Nokia announced a collaboration with Flex Brazil to deploy 5G SA private wireless networks in its manufacturing facilities in Brazil. Initial use cases will focus at increasing wireless applications and exploring the potential of 5G for reliable connectivity, massive transfers of operational data and greater layout flexibility on the shopfloor. Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (Nokia DAC) will provide the private wireless on-demand service as well as MX Industrial Edge computing and digital-enabling applications.

The collaboration reflects the long-term goal of both companies to introduce innovative Industry 4.0 solutions in the supply chain and manufacturing verticals, to make operations more agile and cost effective with 5G technology, becoming a lighthouse to other companies interested in pursuing this journey. Offered as-a-service, Nokia DAC combines plug-and-play 4.9G/LTE and 5G industrial-grade network connectivity with on-premise edge computing to provide the data management and processing to support real-time applications for smart manufacturing, predictive maintenance, remote operations and many other applications. Nokia Network Digital Twin creates a digital twin of the private 5G network and its connected devices.

This enables Flex to monitor network operations in real time and predict maintenance needs and potential downtime in advance, reducing disruptions in production and making its factories more efficient and productive in the future. Nokia Bell Labs innovations focusing on novel networks applications will be experimented at Flex to enable new forward-looking use cases of deterministic networking for reconfigurable production lines.