Even if not everyone is talking about it yet, Industry 5.0 - also known as the fifth industrial revolution - is no longer completely new. Back in January 2022, the European Commission published a position paper that was intended to establish Industry 5.0 as a transformative vision for Europe. According to this paper, industry should be the driving force behind the European transformation. Unfortunately, Industry 4.0 is not the right framework for this.
Et voila: Industry 5.0 is born. Of course, Industry 5.0 is essentially based on the technologies that have already been established as part of Industry 4.0. It focuses on people and topics such as resilience and sustainability. And it emphasizes how humans can work together with modern technology and AI-controlled robots or cobots to sustainably optimize work processes. To exaggerate a little: Industry 5.0 is more evolution than revolution.
People were not completely left out of the equation in Industry 4.0 either, although the focus here was more on technology and digitalization. Industry 5.0 aims to straighten out this picture. It is now important that
Today more than ever, competitiveness requires a high degree of resilience. Companies are well aware of this, but less aware of how the means of digital transformation can promote this resilience. Industry 5.0 aims to empower companies:
Sustainability is also nothing new for manufacturing companies, but companies should become more and more aware of how far sustainability can go. Industry 5.0 therefore demands
A good 40 years passed between Industry 3.0 and Industry 4.0. Industry 5.0, on the other hand, was almost rapidly pushed behind after just over 12 years. How much revolution can there still be in this short time? And is Industry 5.0 perhaps more like Industry 4.1 after all? Let's take a look at the comparison.
As you have probably already noticed, Industry 5.0 does not really break new technological ground - certainly not a technological quantum leap such as from manual labor to the steam engine. Instead, Industry 5.0 is a change of perspective. The focus is no longer on how colorful the brave new world of technology can be, but rather on what the entire technology can do for people. Let's take a look at this for various technologies.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Industry 5.0? To answer this question, let's look back at the key points. You will no doubt remember: people-centricity, resilience and sustainability. Because that's what it's essentially about - regardless of whether we can now talk about an industrial revolution 5.0 or not.
The advantages of focusing on the three core topics can be, for example
What disadvantages can a focus on employees, the environment and the resilience of your company actually have in return? In short: effort and costs.
If you want to support your employees with cobots or train them on digital twins, you may incur significant costs for the introduction of corresponding technologies.
A lot has happened in recent years since the definition of Industry 4.0. Digitalization is progressing - despite bottlenecks and crises. At 113.6 points in 2024, the digitalization index in Germany has surpassed all previous years, with the electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and vehicle construction sector in second place in a sector comparison. Every second large company in Germany already considers itself to be highly digitalized (source: DE.DIGITAL).
And there has also been steady progress in recent years with regard to people in the context of digitalization. Companies are increasingly training their employees in digital skills. The population is becoming more digitally savvy, which means that more skilled workers with digital skills are available.
So Industry 4.0 is complete and 5.0 can begin? We can say quite clearly: no and no. Let's put it this way with the Industry 4.0 Research Advisory Board and the Industry 4.0 platform: Industry 4.0 is far from complete and Industry 5.0 builds so much on the developments of Industry 4.0 that a new terminology creates more confusion than it helps.
The European Commission itself also writes that Industry 5.0 supports and complements the current approach. What was previously lost in the technology-focused Industry 4.0, at least on paper - the reference to people, resilience and sustainability - is now officially being brought into the spotlight. Even though it has long been an integral part of many digitalization companies in practice. Without a focus on people, digitalization comes to nothing. Internalizing this is much more important than the "Industry 5.0" label.
"No, not another newfangled word construct." But if Industry 5.0 isn't here yet, then perhaps it will be in the production of the future. If you dismiss it as a buzzword, then you're not so wrong. Because the production of the future is actually production as it could be when it is fully digitized. In other words, the completion of Industry 4.0, so to speak. And on closer inspection, the production of the future is primarily technology-driven.
It is not important whether you call it Industry 5.0 or Industry 4.0. What is important is that you use the tools of digitalization to create an optimal working environment in your production and thus for your employees. There are already established systems on the market that relieve and optimally support people in their tasks. One such system is our worker assistance system weasl.
weasl supports and relieves your employees at various levels:
Beyond this, weasl can also promote sustainability in your production and assembly. You can read more about this in our blog post "How weasl brings more sustainability to your production".