Finnish telecommunications and technology major Nokia on Tuesday announced partnership with India's government owned telecom operator BSNL to implement the next level of industrial automation, leveraging 4G LTE technology.
The project aligns with the government’s ‘Make in India’ programme, which aims to promote excellence in manufacturing in the country. The move will enable greater operational efficiency at Nokia’s Chennai plant.
Nokia manufactures a range of telecom equipment across technologies at its Conscious Chennai factory, which caters to both the domestic and international customers.
The factory will now leverage Industry 4.0 solutions such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), connected robotics, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and the internet of things (IoT) to enhance operations and increase productivity.
Commenting on the development, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Srivastava said the company has undertaken several initiatives to ensure India keeps pace with 5G evolution globally.
"Nokia is already one of our key partners in developing the 5G ecosystem, and now we are exploring use cases such as Industry 4.0 that can benefit tremendously with 5G. This network deployment for Industry 4.0 at Nokia’s Chennai factory that can be scaled to 5G demonstrates our preparedness to take advantage of new opportunities that will emerge with 5G and IoT in India," said Srivastava.
Nokia Vice President and head of the India Market Sanjay Malik said the Chennai facility is the best-in-class manufacturer in Nokia's industry and recently crossed the 4-million-unit production milestone in its 10th year of operation.
"Our collaboration with BSNL will enable us to leverage the latest technology advancements and continue in our efforts to build the increasingly digitised and connected factory of the future. It will pave the path to smart manufacturing in the 5G era," said Srivastava.