A New Research Agenda for Human-Centric Manufacturing: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

The European Union recognizes Industry 5.0 as a cultural revolution that complements the fourth industrial revolution by requiring companies to implement a sustainable, resilient, and human-centric organization. This article critically analyzes the role of the human-centric approach in Industry 4.0 and 5.0 through a systematic literature review of 69 studies published between 2011 and December 2023. The results show that the human-centric approach 1) is underinvestigated in management and mainly ergonomically approached in engineering. Furthermore, it 2) enables response to the challenges of an aging population and increasing working age and improves response to acute events exogenous and endogenous to the firm. The human-centric approach also 3) positively impacts economic and social sustainability and 4) should be investigated through a transdisciplinary approach.