Vertical: Manufacturing
Application: Enhanced connectivity
Ecosystem: MultiTech, Nokia
Private Network: LTE/5G, CBRS
John Deere is undergoing an industrial transformation, digitizing their manufacturing operations through their Smart Connected Factory Initiative. A key enabler has been the deployment of private cellular networks across their facilities.
John Deere recognized that achieving their vision of smart, automated factories would require connecting a massive number of sensors, machines, and other industrial assets. Their larger sites have over 1,000 miles of cabling, and they forecasted needing to connect 20 times more sensors over the next 5 years. This connectivity challenge couldn’t be met with traditional wired or Wi-Fi technologies.
After researching alternatives, John Deere decided to invest in private 5G networks using the CBRS 3.5GHz band. In 2020, they purchased Priority Access Licenses for five U.S. counties. Their first deployment went live in 2021 at the Moline Technology Innovation Center in Illinois using Nokia’s Digital Automation Cloud private wireless solution.
Based on the success in Moline, John Deere has replicated the Nokia private wireless solution across facilities in Iowa covering their remaining CBRS licenses. Key benefits they’ve realized include:
- 20x capacity increase over previous wireless tech
- Ability to accommodate more machines, sensors, and equipment
- Rapid reconfigurations of production lines in minutes vs weeks
- Zero trust security integrated with operational technology policies
- Single pane of glass management across all private 5G/4G networks
With private 5G as the connectivity fabric, John Deere has been able to digitize factories and drive smarter manufacturing via use cases like autonomous mobile robots, computer vision for quality control, integrated edge computing for machine learning, connected robotic welding, and more.
