New York, Verizon Business and IBM on Thursday announced to work together on 5G and edge computing innovation to help enable the future of Industry 4.0.

The companies would combine the high speed and low latency of Verizon's 5G and Multi-access Edge Compute (MEC) capabilities, Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors at the edge, and IBM's expertise in AI, hybrid multicloud, edge computing, asset management and connected operations.

"Through this collaboration, we plan to build upon our longstanding relationship with Verizon to help industrial enterprises capitalize on joint solutions that are designed to be multicloud ready, secured and scalable, from the data center all the way out to the enterprise edge," said Bob Lord, Senior Vice President, Cognitive Applications, Blockchain and Ecosystems, IBM.

The first solutions from the collaboration are mobile asset tracking and management solutions that would help enterprises improve operations, optimize production quality, and help clients enhance worker safety.

For these initial solutions, the two companies plan to leverage Verizon's wireless networks, including Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband (UWB) network, and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) capabilities, alongside Verizon's ThingSpace IoT Platform and Critical Asset Sensor solution (CAS).

The combined solutions could help clients detect, locate, diagnose and respond to system anomalies, monitor asset health and help predict failures in near real-time.

"Combining the high speed and low latency of Verizon's 5G UWB Network and MEC capabilities with IBM's expertise in enterprise-grade AI and production automation can provide industrial innovation on a massive scale and can help companies increase automation, minimize waste and lower costs," explained Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business.

IBM and Verizon are also working enabling use cases such as near real-time cognitive automation for the industrial environment.

5G's low latency, high download speeds and capacity can increase the number of devices that can be supported within the same geographic area, and the ability for organizations to interact with those devices in near real-time, with computing power in the proximity of the device.

Verizon and IBM also plan to collaborate on potential joint solutions to address worker safety, predictive maintenance, product quality and production automation.