Verizon has installed a private 5G network at Deloitte’s Industry 4.0 testbed smart factory in Wichita. The Wichita Smart Factory is designed to provide an environment for the development of new Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing approaches and solutions, and serve as a demonstrator of advanced technologies for industrial use cases.

Located on the Innovation Campus at Wichita State University, the factory includes a fully operational production line and experiential labs for developing and exploring smart manufacturing technology and strategy. Visitors to the facility experience smart manufacturing concepts that bring together IoT, cloud, AI, and computer vision.

“The Smart Factory @ Wichita is a microcosm of industry 4.0 itself, with a wide range of enterprise partners, suppliers, researchers, and complementary technologies coming together in one ecosystem to make a supercharged impact. 5G brings massive bandwidth and incredibly fast data speeds to the equation to help make these impacts replicable in a plethora of business applications at virtually any scale — customers have the flexibility to dream big and start small,” said Jennifer Artley, SVP, 5G Acceleration, Verizon Business. “5G is the backbone of Industry 4.0, and we’re so excited to bring it to Deloitte’s The Smart Factory @ Wichita to help catalyse scalable, collaborative innovation.”

“As smart manufacturing begins to be executed at scale, the number of devices, amount of data and information available to manufacturers continues to dramatically increase,” said Jason Bergstrom, Smart Factory Go-to-Market leader and principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “In bringing together Verizon’s 5G experience with Deloitte’s tailored combination of business strategy, technology, and deep industry experience with other Smart Factory @ Wichita ecosystem collaborators, the organisations can help clients accelerate the speed and adoption of operational transformations.”