Nokia’s Oulu Factory Named 5G Factory of the Future by WEF

Nokia receives accolades from the World Economic Forum, in association with McKinsey & Company.

No longer buzzwords, Industry 4.0 and 5G are becoming a reality. While many companies are leading the charge. Nokia’s Oulu, Finland, factory was recognized as an Advanced 4th Industrial Revolution Lighthouse by the World Economic Forum and McKinsey & Company.

To be named a Lighthouse—a facility transforming itself to enhance safety and less repetitive and more diversified and productive—a factory must attain high standards regarding impact achieved, successfully integrating multiple use cases, scalable technology platform and high marks on enablers including change management, capability building and collaboration within the Industry 4.0 community. The award indicates the impact of industry 4.0 in increasing productivity, agility, product quality and product lead time for their businesses.

“We are paving the way for enterprise customers to realize the vision of Industry 4.0 and industrial automation by applying our technology to our manufacturing needs,” said Kathrin Buvac, Nokia Enterprise president and chief strategy officer. “For our Oulu 5G facility, we created a ‘factory of the future’ environment leveraging private wireless networks for reliable and secure in-factory connectivity, edge cloud and IoT analytics. We look forward to sharing this expertise with customers, helping them accelerate growth and unlock their full potential.”

Nokia showcases its integration of automation into its “factory of the future.” (Image courtesy of Nokia.)

Nokia showcases its integration of automation into its “factory of the future.” (Image courtesy of Nokia.)

Driving Industry 4.0 are the trends of connectivity, automation intelligence and flexible automation. The Oulu factory has been transformed into one powered by the technology it makes, which has resulted in 30 percent and 50 percent savings in time of product delivery to market. The factory leverages the use of its own 49G/LTE wireless networks for to produce 1,000 4G and 5G base stations per day. Along with secure connectivity, IoT and digital twins, the factory has integrated automation wherever possible, as well as antennas throughout the facility to create a geo-locating system with 30cm accuracy.

“For factory employees, the automation of our Oulu manufacturing environment increases flexibility and adaptability,” said Heikki Romppainen, head of the Nokia Oulu factory. “The ‘conscious factory’ has evolved the working ecosystem—increasing motivation and the well-being of employees by automating the traditionally repetitive tasks, making work more diversified and productive.”

With the recognition, Nokia, along with other companies deemed a Lighthouse, will collaborate to share knowledge and best practices for facilities across the globe transforming themselves for the Industry 4.0 revolution.

Interested in learning more about the factory of the future? Check out What Does ‘Factory of the Future’ Really Mean? and Meet Australia’s ‘Future Factory.’