Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is revolutionizing manufacturing with cutting-edge private 5G connectivity! In an exclusive MWC interview with Stephen Saunders, MBE, Stephen Mason reveals how JLR, in partnership with Ericsson, is integrating IoT, AI, and digital twins to boost operational efficiency and predictive maintenance. This transformation means higher quality, smarter vehicles, and a seamless shift into Industry 4.0.
But what about the workforce? Mason assures that AI isn't replacing humans—it’s enhancing their roles, enabling upskilling and efficiency. With legacy systems in play, the challenge is complex, but with Ericsson’s support, JLR is seamlessly deploying 5G-ready solutions.
And this is just the beginning! With AI-driven insights tailored to JLR’s unique data, the future of automotive innovation is here.
Stephen Mason:
We're currently deploying our private 5G network across our product line in Solihull, and we're seeing that as the sort of foundational connectivity layer to get to those next steps so that the digital transformation that we're working towards.
Stephen Saunders MBE:
So you're using the network to connect manufacturing equipment. What's the benefit of that?
Stephen Mason:
We've got the devices, we've got the automation, but connecting that together, getting the IoT sensors, extracting as much data as possible out of that to drive the efficiencies in the equipment and ultimately drive that data upwards into future technologies such as AI, digital twins, etc, we need to get that connectivity in place first in order to start on that journey.
Stephen Saunders MBE:
So what is the business benefit?
Stephen Mason:
Initially, it's going to be operational efficiency. The more information we can get in terms of condition-based monitoring, predictive maintenance, the more we understand about our machinery and when something may fail and start to intercept that beforehand, that then will drive the uptime. Ultimately more vehicles out the door. Even more than that, we're trying strive for world-class vehicles. The more data we can understand, we can build higher quality vehicles, smarter vehicles. It puts us on the journey of that intelligence.
Stephen Saunders MBE:
What does the workforce think about this move to digital industrialization?
Stephen Mason:
Technology doesn't replace humans. It assists them. AI is a tool to assist their job, make them more efficient. There'll be some elements of up skilling or re-skilling as these technologies come out.
Stephen Saunders MBE:
What's been your biggest challenge with implementing this new strategy?
Stephen Mason:
One of the biggest issues is A, it's obviously a very complex landscape. There's a lot of different systems, a lot of different technology involved, a lot of legacy, and you're never going to or very rarely be doing a greenfield transformation. It'll be in an existing production line that has to continue running off them.
Stephen Saunders MBE:
How has Ericsson been as a partner?
Stephen Mason:
The end-point manufacturers that we use within our facility, they're already working with them. They're already a step ahead establishing 5G as a data class into their devices ready for us, such that when we do deploy our 5G across the production lines, we've got devices that we can connect to it.
Stephen Saunders MBE:
So 5G is just the platform. It's the starting point really. Are you as excited as I am about what you're going to be able to do with this?
Stephen Mason:
I am indeed. Especially with obviously the amount of news around AI and how AI is looking to transform a business, being able to enable and power that AI, being able to feed it with our specific data, so not off-the-shelf models, the data that's true to our specific scenarios and get the most out of the AI. It's really exciting. It's exciting to be on the leading edge of this.