From Industry 4.0 towards Industry 5.0

In the past, manufacturing equipment was instrumented hard-wired. Industrial equipment such as sensors, controllers, and others are expensive, and upgrading manufacturing equipment in existing facilities is costly. The growing use of the Internet of Things (IoT) has driven cost reductions in sensors, controllers, and communications through high volumes of digital devices and value-added components. The manufacturing sector with its massive installed base of legacy equipment has also become an area of interest for the advances in innovative digital technologies. Meanwhile, the next level of innovation in manufacturing has been achieved, labeled by the term 4th Industrial Revolution, in short Industry 4.0. Industry 4.0 takes the automation of manufacturing processes to a new level by introducing customized and intelligent production technologies. Machines are connected and communicate with each other to ultimately make decisions, operate independently, or cooperate with humans in a customer-oriented production environment. This raises the question about the key issues of the next industrial enhancement and the term to call it? The change from Industry 4.0 to the next innovative industrial enhancement is termed Industry 5.0. However, Industry 5.0 has its root in the concept of Industry 4.0. Thus, the key issues of the transition from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 can be seen in the goal of making manufacturability sustainable from economic, ecologic and societal perspectives. This requires building a circular economy with a focus on a human centric industry. The paper describes the development from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0.