Recognizing that 5G requires the participation of a slew of industries outside wireless, 26 companies have come together in the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA).

The 5G-ACIA will serve as a central, global forum for addressing, discussing and evaluating relevant technical, regulatory and business aspects with respect to 5G for the industrial domain. It includes relevant stakeholder groups from the operational technology (OT) industry, the information and communication technology industry and academia.

The group pointed out that one of the main differences between 5G and previous generations of cellular networks lies in 5G’s focus on machine-type communication and the IoT, enabling numerous new use cases and applications in different vertical domains, including automotive, healthcare, agriculture, energy and manufacturing sectors.

In manufacturing in particular, 5G may have a disruptive impact as things like wireless connectivity, edge computing and network slicing find their way into future smart factories.

"5G will become the central nervous system of the Factory of the Future and will have a disruptive impact on industrial production," said 5G-ACIA Chairman Andreas Müller of Bosch in a statement. "For the first time, the 5G-ACIA brings together all the major players worldwide. This enables us to work in a concerted and targeted manner to ensure that the interests of the industry are taken into account accordingly.”

 German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI)