5G in manufacturing: a literature review and future research

As an important part of the real economy, manufacturing industry plays a major role in the whole human society. Smart manufacturing has become a strategic issue for many countries. Smart manufacturing puts forward higher requirements for the intelligence of shop-floor production process, product operation and maintenance, logistics and supply chain, which are inseparable from the support of advanced communication technology. As a new generation of mobile communication technology, 5G plays an important role in many areas of smart manufacturing with the characteristics of high bandwidth, low latency, and massive connectivity. This paper first analyzed the communication requirements for machine-to-machine, manufacturing Internet of Things, cyber-physical system-based manufacturing, logistics and supply chain, industrial Internet platform and digital twin–driven manufacturing. Based on the requirements, the research and application progress of 5G in manufacturing are investigated from the above six aspects. In addition, this paper proposed relevant future research hotspots for the further integration of 5G and the above-mentioned six areas of smart manufacturing.