Taiwanese Manufacturer to Deploy First Truly Cloud-Native 5G SA Network to Ensure High Performance, Reliable and Secure Connectivity for Robotic Automation

ACTON, Mass. – December 16, 2020 – Affirmed Networks announced today that it has been selected by Inventec, a leading Taiwanese manufacturer of consumer technology solutions, to deliver secure, private 5G networks for their smart manufacturing. This selection is an important part of Inventec’s adoption of Industry 4.0 and their transformation towards digital operations and robotic automation for large-scale manufacturing. Affirmed’s 5G Standalone (SA) UnityCloud™ will drive the connectivity for Inventec’s Automatic Optical Inspection (AOI) systems.

Inventec’s long history of innovation has been a key component of the company’s sustained growth and leadership. The company’s current digital transformation initiative is being deployed in alignment with its regional Industry 4.0 strategy. Industry 4.0 serves as a model for how industrial processes can leverage smart technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), and big data. By using advanced technologies to automate and improve operations, Industry 4.0 enables companies to proactively respond to changing environments and markets—an increasing concern for manufacturing companies in the wake of COVID-19’s effect on global markets and supply chains. Inventec’s UnityCloud deployment is the first fully Cloud-Native 5G Standalone network within the Industry 4.0 arena.

“Inventec has fully embraced the Industry 4.0 initiative, as it is in direct alignment with our focus on innovation and our digital transformation strategy,” said Albert Chen, Senior Vice President, Inventec.  “As the most critical component of IoT and Smart Manufacturing, connectivity must be ubiquitous, reliable, and secure. After evaluating some of the more traditional approaches, we realized that the implementation of our own Private 5G network was the best way to ensure we had ‘always on’  coverage. Affirmed Networks was the obvious partner for us, as their innovative, cloud-native 5G standalone core delivers unrivaled performance that matches our Industry 4.0 needs.”

To deliver on its goal of automating manufacturing operations across its campus in Taoyuan city, Inventec sought a network solution with the inherent performance, scale, and security capabilities to ensure carrier-grade connectivity. After ruling out Wi-Fi and centralized solutions from service providers, the company selected the Affirmed UnityCloud solution to serve as the cloud-native core of a private 5G network capable of connecting robots, devices and machines, while automating operations throughout its campus.

Affirmed UnityCloud is a 5G core, cloud-native solution built on an open, webscale architecture that enables the delivery of 5G networks capable of improving reliability and performance while decreasing network operation costs by as much as 90 percent. UnityCloud converges “Any G”—including 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G networks, and wireline core—onto one unified platform, greatly simplifying the overall network architecture. Affirmed has partnered with HPE Communication and Media Solutions for its 5G Subscriber Data Management and ASOCS to provide Inventec with a complete end to end 5G solution to enable this innovative use case for Industry 4.0.

“Inventec is an example of an innovative company that seeks to use cutting-edge technology to deliver on its digital transformation objectives and ambitions,” said Sanjay Mewada, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Affirmed Networks. “Through their selection of Affirmed Networks as their 5G partner, Inventec is ensuring that its Smart Manufacturing initiative is equipped with the flexibility, security, and performance required to deliver upon its Industry 4.0 vision.”

To hear more about how Inventec reduced their manufacturing cost while increasing the yield using Private 5G Networks, click here to tune in to this exclusive on-demand webinar on Mobile World Live.