Industry 5.0: Its Meaning and Impact

Even though businesses are still catching up on Industry 4.0’s innovations, the concept of Industry 5.0 is already catching on: a renewed focus on the good industry can do instead of just its efficiencies. As the world’s technologies and challenges progress at similarly rapid rates, Industry 5.0 and sustainability will be inextricably linked as a means of improving society. This guide will introduce Industry 5.0 and what it can bring to your business and the world.

Industry 5.0 is the Fifth Industrial Revolution, and its concepts have arisen very rapidly in the wake of Industry 4.0. The industrial revolutions so far saw the rise of the following technologies:

• 1.0: Steam-driven industrial machinery
• 2.0: Electricity and factory assembly lines
• 3.0: Electronics, computers, and automation
• 4.0: Internet-connected industrial devices allowing seamless integration of business operations

The 5th Industrial Revolution distinguishes itself from the others in its focus on how industry affects workers, society, and the planet. World-changing and life-improving as they were, the other revolutions essentially focused on profit, and today they carry some connotations of pollution and exploitation (especially Industry 1.0). The Industry 5.0 definition, however, is a drive to make advanced technologies, automation, and robotics enhance the worker experience and contribute a net positive to the world.

The concept of Industry 5.0 developed in the wake of a 2016 Japanese concept called Society 5.0. This idea similarly distinguished human development into phases, but more broadly and completely; the idea of society’s anchor shifting from hunting and gathering, to agriculture, to industry, to information, and now to interconnection. Rather than humans simply accessing and acting on information in cyberspace, Society 5.0 features humans, IoT devices, and AI continuously exchanging information to develop solutions not previously possible. It posits that the world’s progressively advanced technologies can provide ongoing solutions to the equally advanced challenges we face.

This concept soon evolved into the parallel idea of Industry 5.0, which applies the same hopeful outlook to how industry can practically use interconnected technologies to better the workplace and the world. Given that Industry 4.0 technologies had only risen to prominence around 2010, Industry 5.0 developed much more rapidly than its predecessors.

Though Industry 5.0 and 4.0 share many concepts and use many of the same technologies, they differ in several important ways. Essentially, Industry 4.0 seeks optimised business production and efficiency through a ‘set it and forget it’ system of automated Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices performing tasks on their own. Industry 5.0 reintroduces (and revalues) the human element by having AI, industrial robots, and enterprise IoT systems help humans make better decisions and perform advanced tasks with intentionality.

Here are some specific comparisons of Industry 4.0 vs 5.0:

Industry 4.0 has certainly improved and enhanced our lives, to be sure. Industry 5.0, though, has a primary objective of allowing society to improve and thrive.

Like any developing technology, the 5th Industrial Revolution offers many improvements that must be carefully implemented to avoid problems.

The Fifth Industrial Revolution can benefit companies, their customers, and their communities in the following ways:

• Designing supply chains to better withstand shocks to the system, though without becoming wasteful
• Alerting consumers of their needs for equipment maintenance or even health checkups
• Creating valuable, fulfilling jobs for the skilled workers who will work alongside Industry 5.0 industrial robots
• Reducing safety and lost-time hazards from automation by deploying it thoughtfully and considering where it could go wrong
• Avoiding internet security breaches by carefully considering all IIoT devices’ vulnerabilities
• Improving company reputation by aiming to deliver a net positive rather than settling for smaller goals like net zero or minimised waste

Implementing advanced technologies like automation, industrial robots, and AI is no simple task. Beyond the significant upfront costs, businesses need to carefully plan procedures for using these systems and then test them extensively to find and mitigate bugs and hazards.

As with Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0 technology relies on large amounts of instrumentation, data transfer, data storage, and computational power. Along with equipment purchases and upkeep, there are great energy and cooling needs. Given the alignment of Industry 5.0 and sustainability, any true application of this system needs to consider this energy usage. This can mean selecting sensors and system features with more intentionality rather than just placing sensors everywhere and assuming they all add value.

Since the 5th Industrial Revolution strives to find new, more fulfilling roles for the staff automation supplants, this means a set of human resources challenges. This includes training, defining responsibility, reassessing compensation, and convincing staff that changing roles is in their best interest.

The greatest challenge of the 5th Industrial Revolution, however, is the adaptability and will to adopt it. Industry 5.0 is less focused on immediate business wins since it focuses on the long term for the good that a business can do. This can be counterintuitive to more profit-geared business mindsets, so any company embracing Industry 5.0 must first align its objectives and mission statement with sustainability and the welfare of its staff and community.