In short: A consortium including the University of Sheffield's AMRC, BAE Systems, aql, Safenetics, and Dassault Systemes deployed an open 5G network across BAE Systems' industrial facilities in Blackburn, enabling remote robotic inspections and real-time machining optimisation. The consortium published reusable reference designs so other UK manufacturers can replicate the approach.
Key Takeaways
- Open 5G in a live defence manufacturing environment — FoFORAN proved that disaggregated, multi-vendor 5G can meet the latency and reliability demands of precision manufacturing on a working factory floor
- Remote robotics and real-time machining — the network supported robotic inspection in hazardous locations and fed real-time sensor data to machining systems for in-process optimisation
- Published reference designs lower the barrier — reusable network architectures and integration patterns were released so SME manufacturers can deploy similar capabilities without starting from scratch
In a nutshell
Manufacturing's Connectivity Problem
Large sections of most UK manufacturing facilities still rely on manual inspection, offline measurement, and batch-mode data transfer — and having visited many of them, we can confirm the situation is worse than it sounds. Factory-floor Wi-Fi is unreliable around metal and electromagnetic interference; wired Ethernet cannot economically reach every robot and sensor on a production line that reconfigures regularly; and commercial mobile coverage inside a steel-framed building is unpredictable at best.
Private 5G changes this equation. A dedicated cellular network on Shared Access spectrum provides the bandwidth, latency, reliability, and coverage density that advanced manufacturing demands. But saying private 5G can work is fundamentally different from proving it in one of the most demanding manufacturing environments in the country.
The FoFORAN Consortium
FoFORAN — Factory of the Future Open RAN — was funded under DSIT's Open Networks Ecosystem Competition, the same programme that supported Aerix's ONE WORD project (at GBP 10 million, the largest funded project in the competition). The AMRC at the University of Sheffield led the consortium. BAE Systems provided its Blackburn manufacturing facilities. aql supplied network infrastructure and integration. Safenetics contributed robotic systems. Dassault Systemes brought its digital twin and manufacturing execution platform.
The 5G network used an open, disaggregated architecture — separate radio units, distributed units, and central units from different vendors connected over O-RAN interfaces. This is the harder approach, but it is the one that proves open multi-vendor networks can perform in industrial conditions, and consequently it is the more valuable evidence.
Remote Robotic Inspections
Aerospace manufacturing requires component inspections at stages where locations are difficult or unsafe for humans — inside partially assembled structures, in confined spaces, at height, or in chemically hazardous areas. FoFORAN deployed robots operated remotely over the 5G network, enabling an operator at a control station to manoeuvre the robot, capture high-resolution imagery and measurement data, and assess components without entering hazardous areas. The network provided the low-latency, high-bandwidth link that remote control demands: real-time video for the operator, instant response to control inputs. The trade-off is that remote robotic inspection requires operators to develop new skills and workflows, and there is inevitably a transition period where productivity may dip before the gains materialise — but the safety case alone justifies the investment.
Real-Time Machining Optimisation
The second use case addressed CNC machining, and it is arguably the one with the greater long-term economic impact. Conventional cutting runs a pre-programmed tool path; advanced optimisation uses real-time sensor data — vibration, force, temperature, acoustic emission — to adjust cutting parameters on the fly, compensating for tool wear, material inconsistencies, and thermal drift. The 5G network connected sensors on machines that would have been impractical to wire, feeding data to Dassault Systemes' platform for real-time analysis and feedback.
Reference Designs for the UK Supply Chain
Perhaps the most significant output, importantly, is the published reference designs. The UK's manufacturing base includes thousands of SMEs making components for aerospace, automotive, medical, and defence supply chains. These companies face the same connectivity challenges as BAE Systems but lack the resources to design bespoke 5G networks.
FoFORAN's published materials include network architectures, equipment specifications, integration patterns, and deployment guidance that an SME manufacturer can use as a starting point. The intention is to propagate the productivity and quality benefits demonstrated in Blackburn through the wider UK supply chain — and we believe this knowledge-sharing approach is ultimately more valuable than the demonstration itself.
A working open 5G network on the BAE Systems factory floor, running remote robots and optimising machining in real time, is worth more than any number of conference presentations about what private 5G could theoretically do. FoFORAN made it real, and that matters.
If you operate a manufacturing facility and want to understand what private 5G could do for your production environment, get in touch. Read more on our manufacturing sector page.