new technology, it will only be a matter of time before successful hacks become a security risk with 5G. This means that additional security mechanisms are needed at other levels. The integration software used for the data flow plays an important role here.
Another important aspect is the reduction of the attack surface. The ongoing miniaturization of computing power will enable the decentralization of steps in data processing and process automation in the future. Complex business processes can now be executed decentrally depending on locally available data. Data no longer needs to be transmitted over long distances in a potentially corruptible manner. This approach also reduces delays in data transmission and is more robust against disruptions and failures. Concepts such as fog or edge computing describe such solutions.

Isn't 5G clearly provider-driven at the moment?

I assume that it is. However, it is not unusual for providers, especially the technology giants, to develop and drive markets themselves. Very often, technology innovation comes before actual market demand. However, the market launch then still has a major influence on how the new technology is actually used and how it develops. In this respect, I believe that in a few years' time we will also see 5G in different application scenarios than we imagine today.