Ericsson is teaming up with Telefónica Germany to enable 5G car production via a private 5G network for Mercedes-Benz at the company’s Sindelfingen plant in southern Germany.

All production systems and machines in the new-build Factory 56 will be connected and operated via secure 5G with gigabit data rates and almost real-time latency times while handling large amounts of data. The 5G network will enable Mercedes-Benz to boost flexibility, production precision and efficiency as industry digitalization and Internet of Things becomes a reality in car production.

The 5G network will facilitate data linking or product tracking on the assembly line. All processes will be optimized and made more robust, and if necessary, be able to be adapted at short notice to fit market requirements.

As a private 5G network, the intelligent connecting of production systems and machines in Factory 56 will be done in a secure way.

Ericsson and Telefónica Germany are building the network in the 20,000sq m complex, comprising solutions from Ericsson’s Private Networks offerings and will hand over to Mercedes-Benz upon completion for operation.

Mercedes-Benz says experiences gained from Factory 56 will be incorporated into plans for future 5G implementation in other plants.

Jörg Burzer, Member of the Divisional Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Cars, Production and Supply Chain, says: “As the inventor of the car, we are taking digitalization in production to a whole new level. With the installation of a local 5G network, the networking of all production systems and machines in the Mercedes-Benz Cars factories will become even smarter and more efficient in the future. This opens up completely new production opportunities.”

Markus Haas, CEO, Telefónica Germany, says: “We are starting the 5G era for Germany as an industrial location and are building the most modern mobile network for one of the most modern automobile factories in the world.”

Arun Bansal, President and Head of Europe & Latin America, Ericsson, says: “5G is about to change manufacturing as we know it through secure and almost real-time connectivity that will result in transformative productivity, speed and efficiency improvements.

The car industry will be among the first to benefit, as will be the case with Mercedes-Benz where we are working closely with the company and Telefónica to put our 5G private network technology leadership into practice in Sindelfingen.”