Today’s increasingly human-centric industry, which is flexible and capable of adapting to changes, is the latest phase in the digital factory evolution that has been discussed over recent years and is now referred to as Industry 5.0.

Alongside sensors and data, the industry has a range of analytical tools at its fingertips including artificial intelligence, big data analytics, digital twins, and smart solutions, whose reach extends beyond the factory, automating and optimising the ecosystem within which it operates through aspects such as the generation of renewable energy and integrated logistics.

Unlike Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0 will be a business model characterised by cooperation between machines and humans, with the aim of adding value to production by creating products customised to consumer needs. Industry 5.0 is based on a few basic pillars: the centrality of humans (Anthropocentrism), environmental sustainability and resilience or robustness in production.

This new paradigm is underpinned by a cultural factor, which is the partnership between human operators and machines as co-protagonists; within this new dynamic, the more repetitive, less skilled work is carried out by the machines while people are responsible for the more complex, specialist tasks.

It is a necessary approach in order to build business models that uphold the values that guide manufacturing today, from environmental responsibility to social sustainability.

The underlying belief is that the key factors for business development within today’s highly competitive markets are creativity and efficiency.

Packmedia.net explores the issue in detail here.