Ericsson USA 5G Smart Factory

Energy monitoring and management

Factories are held responsible for a significant amount of energy usage. Lack of visibility into energy consumption at the device-level prevents factory management from incorporating optimization strategies. This 4G connected energy monitoring and management solution gathers data of all energy appliances in the factory for tracking. By doing that, it can show real-time energy consumption as well as turn particular appliances on/off based on preset rules. Factory energy consumption can be reduced by 5 percent.

Challenge

• Buildings, including factories, use 40 percent of our energy and 70 percent of our electricity
• Lack of visibility into energy consumption at the device-level prevents optimization strategies

Solution

• Enables monitoring of all energy appliances and ability to turn them on/off based on rules
• Gathers data out of the building management systems (BMS) for tracking in the data lake and shows real-time energy consumption on big screen

Estimated impact

• Cost: 5 percent reduction in energy bill from better monitoring and control of energy consumption
• Visibility: Better visibility into actual power consumption leads to increased ability to negotiate power consumption unit price from energy providers

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Agriculture
• Retail & smart buildings

Augmented reality for remote support

Maintenance in factories is difficult due to a lack of on-site expertise. Having maintenance labor maintained at each site, and flying the vendor out for repairs is expensive.

The cost is high for maintenance labor maintained at each site, and flying the vendor out for repairs is also costly 5G powered Augmented reality (AR) will provide factory teams with virtual guidance from experts to troubleshoot and repair equipment. The system with a headset can share audio, video, and annotations in real time for quicker and more precise support wherever the service people are around the world. The augmented reality support will decrease labor, travel, and vendor costs as well as increasing equipment uptime.

Challenge

• With nearly 27 percent of US manufacturing workers set to retire over the next ten years, it will be increasingly difficult to complete certain repairs due to lack of on-site expertise and specialized knowledge
• The cost is high for maintenance labor maintained at each site. Flying the vendor out for repairs is also costly.

Solution

• Augmented reality headsets used by maintenance teams to troubleshoot and repair equipment by:
  • Connecting to central or vendor support teams
  • Getting step-by-step, system generated and knowledge-base powered guidance in real time

Estimated impact

• Labor: 10 percent decrease in plant maintenance labor
• Downtime: 5 percent decrease in equipment downtime because of more efficient troubleshooting
• Cost: 20-25 percent reduction in vendor service cost
• Travel cost: 40-50 percent reduction in travel cost

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Energy & Utilities
• Healthcare

Digital adherence for safety and quality

Helmets, electrostatic discharge jackets, eye protection, and shoe coverings—safety and security for both employees and visitors in facilities like factories are of the utmost importance. However, it is both time-consuming and cumbersome to manually check everyones adherence to safety and quality rules. The video analytics platform uses a camera to detect attire and objects and notifies whether safety attire is used or not. The right equipment could improve compliance and reduce incidents in the facility by 10 percent.

Challenge

• As manufacturing becomes increasingly connected, enterprises need to find more modern ways to ensure safety and security for both employees and visitors
• Manually checking that employees and visitors are adhering to safety and quality rules by, for example, wearing safety jackets and shoe covers is cumbersome

Solution

• Video analytics platform with attire detection that notifies with a “yes” or “no” whether visitors and employees are wearing safety jackets, shoe covers, hearing and eye protection
• The platform can detect people, objects and events

Estimated impact

• Compliance: 10 percent improvement in compliance and reduced incidents

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Energy & Utilities
• Healthcare

Environmental monitoring within the factory

Environmental factors impacting industry output can cost a manufacturing plant up to USD 10,000 in output and increased waste. Temperature and humidity can also affect production and the working environment for employees. The environmental monitoring solution collects environmental factors, such as humidity and temperature across the factory floor in a data lake for analysis purposes. These insights can lead to higher manufacturing quality and a 5 percent reduction in waste production conditions.

Challenge

• Environmental factors are impacting industry output, for instance, a day of with temperatures above 90 degrees can cost a manufacturing plant up to USD 10,000 in output and increased waste
• Difficult to understand exactly how the environment (e.g. humidity) impacts the production/working environment for employees

Solution

• Collect environmental monitoring data, such as humidity and temperature, from across the factory floor and store it in the data lake for correlation purposes

Estimated impact

• Quality: 5 percent reduction in waste due to out of production conditions, such as high temperatures and humidity

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Energy & Utilities
• Agriculture
• Retail & smart buildings

End-to-end digital thread for radio production

Machine downtime causes a significant cost for manufacturers. Lack of component history makes troubleshooting the root of the failure difficult, costly, and time-consuming. The end-to-end digital thread solution gathers and logs a complete history of each radio’s components, supplier info, test results, and tracking from previous troubleshooting. The single source of truth enables a rapid root-cause analysis which reduced repair costs by approximately 20 percent.

Challenge

• Unplanned downtime costs USD 50 billion per year for manufactures globally
• Lack of component history makes it difficult to identify root cause of failures leading to: machine downtime, more rework and higher repair costs, and recurring failures

Solution

• A complete history of each radio’s components and production including: supplier info, test results, troubleshooting and who it’s performed by
• Single source of truth (in the data lake) for the radio’s history enabling rapid root-cause analysis

Estimated impact

• Cost: 15-20 percent reduction in repair costs from less machine downtime, rework and fewer recurring failures

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Healthcare

Alerting and escalation using wearable devices

To continuously check all appliances in a facility is time-consuming and leads to production loss. Smart Devices will provide real-time alerts to the service provider and suggest immediate action based on past actions taken. The faster response time enabled by the smart alerting system increases machine uptime.

Challenge

• Operators/material set-up assistant gets no alert when there is an issue (e.g., material magazine is empty)
• Immediate action not possible if operator is not around the production line computer, leading to production loss
• No guidance on immediate next step available to operator

Solution

• Smartwatch will provide real-time alerts or critical alarms to operator and suggest immediate workflow actions

Estimated impact

• Uptime: 5 percent increase in machine uptime from faster operator response time

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Energy & Utilities
• Public safety
• Healthcare

Digital material tracking and visualization within the factory

To continuously check all appliances in a facility is time-consuming, and material magazines can be empty for a while before it gets detected and refilled by a factory worker, which leads to production loss.

Smart Device will provide real-time alerts to the service provider and suggest immediate action based on past actions taken. The faster response time enabled by the smart alerting system increases machine uptime.

Challenge

• Missing critical assets can have a considerable impact on production - one hour of industrial downtime has an average cost of USD 100,000
• Low visibility of critical assets in real-time (within factory)
• A lot of time spent in looking for assets in the factory leads to rework and waste

Solution

• An asset-tracking solution that digitally integrates with factory floor sensors to track critical assets’ location, condition and status in real-time
• Provide production insights to operators and managers by tracking production progress
• Real-time visibility of finished goods into the production floor

Estimated impact

• Labor: 10 percent increase in repair tech productivity
• Cost: 5 percent reduction in rework and waste
• Efficiency: 2-5 percent cost avoidance on indirect spare purchase items

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Retail & smart buildings
• Healthcare

Digital performance management

Critical assets have low visibility in real time in the factory. Industrial downtime due to missing critical assets in production can be costly due to increased waste and time spent on rework.

These insights from the production line provide operators and managers with visibility, increase productivity and reduce costs from rework and waste.

Challenge

• Missing critical assets can have a considerable impact on production—one hour of industrial downtime has an average cost of USD 100,000
• Low visibility of critical assets in real time (within factory)
• A lot of time spent looking for assets in the factory leads to rework and waste

Solution

• An asset-tracking solution that digitally integrates with factory floor sensors to track critical assets’ location, condition and status in real time
• Provide production insights to operators and managers by tracking production progress
• Real-time visibility of finished goods into the production floor

Estimated impact

• Labor: 10 percent increase in repair tech productivity
• Cost: 5 percent reduction in rework and waste
• Efficiency: 2-5 percent cost avoidance on indirect spare purchase items

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Retail & smart buildings
• Healthcare

Machine learning based visual inspection

Visual inspections are often time-consuming and come with a high risk for error. Illumination conditions and background clutter impacts the ability of traditional machine vision inspections. By using a high-resolution camera and machine learning algorithms for visual inspections, the accuracy of the inspection is increased and inspection time is reduced.

Challenge

• Visual inspections are time-consuming, and errors typically range from 20-30 percent
• Traditional machine vision struggles to handle, for instance, illumination conditions and background clutter
• High false positives and missing errors result in machine downtime and rework

Solution

• Using a combination of high-resolution camera and machine learning algorithms, we improve the accuracy of the board inspection in the production area

Estimated impact

• Labor: 5 percent decrease in inspection time
• Throughput: 5 percent increase in throughput based on reduced false positive failures

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Energy & Utilities

Automated unpacking process

Manual labor is traditionally used for 50-80 percent of factory activities. The decanting process, gradually unpacking and placing material from one container to another, is a labor-intensive activity. Material is not always delivered in uniform orders which is time-consuming to structure and organize. The automated robot identifies and picks up material from unstructured bins. The material is then placed onto trays in a particular orientation and location so it can automatically be received by production lines. Automation of the decanting process leads to a 50 percent decrease in labor kitting time and increases production uptime.

Challenge

• A large share of factory activities (around 72 percent) are based on manual labor, such as unpacking and carefully placing components onto trays so that they can be picked up by automated lines
• Material coming from overseas is not always delivered in uniform order

Solution

• Pick up materials from unstructured bins and place them onto trays in a particular orientation and location so they can automatically be received by production lines

Estimated impact

• Labor: 50 percent decrease in warehouse operators doing kitting
• Uptime: 5 percent increase from more efficient unpacking

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Agriculture

Control tower to showcase plant dashboards

Up to one-third of the engineer’s time in factories, is spent finding correct and updated production data. The data is often stored in silos and it is hard to get an overview of the data from the factory. The central control tower accesses all factory systems and provides a centralized, master-overview of what is going on in the factory.

The system sends alerts when there are performance issues to enable quick responses. The solution reduces labor hours thanks to its ability to provide efficient communication and direct access to information.

Challenge

• Finding the correct, up-to-date production data in a large factory is a cumbersome task that can consume 14-30 percent of an engineer’s time
• In many cases, process and production information is stored in siloed systems and it is difficult to compile a real-time master view

Solution

• Central control tower with access to all information systems
• Integrated with shop floor, security, building management and safety systems
• Centralized system allows for flexibility and scalability of factory
• Alerts raised centrally facilitating quicker response

Estimated impact

• Labor: 5 percent reduction in labor hours due to better communication and access to information

Potential applications

• Manufacturing
• Energy & Utilities
• Retail & smart buildings
• Healthcare
• Public safety