When Private 5G and Asset Tracking Make the Perfect Match: The Top Use Cases

Although the global population spends 80 percent of its time indoors, global positioning system (GPS) technology has been primarily designed for outdoor tracking. Having trouble finding your keys or wallet? Try a Bluetooth-enabled tile or tag. Want to ensure your child gets to school safely? There’s an app for that. Yet, when it comes to accurately tracking business-critical assets indoors or making sure you know the location of staff during an on-site emergency, effective solutions have been lacking or too complex.

As more companies invest in 5G connectivity for visibility into operations — and 5G-enabled tools, tablets, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), wearables and other devices — the need for indoor asset tracking continues to grow. With the right private 5G solution, network administrators and operational technology managers can conduct effective asset tracking with accuracy as close as one metre while guaranteeing their devices and people are connected to a dedicated and secure private 5G network.

Precise indoor positioning is a private 5G feature used for asset tracking that can directly impact visibility into operations, asset protection, and safety. Enterprises of all kinds can utilise this feature as part of a comprehensive end-to-end solution.

Use Case 1: Smart Manufacturing

In smart manufacturing, whether advanced technology, machinery assembly, or even food and beverage, there are some circumstances in which precise indoor positioning enhances asset tracking. In today’s Industry 4.0 landscape, many manufacturing tools are now digitally enhanced, automated, and connected to a host of devices. These tools are becoming vital to digital quality and traceability initiatives, and any device loss can lead to a delay in production, which can have negative effects on output. With precise indoor positioning, manufacturers and assemblers will always have the location of both tools and staff — which can be important for production and safety reasons. Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are also becoming a mainstay of manufacturing and pack-house workflows, moving goods and parts of finished product between the production floor and warehouses. Indoor positioning helps teams ensure AGVs arrive at their desired location, on time, facilitating no delays in production.

Use Case 2: Warehousing and Logistics

Effective asset tracking also allows enterprises to underscore the benefits of smart manufacturing through connection-dependent devices, like scanners and, similar to manufacturing, AGVs and Autonomous Robots (AMRs) that may be used for stock movement, inventory counting, picking or packing, and cleaning. With precise indoor positioning, enterprises can leverage real-time tracking so operations and OT managers can always see the location of a certain piece of equipment or machinery. Organisations can also use geofencing to enable alerts when a certain device or staff member ventures into an unauthorised location within or outside of the facility. Indoor positioning can also translate to cost savings and cost optimisation for enterprises as they help prevent the loss of handheld devices and tools, while improving safety and reducing risk of down-time. Replacing these tools can become extremely expensive for enterprises, especially if the facility uses hundreds to thousands of these devices.

Use Case 3: Mining

Underground mines often span vast and complex tunnel networks where traditional GPS signals are unavailable. Private 5G networks are beginning to help miners address the unique positioning challenges within the linear drives and three-dimensional space of an underground mine, utilising variations of the techniques used for precise positioning.

But mining companies also operate large processing plants, maintenance sheds, and warehouses not dissimilar to smart manufacturers or logistics companies.

In processing plants, precise positioning can monitor the location of staff and raise alerts if geofenced safety areas are breached. They add immediate location intelligence to lone worker safety systems in case of an individual emergency and allow e-mustering systems to report the location of multiple staff in the case of a site event.

In maintenance areas, precise positioning can be used to monitor and report the location of tools, machinery, or other assets used in the repair and maintenance of mining equipment and heavy earth moving equipment. In mining warehouses, organisations can expect similar benefits and uses to a traditional warehouse.

The partnership between private 5G and indoor precise positioning

Private 5G enables asset tracking via precise indoor positioning, removing some complexities often associated with legacy asset tracking frameworks that leverage Wi-Fi or real-time location systems (RTLS). While many organisations rely on RTLS — which use Wi-Fi or Bluetooth beacons — as their positioning technology, there are drawbacks to this approach. For example, while additional Bluetooth beacons and Wi-Fi access points can enhance asset tracking accuracy, asset tracking expenses can grow given the size of the manufacturing plant or warehouse. This can be costly for organisations, as the need for more infrastructure and multiple networks to manage drives up installation, maintenance and lifecycle costs.

The infrastructure needed to leverage precise indoor positioning for asset tracking through private 5G is less complex. It triangulates an asset’s location through the radio access network (RAN), leveraging the same private 5G network that organisations already use for business-critical applications and devices. Indoors, private 5G radios can cover an area three to five times larger than Wi-Fi access points. In addition, a comprehensive private 5G solution doesn’t require beacons attached to each device or vehicle to track its location. Instead, the solution can work with any 5G-enabled device, tracking its movements through the device’s chipset. This ultimately helps maximise ROI, reduce maintenance downtime, and provide a more reliable connection.

The added benefit of private 5G is it not just that it provides a network capable of positioning, but that it provides an advanced wireless solution that can provide deterministic and pervasive connectivity that is predictable under load, can scale to accommodate the varied performance demands and segregation needs of multiple use-cases on a single infrastructure, while being ready for the explosive device and data throughput growth expected from digitalisation and industry 4.0.

Enterprises are using an unprecedented number of mobile devices and automated vehicles that are key to operations. Therefore, they face an unprecedented need to accurately track these critical assets. Private 5G and indoor precise positioning provide the constant connectivity and resilience that manufacturers, logistics companies, mining, and other enterprises worldwide can count on.

Image credit: iStock.com/romaset