Vodafone Spain has deployed a private 5G Stand Alone network (MPN) that will allow car manufacturer Ford to optimise production processes at its Almussafes factory in the Spanish city of Valencia, as well as those of its suppliers.

The Almussafes plant has a production capacity of 450,000 vehicles a year and is Ford’s largest manufacturing plant outside the United States.

The new network will provide Ford with early validation of components, functionalities and software thanks to the collection of information through still images or videos that will be processed at the edge of the Vodafone network.

Through Radio Positioning System (RPS) over 5G, real-time monitoring of components across Ford’s European value chain has been carried out using low latency technologies. RPS over 5G ensures that assets travelling from suppliers to Ford’s Valencia plant meet temperature and humidity parameters at all times during the journey. The same technology is also being deployed within the Valencia plant.

Use cases for electrical risk protection and assembly line operator postural and ergonomic improvements have been implemented using Kinect sensors and Vodafone 5G edge.

The Vodafone initiative, which includes five other companies, is supported by Spain’s Next Generation Funds, financing up to 42% of a budget of €1.7 million through the Industrial Technological Development Centre (CDTI), an agency of the country’s Ministry of Science and Innovation.

An R&D project called E-BEAT: ‘Research to create an Advanced 4P Digital Monitoring System (People-Process-Product-Plant) for the early validation of components, functionalities and software of the electric vehicle in the value chain of the production process’ will allow testing a concept in a digital and laboratory environment, which will contribute to the development of relevant technologies for application in the automotive field in order to help a rapid economic, industrial and social recovery based on the strengthening of innovative capacities of the Spanish and European sector.

“We are proud to be part of this project along with six other companies with which we share the same desire for innovation. The project and our contribution to it are aligned with our strategy to position ourselves as a leading provider in Spain in private 5G SA networks,” said Laura Galián, director for the Valencian Community, Murcia and the Balearic Islands region, Vodafone Spain.

The design and implementation of 5G SA networks allows Vodafone to advance in the knowledge of the behaviour of a next-generation network in terms of reducing service latencies of a traditional network, validation of computing architectures that allow work at the edge of the network, creation of applications based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and real-time analytics of plant environment events.

The project, which has already entered the final stretch, will conclude in June 2024.