Commercial truck engine manufacturer Cummins (NYSE: CMI) has signed a deal with Verizon Business (NYSE: VZ) to implement Verizon’s new Neutral Host Network product at Cummins’ Jamestown Engine Plant (JEP) in Lakewood, NY. The deal combines a Neutral Host Network with a Verizon Private 5G Network to handle distinct public and private network use cases onsite at JEP.
Here’s how the network combination works. The Neutral Host Network is similar to deployments at sports stadiums where Verizon deploys and operates the network for the venue owner but accommodates other MNOs on the network so fans can reach their designated carrier’s network from inside the stadium. Similarly, Verizon’s Neutral Host Network for Cummins will allow JEP employees and visitors to connect their mobile devices to the public cellular network of their choice.
Conversely, the Private 5G Network, really a single user network, will be accessible only to registered devices. The private network will operate on Verizon licensed spectrum such as C-band and millimeter wave, and Verizon-provisioned infrastructure inside the Cummins facilities. It will be used strictly for business-critical and manufacturing applications that require enhanced onsite capability (read, low latency) and security.
The combined network will provide mobile connectivity for JEP’s one million square feet of industrial space, one million square feet of outdoor space, and for the 1,500 employees who work at the site producing approximately 500 heavy-duty truck engines each day. Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) is the sole platform provider to Verizon Business for the network buildout.
While the Neutral Host Network allows employees and visitors to receive strengthened mobile signals on the grounds outside the plant, the Verizon Private 5G Network will enable in-building manufacturing operations for current and future industrial use cases. According to Cummins, such uses include autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) for handling and transporting materials, computer vision for defect detection, AR/VR for training and troubleshooting, sensors for machine health monitoring, and proprietary applications governing secure onsite operations.
The companies acknowledge that Private 5G connectivity can help improve the performance of AMRs with consistent signal strength throughout the site. In addition, connecting machine-health monitoring sensors through the Private 5G network eliminates long runs of Ethernet cabling, yielding substantial cost savings, according to Cummins.
Cummins views the network’s capabilities as integral to enhancing operations across the site and improving the quality of the engines it produces for its customers.
“These increased capabilities will allow us to implement Industry 4.0 strategies more quickly and more reliably. The improved functionality will enable team members to communicate with one another more effectively, allow us to share more data across equipment and enable our ability to implement mobile industrial robots,” comments Shawn Hricko, JEP Plant Manager. “Collectively, these improvements will enable us to produce our engines more safely, more efficiently and with improved quality, which is a win for Cummins and our customers who rely on our products on a daily basis.”
Ron Fleetwood, Executive Director of Cummins IT Business Services adds that he expects the company will deploy private cellular for additional sites in the future and to accelerate Industry 4.0 use cases at JEP in the near term.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
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