BROWSING: Smart Factory

Bosch is prepping an autonomous factory transport system for launch, after testing in its own factories. It will target the likes of BMW, Osram, and Trumpf - existing customers for its industrial IoT solutions already.  In tandem, the German firm has opened a new innovation...

Amazon has applied with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a temporary license to work in the CBRS band in California to test and analyse the performance of new 3.5 GHz (3550 MHz to 3700 MHz) wireless devices. It is its second application, at...

Finnish operator Elisa is offering enterprise customers and public safety agencies a private LTE solution, after trials with Swedish vendor Ericsson during the first half of the year. Ericsson said the offer will enable Elisa’s enterprise customers to “gain control” of users, devices and...

The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) is piloting a contract automation tool that uses artificial intelligence to negotiate between industrial companies, without human involvement, to arrive at contract terms both sides can settle on. In recent weeks, the organisation has also issued comprehensive and constructive guides on trust and...

Cisco, Lenovo, Nokia, Schneider Electric, and Vodafone have joined IBM’s new Trust Your Supplier (TYS) blockchain project to bring efficiency, order, and accountability to the supply chain. Belgian brewing company Anheuser-Busch InBev and UK pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline have also joined as ‘founding participlants’, alongside these...

GE lighting division Current has paired up with UK industrial IoT company IMS Evolve on an IoT solution for making energy savings in cold chain storage for clients in the food retail sector. The joint platform combines Current’s Daintree wireless controls infrastructure and IMS Evolve’s...

The industry welcomed Ofcom’s move to release spectrum in the UK for private and shared usage, although UK operators said their support was contingent on effective coordination measures to protect incumbent users. Ofcom announced last week it will release spectrum in shared and licensed bands....

Industrial giant Siemens, reticent on the subject until now, has been gushing in its support of 5G for industry, as a means to automate and animate digital factories, and bring total flexibility to production facilities. “Once we start to realise these possibilities, we will...

Microsoft: "If not addressed, industry challenges may compromise benefits to IoT" Microsoft Corp.’s new research report IoT Signals is designed to provide a global overview of the IoT landscape. The vendor-neutral report surveyed over 3,000 IoT decision-makers in enterprise organizations in order to give the industry...

Old familiars Hitachi, PTC, and Software AG ranked top again among industrial IoT (IIoT) platforms in Gartner’s latest ‘Magic Quadrant’ assessment of the sector. But Software AG swapped places with PTC at the summit, this time, and Hitachi followed behind this pair.These three ranked...

Deutsche Telekom is offering industrialists so-called ‘campus networks’, which offer a kind of proto-slicing as a pre-cursor to slicing-proper with 5G networks. But its recent work in the Port of Hamburg with Nokia experimented with network-slicing proper, specifically for environmental monitoring, traffic control, and maintenance...

The Marseille Fos port in southern France is leading the new French Smart Port in Med initiative, with an ambition to “build the port of the future”. It has a focus on efficiency, innovation, and environmental sustainability The initiative has received funding from CMA CGM,...

The Port of Marseille Fos is amping up its smart port strategy with new discussions with Orange about 5G, a developing relationship with IBM on blockchain, and a host of collaborations with local industry around port innovation, geared towards container handling, traffic management, cyber-security,...

Recent trials of industrial 5G at the Port of Hamburg have given the German port a lift, and clear designs about digital change. But it will count for nothing if the German telecoms industry cannot conjure rapid rollout of 5G networks, it said. “The main...

Silicon Valley based industrial automation and robotics firm Fetch Robotics has raised $46 million in Series C funding. The new venture capital takes its total funding to $94 million to date. The money will go on international expansion, and new development, the company said. The...

Ofcom will open up a large tranche of the UK airwaves for enterprises to deploy private and shared networks, dedicating the 3.8-4.2 GHz band for local deployments, requiring national operators to relinquish unused licensed spectrum to enterprises, and making available the lower 26 GHz...

In the end, it comes down to customer satisfaction – which, in the end, comes down to money. However you spin it, smarter industrial operations make better products, more efficiently, which raise customer loyalty, which makes business. The theory is not new. The method,...

Device availability, network flexibility, and technical features give LoRaWAN the edge on NB-IoT today, reckons Proximus. But competition between the two IoT technologies will grow closer, it expects. Meanwhile, Sigfox is missing in action, having apparently retreated from the kinds of metering and smart-city...

French IoT firm Traxens has followed up news of pending investment from shipping giant Maersk with the closing of a €20 million Series C round of investment funding. Traxens said the injection will go to scale-up of its smart containers and rail freight businesses,...

French IoT firm Traxens is poised to receive major investment from shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk, alongside a big order for cellular cargo trackers. It has also been drafted into the new French Smart Port in Med initiative in Marseille as an associate partner. Traxens...

Sea ports have become a primary focus for the telecoms sector as it maps out potential customers for private communications networks, particularly as the industrial space at large hits upon the opportunity for new LTE and 5G networks to bring digital advancement. But networking...

The rise of private industrial networking should be measured by the number of new networks, and network operators, and not by the number of cell sites, reckons Italy-based industrial networking specialist Athonet. Speaking at a MulteFire-sponsored panel session, chaired by Enterprise IoT Insights (way...

Swedish vendor Ericsson and Nordic-based service provider Telia have brought automated guided vehicles, augmented reality (AR), and a huge number of sensors to life at Ericsson’s manufacturing facility in Tallinn, Estonia, via a dedicated cellular network. The Tallinn supply site is one of Ericsson’s largest manufacturing...

A group of China’s largest tech companies have formed an association with the aim of accelerating initiatives to foster the industrial internet in the country, Chinese paper China South Morning Post reported. These firms, including Huawei Technologies and internet giant Tencent, have established the...