The evolution to Industry 5.0 / Safety 5.0, the developments in society, and implications for industry management

Abstract

It was only a few years ago that the manufacturing industry trend became one of digitalization and automation, known as Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution. It also led to additional safety measures: Safety 4.0. Simultaneously in society, awareness grew that humanity for its future should foster sustainable processes, while safety and resilience became higher valued. This development is enhanced by climate change phenomena causing energy transition. Due to these and other cultural changes, the inflow of younger generations of workers with new attitudes, and severe economic pressures, industry managements are confronted by these dynamics with many issues, of which the study presents a sketch. Also, due to the developing tension between artificial intelligence-steered processes and human control, lately, Industry 5.0 has developed with an emphasis on human factors in which robots shall turn into collaborating “cobots”. In the new work environment, threats to the worker change from being of a physical nature to stress. This triggers a Safety 5.0 development with, among others, a human digital twin as an intermediate monitoring device between a human operator and a cobot. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting by industry puts emphasis on activities that stimulate sustainability, which is related but different from vulnerability reduction and enhanced resilience to unexpected disruption threats. The value of the study is not the improvement of a method or an approach but rather a sketch of the diversity of concepts and complexity the industry faces when it wants to stay healthy and strives for the safety and sustainability that society likes to see.