Ericsson and Comau partner to explore potential of 5G for smart manufacturing

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Comau, a world-leading company in industrial automation products, systems and solutions, have signed a collaboration agreement to explore the potential of 5G through a series of projects related to the development of innovative services and solutions on Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing, enabled by 5G technologies.

Through the combination of Ericsson's leadership in 5G technologies and Comau's leadership in automated manufacturing solutions, this collaboration aims to prove the benefits of advanced Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for industrial automation. Comau and Ericsson will leverage existing and future 5G network technologies, IoT platforms, Cloud and Big Data solutions, in order to enable innovative services, increased competitiveness and efficiency for smart manufacturing, maintenance and quality control.

The collaboration also aims to establish a strong research and industrial community and an innovation ecosystem where Comau and Ericsson, their customers, academia, public authorities and other stakeholders may join and collaborate to boost ideas and share resources, in order to showcase the benefits of advanced IoT solutions for different applications.

Mauro Fenzi, CEO of Comau, a company that has been committed to developing solutions for Industry 4.0, focuses on the importance of the project: "Our strategy to make more and more 'open industrial automation' and easy-to-use technologies is enhanced by a new element, represented by the agreement signed with Ericsson. This collaboration, and especially the synergy that comes from the union of the know-how of two great companies, enables us to develop the technological infrastructures for the communication networks of the 'Factory 4.0', applying them directly in industrial plants while complying to our fundamental values - security, speed and ease of use".

Nunzio Mirtillo, Head of Region Mediterranean, Ericsson, says: "As the world becomes ever more digitally and globally connected, industries are experiencing an ICT-driven transformation. This collaboration with Comau is an important milestone that can demonstrate how factories and industrial plants can leverage on 5G potential. The use of 5G technology offers extensive benefits to manufacturing processes, having the capacity, reliability and security to enable remote control and monitoring of processes. When connected to advanced analytics solutions, it is also able to assist analyzing and predicting faults and potential threats before they occur."

This new agreement is part of Ericsson's '5G for Europe' initiative, a cross-industry 5G research and development program involving a range of European markets such as Sweden, Spain, Germany, Austria and Italy. With Ericsson as driver, the program focuses on delivering research, innovation and industrial pilots that use 5G networks combined with IoT and Cloud technologies.

The agreement is also a part of Comau's cross-industry IoT R&D program - 'Digital Workplace' - which focuses on delivering research, innovation and industrial pilots that use next-generation wireless and wired networks, combined with IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), data analysis and visualization, data management techniques and Cloud technologies. 

Following this agreement, Comau has entered the '5G for Italy Initiative', the cross-industry 5G research and development programme launched by Ericsson together with TIM. Scope of the initiative is to identify innovative solutions enabled by the 5G technology within the Cloud Robotics and Security segments. The final scope of the project is to enable a secure and reliable cloud-based wireless monitoring solution to control and process sensors data from robots and the plant in real time, applying analytic functionalities based on encrypted processing and providing feedback to the customers for preventive maintenance.

Comau, a member of the FCA Group, is a worldwide leader in delivering advanced industrial automation solutions that integrate products, technologies and services to help companies of all sizes increase plant efficiency while lowering operating costs and optimizing returns. Headquartered in Turin, Italy, Comau has over 40 years of factory-proven experience, and an international network of 34 locations, 15 manufacturing plants and 5 innovation centers that span 17 countries and employ more than 9,000 people. With a strong focus on innovation, Comau is committed to developing competency through the formation of individuals and groups as part of its open automation approach. Comau is driving the future of production automation by engineering lean and sustainable solutions and products. Its modular, flexible and highly-configurable products can be tailored to meet the needs of each individual customer. Through the continuous development of products and services, Comau is able to lead the automation industry in every phase of a project - from design, implementation and installation, to production start-up and maintenance services. Its comprehensive offering includes manufacturing and assembly solutions, powertrain machining, robotics and asset maintenance services for a wide range of industrial sectors.

www.comau.com

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Ericsson is a world leader in communications technology and services with headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Our organization consists of more than 111,000 experts who provide customers in 180 countries with innovative solutions and services. Together we are building a more connected future where anyone and any industry is empowered to reach their full potential. Net sales in 2016 were SEK 222.6 billion (USD 24.5 billion). The Ericsson stock is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm and on NASDAQ in New York. Read more on www.ericsson.com.