White Paper

Business Value and Return-on-Invest Calculation for Industrial 5G Use Cases

This whitepaper presents a clear method to assess the business value and Return‑on‑Invest (ROI) of industrial 5G use cases. It offers a transparent approach to evaluating the techno-economic benefits of 5G in manufacturing. Readers will find a structured evaluation model, real-world examples (e.g., intralogistics with AGVs, milling, and automated valet parking), and guidance for estimating Key Performance Indicators (KPI). This enables manufacturers to create an estimation of how 5G improves productivity, mobility, quality, and sustainability, and how it contributes to profitability.

Intro

Executive Summary

Despite the growing technical maturity of 5G, many manufacturing companies remain hesitant to adopt the technology due to uncertainty about its economic and operational value. This whitepaper addresses this gap by presenting an estimation-based evaluation method that helps assess the business benefits of 5G deployments in industrial environments.

The methodology integrates techno-economic goals (such as productivity, mobility, and safety), KPI equations, and expert estimates to quantify the impact of 5G compared to legacy technologies. The approach is illustrated using three practical use cases: an AGV use case, a milling use case, and an automated valet parking in automotive manufacturing use case.

By applying this framework, industrial stakeholders can objectively estimate the return on investment and operational gains from adopting 5G. This supports informed decision-making and accelerates the digital transformation of production systems. Furthermore, it helps solution providers like mobile network operators and vendors and their respective sales teams to carefully assess the price level.

Key messages

Insight and Vision

A structured estimation-based methodology enables transparent assessment of 5G’s business value utilizing expert estimates.
A methodology is presented that enables the unique capabilities of 5G (e.g. low latency, massive machine-like communication and high reliability) to be measurably combined with the improvement of operational KPIs of manufacturing systems Use cases demonstrated productivity improvements (up to +10%), enhanced mobility (up to +35%), and significant reductions in quality-related losses (e.g., up to –80% scrap ratio in milling).
In the automated valet parking scenario, ROI was calculated at +130% over 10 years, with a 5-year amortization period.
The methodology provides a scalable framework for evaluating future 5G-enabled applications.
As 5G adoption advances, continuous refinement of KPI models and data-driven estimates will help industries unlock further value and foster innovation in connected production systems.

conclusion

Retrospect and Outlook

The document summarized a robust method to estimate the business value of 5G across diverse industrial applications. The methodology was validated through three use cases:

AGVs for intralogistics.
Inline quality control in milling.
Automated valet parking in automotive manufacturing.

It compared 5G with legacy technologies (e.g., 4G and Ethernet) and showed measurable benefits in productivity, mobility, safety, and sustainability. Looking ahead, the methodology offers a foundation for further development:

Expansion into additional use cases.
Deeper integration with company-specific cost models to quantify financial impact.
Future collaboration among industrial and ICT stakeholders to refine assumptions and standardize evaluation practices.
Continued research into bridging remaining gaps in 5G’s deployment maturity and achieving widespread adoption.

The whitepaper encourages organizations to leverage this approach to drive their own 5G investment analyses and accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing.

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