Industry 5.0

What is Industry 5.0?

Industry 5.0 is the next industrial revolution where people and machines harmoniously work together. By leveraging Industry 4.0 technology like Big Data and IoT, Industry 5.0 aims to help humans work faster and smarter.

The previous revolution, Industry 4.0, is still bringing new and innovative ways to connect machines, capture data, and make our processes smarter. But there is something missing. Even though people benefit from these enhanced connections, we have been removed from direct involvement to some degree, until now.

If Industry 4.0 is about enhancing the intelligence and interconnectivity of machines, Industry 5.0 is focused on adding people to these enhanced connections and processes.

The 3 Key Aspects of Industry 5.0

The current potential of industry 5.0 can be summed up by the involvement of 3 key players.

• Physical assistance: Automated machines powered by advanced AI technology actively aid people to fulfill physical duties.
• Digital assistance: Digital systems aid workers by displaying key knowledge while providing interactive methods for capturing and retrieving data.
• Human assistance: People supply unique problem-solving abilities alongside contextual understanding to lead the industry to new advancements.

Each of these players enables the manufacturing environment to work like a well-equipped team. Every person, machine, and system feeds off the knowledge, insight, and expertise of the other.

How Is Industry 5.0 Different from Other Industrial Revolutions?

Though you may already be familiar with the history of the industrial revolutions, it never hurts to take a brief moment to review the past when looking at the future. Here is the progression of each industrial revolution and a quick glimpse at how the industry has come to this point in time.

• Industry 1.0 was the beginning of the factory system and mechanization.
• Industry 2.0 was the rise and implementation of manufacturing assembly lines.
• Industry 3.0 was the first automation of production with ERP systems and programmable machines.
• Industry 4.0 is building new levels of integration and intelligence through the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
• Industry 5.0 is taking the growing technology of Industry 4.0 and directing it toward enhancing the connections between people and machines.

In the past, automated robots and machinery have worked behind high walls, separated from direct human interaction. And this was for a good reason. The technology at the time was only able to work in isolated environments.

But now, as technology is getting smarter under the innovations of Industry 4.0 and 5.0, our machines and systems work alongside people and even directly support them in their activities with additional knowledge, physical movements, and various autonomous actions.

Why Do We Need Industry 5.0?

Industry 5.0 is pursuing a new type of industry where people are the center of the operation. If we take a realistic look at history, this has always been the case. People have always been the center of why the industry moves forward year after year.

Industry 5.0 is poised to recognize and capitalize on this fact more than any other revolution. And this is needed now more than ever as the world is shifting its priorities in the new millennium.

Here are 3 reasons we need Industry 5.0 and what the future of manufacturing will look like.

1. Quality of Life

People are your most valuable resource. There is a lot of knowledge and intelligence associated with every employee, so valuing their quality of life helps protect your most valuable asset.

Industry 5.0 focuses on the quality of life of the people working within the industry.

As opposed to the terrible working conditions of the Second Industrial Revolution, Industry 5.0 sees the benefit in establishing two key factors for quality of life:

• Safety: Valuing worker safety is a key way for companies to stabilize their workforce. Safe workers return to work another day.
• Comfortability: Similar to safety, comfortable workers also return to work another day. If your employees are overworked or unappreciated, you are likely to experience high turnover. And high turnover leads to your company knowledge walking out the door. Industry 5.0 solutions enable employees to work smarter, not harder.

The way that Industry 5.0 is establishing a better quality of life for its workers is by providing employees with access to advanced technologies such as work instruction software and automated smart tools. These increase efficiency and productivity while placing less undue stress on your workforce.

2. Inclusion

While Industry 5.0 looks at how technology can enhance the actions of the workforce, it also emphasizes the direct contributions that humans add to any process.

The technology from this era has a few keen ways of including humans. Industry 5.0 recognizes people as a diverse source of knowledge to learn from. With systems, machines, and tools collaborating with people, modern workers are included in the future innovations of the industry, resulting in processes becoming infinitely more intelligent and resourceful.

3. Sustainability

At the end of the day, everything from Industry 5.0 needs to be sustainable. This means that the methods and technology have to be efficient and repeatable without degrading or overusing resources. With greater involvement and inclusion of people, the industry and its workforce are better able to understand their impact on the environment and elsewhere.

By giving people access to better technology, processes, and services that are ready to receive the direct contributions of people within the industry, our operations gain incredible support from within. People at every level of an organization are free to understand and participate in finding and implementing the new solutions of the era.