Industry 5.0: Human touch and the future

This paper aims to highlight important features of Industry 5.0 and locate for the need for human touch factors as a crucial driver towards mass personalization for products and services. The paper briefly reviews the genesis and metamorphosis of Industry 1.0 through Industry 5.0 to understand industrial revolutions and related paradigms. organizations in recent times appear to be affected by the implications of Industry 5.0. Case examples reveal that human touch factor is a key psychological and cultural ingredient as a human value add collaborating with robots (cobots) for achieving personalization in terms of Industry 5.0 outcomes, in comparison to mass customization objectively aimed at automation by Industry 4.0. Existing body of literature reveals critical shortage of knowledge about Industry 5.0, as this is a recent evolving concept. Key dimensions are identified to enhance understanding about human interventions, man-machine collaborations, and their inter-relationships in terms of the Industry 5.0 paradigm. The paper concludes by identifying key challenges for the acceptance of industry 5.0.