Specifically, the partnership will see the expansion of IBM’s Industry Solution Lab in Coppell, Texas to test 5G 4.0 applications for 5G-enabled use cases.
The news follows a previous partnership formed between the two last year to advance the development of 5G and edge computing in industrial operations. During MWC 2021, IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna shared that the company is working with Verizon to deploy a modern open hybrid cloud strategy across Verizon’s 5G network core and service orchestration platform.
Using the lab, enterprise customers will be able to develop and test how Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband can be combined with hybrid cloud, edge, and AI technologies and applied to applications and use cases such as robotics, guided vehicles, manufacturing process automation, visual quality inspection and data analytics.
Powering the testbed, Verizon has installed 5G Ultra Wideband and its Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) platform as well as the integration of IBM’s hybrid cloud and AI technologies, which run on Red Hat OpenShift.
Both companies have agreed on the following initial trial focus areas. The first is asset monitoring and optimization which will enable logistics and supply chain enterprises to use IBM Maximo, Verizon IoT solutions, and 5G, including on the edge of factory floors, to deliver added business value.
The next area of focus is field worker productivity and safety which will leverage Maximo Mobile on devices with Verizon 5G, to enable companies to trial scenarios where they use AI, remote human assistance, and real-time data to facilitate work safety and enhance field work with guided workflows, to reduce multiple repeat inspections and repairs of the same equipment.
And lastly visual inspection is the final area of focus for the testbed which will see Industrial product manufacturers use IBM’s suite of visual inspection products, that combine low latency connectivity and distributed AI across factory lines, to enable manufacturers to scale visual inspections to help achieve quality targets across facilities globally.
