The opportunity offered by Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0
Industry 4.0, stemming from the fourth industrial revolution, entails fully automated and interconnected industrial production processes. However, this advancement brings about the necessity for Industry 5.0, a paradigm shift placing individuals at the forefront. In this model, technology serves to enhance worker well-being and productivity, reversing the traditional dynamic.
Industry 5.0 marks a return to prioritizing both the environment and people within the industrial landscape. It represents a societal approach that strives to harmonize economic progress with addressing social and environmental challenges. Here, technologies are harnessed not solely for profit, but to elevate the quality of life for all citizens.
Differences between Industry 4.0 and 5.0
Industry 4.0, synonymous with the fourth industrial revolution, builds upon a legacy of technological advancements. Originating from the steam-powered machinery of the late 1700s, through electricity and mass production in the late 1800s, and information technology automation since the 1970s, Industry 4.0 is anchored in the Internet of Things and real-time data communication. It embodies a paradigm emphasizing enabling technologies, efficiency, and productivity.
Conversely, Industry 5.0 heralds not a technological upheaval, but a cultural transformation. This paradigm prioritizes individuals and the environment, with quality of life and sustainability at the forefront of the production process.
Industry 5.0 leverages Industry 4.0 technologies, yet it is characterized by human-centeredness, sustainability, and resilience.
Here, the focus shifts from mere technological efficiency to holistic considerations encompassing human well-being and environmental harmony.
Human-centricity: Industry 5.0 places human beings at the nucleus of production processes, where technology is wielded to enhance the quality of life for citizens and workers, rather than the reverse. This shift entails a heightened consideration for fundamental rights, including privacy, autonomy, and human dignity.
Moreover, a significant outcome of this approach is the reorientation of companies towards guiding and training workers in alignment with their individual needs, facilitated by technology.
Sustainability: Industry 5.0 embodies sustainability by prioritizing the needs of both present and future generations.
This paradigm ensures a balanced utilization of natural resources, avoiding depletion through strategies such as reuse, recycling, and responsible resource management.
Moreover, Industry 5.0 emphasizes optimizing energy consumption and reducing emissions, striving for ecological equilibrium.
Resilience: Industry 5.0 stands out for its ability to react to sudden, even traumatic changes, without suffering permanent consequences. This industrial paradigm is characterized by a robust production framework that ensures high levels of business continuity and swift recovery from catastrophic events.
Through flexible and adaptable production processes, Industry 5.0 guarantees the supply of products and services even in extraordinary situations such as pandemics, natural disasters, or geopolitical changes.
Industry 4.0
- Focused on increased efficiency through digital connectivity and artificial intelligence;
- Technology focused on the rise of cyber-physical goals;
- Aligned with the optimization of business models within existing capital market dynamics and economic models, i.e., ultimately directed at minimizing costs and maximizing profit for shareholders;
- No attention to design and performance dimensions essential for systemic transformation and decoupling of resource and material use from negative environmental, climatic, and social impacts for sustainability and resilience.
Industry 5.0
- It ensures a framework for industry that combines competitiveness and sustainability, enabling industry to realize its potential as one of the pillars of transformation;
- Empowers workers through the use of digital devices, endorsing a human-centered approach to technology;
- Builds transition paths to environmentally sustainable uses of technology;
- Expands the mandate of corporate responsibility to all their value chains;
- Introduces indicators that show, for each industrial ecosystem, the progress made on the path toward well-being, resilience, and overall sustainability;
- Emphasizes the impact of alternative modes of governance (technological).
The characteristics of Industry 5.0 transform business models by promoting circular models and advancing servitization. Servitization entails the transformation of goods into service offerings, fostering customized mass production and enhancing the adaptability of production processes.
The worker is viewed as an investment critical to the company’s growth. Consequently, workers are trained, empowered, and engaged in the design and implementation of new industrial technologies.
Moreover, new technologies are leveraged to enhance workplace safety and inclusivity, empower workers to better manage the risks of digitized work, and mitigate environmental impact.
Industry 5.0, with its distinctive features, attracts and retains talent more effectively, thereby enhancing competitiveness.
Yes Automation, supported by the expertise of its workforce and its longstanding collaborations with professionals and companies, facilitates the transition to enabling technologies.