5. The Role of Humans as Key Enablers of Industry 5.0

In 2011, the German government introduced Industry 4.0. A decade later, the European Commission initiated a new area of revolution named Industry 5.0. Based on the latest studies, this article explains the reasons behind the introduction of this new industry. It confirms the idea that I5.0 is a revolution rather than the evolution of I4.0. The Fifth Industrial Revolution, 5.0, aims to improve on the drawbacks of the previous one. Previous researchers have stated that, despite its benefits, I4.0 has lost its human and environmental dimension. Furthermore, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I4.0 did not prove resilient enough to withstand the disruption and be recovered later. Therefore, Industry 5.0 supplements I4.0’s focus on three core values: human centricity, sustainability, and resilience. I5.0 will address the fundamental issue of the loss of human employees in the industry and the promotion of skills and diversities through innovative ways such as Operator 5.0 or Co-bots. Additionally, tighter cooperation between people, machines, and digital technologies is required in order to achieve mass personalisation. Mass personalisation helps achieve environmental and economic sustainability as well as industry resilience. Recent studies have shown that, despite Industry 5.0’s contribution to the world economy, ecology, and society, we will face many challenges during its implementation. The first challenge is developing the soft and practical skills of the workforce and other necessary abilities to execute Industry 5.0 as a whole. Specialised training programs, instructors, and other actors are necessary to offer training sessions for the development of these new soft and practical skills. On the other hand, strict privacy, security, and ethical concerns are necessary for the adoption of disruptive technology applications used in Industry 5.0.