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When it comes to building and maintaining essential IT networks, firms in the industrial sector have typically relied on tried and tested wired solutions such as fibre optic cabling in order to support their network infrastructure.
It was noted by Computer Weekly that this technology has a number of advantages that are attractive to industrial companies, such as the fact they offer guaranteed high transfer speeds and large volumes of traffic.
However, one issue is that fibre optic cables degrade over time, resulting in lower transfer speeds and a degradation in signal quality. Therefore, many such cables that were installed in the late 90s when the technology was still relatively new are now coming to the end of their useful lives and need to be replaced.
But instead of replacing these on a like-for-like basis, which may involve costly and time-consuming processes such as digging new trenches, a growing number of businesses are looking to wireless technology as an alternative networking solution.
This technology and its associated hardware have become much more reliable and robust in the last few years, making it a much more viable and attractive option for industrial applications.
As well as the lower installation costs wireless networking solutions can offer, one benefit offered by the technology is that in can be used in harsh environments without the need for expensive protective equipment.
For example, fibre-optic cables require heavy insulation if they are to be used in cold environments, as freezing can result in signal degradation or even permanent damage, while high radiation levels can also distort fibre-optic signals, These are not issues when wireless connectivity is being used.
Another factor in wireless networking's favour is that it enables organisations to break free from fixed access points when connecting devices to their network. This allows businesses to be much more innovative when growing their operations, as they are not constrained by fixed office or factory layouts. They also do not have to worry about the cost of adding new access points when they wish to increase their employee numbers.
One company that has benefitted from this is Ford, which has installed wireless connectivity at its Valencia plant as part of a pilot scheme. This allows workers to use a wrist-worn portable quality assurance device to connect to the network wherever they are and check details for each vehicle - which could relate to one of hundreds of possible design specifications.
Linda Cash, vice-president of manufacturing for Ford of Europe, told Computer Weekly: "The ability to simply consult a smartphone screen to check any aspect of a vehicle's quality and specification helps to guarantee highest levels of product quality, and improves work processes and manufacturing efficiency."
Being able to have instant access to this information has cut the number of human errors by seven per cent, and reduced the time it takes to check each vehicle by around seven seconds. This may not sound like a lot, but with employees needing to inspect 400,000 vehicles a year, it works out to a saving of nearly 780 man-hours a year.
This is just one example of how the implementation of wireless networking in the industrial sector does not just cut costs and improve overall network quality, but how it can also deliver a wide range of efficiency and productivity savings throughout a business.
