Welcome to our Thomas Industry Update series where we’re exploring the annual report by ABI Research outlining technology predictions for 2021. And while the analysts give us a full 68 individual trend forecasts, we’ve whittled it down to a few key categories including, in part one, emerging technologies and, today, communications and the Internet of Things.
Hyperscaling of 5G
ABI kicked off their report with some insights on 5G, the buzziest of terms with, perhaps, the most opaque of timelines. The report contends that the telecommunications industry has high hopes that enterprise digital transformation will create revenue streams for more end-to-end solutions resulting from partnerships that can scale edge computing solutions.
Supporting the Smart Factory
ABI adds that 4G and 5G will also be instrumental in supporting the momentum of smart manufacturing, a trend it sees ramping up in 2021. According to the report, factory owners must embrace 5G for smart factory connectivity if they want to fully reap the operational benefits.
According to ABI, “Factory owners have been deploying industry 4.0 tools, such as condition-based monitoring, inventory management, and building automation using ethernet cable, but deploying wireless-enabled Industry 4.0 tools will bring smart manufacturing to its full potential. Applications like wearables (health and location/safety trackers) and AR are only possible with wireless connectivity.”
Using Simulation to Fill Data Gaps
Another trend we’ll likely see relates to data challenges rendered in stark clarity during the pandemic. ABI suggests that forecasting failures were born of an inability of digital threads “to anticipate demand surges because (machine learning) was looking at historical patterns and did not provide firms with the ability to maintain production.” ABI believes simulation tools will help supply chain partners run “what-if analysis” and use the resulting data to help eliminate the risk of future bottlenecks.
Join us for part three of our series where we explore ABI’s insight into the ways the 2021 supply chain will change, and ways in which it won’t.
