Matt Barber
Just as many factories were getting to grips with Industry 4.0, along came Industry 5.0. It's a fair question whether it's something genuinely new or just another number. This article compares the two, and what each means on the shopfloor.
Industry 4.0: connected, data-driven manufacturing
Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, describes the shift to connected, data-driven manufacturing. The term came out of Germany in the early 2010s and spread quickly.
Its core ideas:
- Machines, sensors and systems connected, often through the industrial internet of things (IIoT)
- Data captured automatically, in real time
- Systems integrated vertically, from the machine to ERP, and horizontally across the supply chain
- Analytics, automation and AI used to optimise operations
Its focus is efficiency and productivity, largely through technology.
Industry 5.0: people, resilience and sustainability
Industry 5.0 is a concept set out by the European Commission in 2021. It doesn't replace Industry 4.0. It builds on it, and argues that technology should serve wider goals than efficiency alone.
It rests on three ideas:
- Human-centric: technology that supports and develops people on the shopfloor, rather than replacing them
- Resilient: operations and supply chains that can absorb disruption
- Sustainable: using resources and energy responsibly, and reducing waste
You'll also hear Industry 5.0 used to mean collaboration between people and robots, or "cobots". That's part of the picture, but the European Commission's framing is broader.
Side by side
| Industry 4.0 | Industry 5.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Origin | Germany, early 2010s | European Commission, 2021 |
| Main focus | Connectivity, data and automation | People, resilience and sustainability |
| Role of people | Often framed as being automated away | Supported and developed by technology |
| Measure of success | Efficiency and productivity | Efficiency, plus wider goals for people and the planet |
| Typical technologies | IIoT, automation, analytics, cloud | The same, plus cobots and AI that assists people |
What it means on the shopfloor
In practice the two overlap heavily.
Human-centric looks a lot like connected worker done well: digital work instructions, and AI that helps an operator rather than watches them. More in Connected worker vs MES and AI for frontline workers.
Resilient depends on knowing what's actually happening, in real time, so you can react when a supplier or a machine lets you down.
Sustainable needs energy, scrap and yield measured by machine and product, not estimated once a year. More in You can't hit ESG targets without shopfloor data.
All of those need the same foundation Industry 4.0 asked for: accurate, contextualised shopfloor data, captured as it happens. That's the job of MES/MOM.
My view
Industry 5.0 is a useful shift in emphasis, and it matters most when you build it into the same programme rather than treating it as a new one. I'd rather describe what something does than give it a version number. A smart factory is defined by outcomes, not by which revolution it belongs to, and you'll even see talk of Industry 6.0 now.
What Industry 5.0 does usefully is remind us that the point of all this technology is better work for people, sturdier operations and less waste, as well as more output.
Which of those three is furthest behind in your factory today?
