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Part 1: Industry 5.0 beckons - elevating human-machine collaboration
Part 1: Industry 5.0 beckons - elevating human-machine collaboration

July 19, 2024

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Introduction

Despite the prevailing labor shortages, supply chain disruptions, and the reshoring trend, the industrial and manufacturing sectors show resilience. One of the major global spend drivers, the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) slightly improved from 48.6/100 in CY2022 to 49/100 in CY2023 indicating marginal improvements in market conditions, however, the market remains in "contraction" mode. The challenges around product innovation and reducing time to market, coupled with a focus on sustainability are pushing manufacturing enterprises towards transformation – whether business or technology. Manufacturers have below key strategic priorities today:

Per these objectives, the manufacturers plan to invest more in technology this year, which is good news for the tech sector. As per Gartner, more than 54% of manufacturers plan to increase tech spending in 2024.

 

Industry 4.0 Investments Accelerate

Industry 4.0, or the Fourth Industrial Revolution principles characterized by the application of technologies like cloud, IoT, AI, and AR/VR for driving remote collaboration, automation, and transition towards smarter and connected systems are now found to be an integral part of manufacturing enterprises' technology initiatives. Industry 4.0 goes beyond just the application of advanced technologies to enabling new business models, and ecosystems, and driving benefits in terms of process efficiency, worker productivity, cost optimization, product customization, enhanced time to market, and ultimately improving profitability and revenues. Industry initiatives that saw a sudden spike in adoption during COVID-19 continue to be in full swing. As per nasscom, Industry 4.0 investments by manufacturing companies that stood at $102 Bn in 2021, comprising nearly 20% of all manufacturing tech spend globally, are estimated to double to $200 Bn by 2025 and constitute 40% of all manufacturing tech spend.

Industry 5.0: A New Paradigm Emerges

As the industry matures, and the new technological advancements shape up, the need to pivot towards Industry 5.0 or the Fifth Industrial Revolution principles becomes critical.

What is Industry 5.0?

As per the European Union's definition, "Industry 5.0 provides a vision of an industry that aims beyond efficiency and productivity as the sole goals and reinforces the role and the contribution of industry to society. It places the wellbeing of the worker at the center of the production process and uses new technologies to provide prosperity beyond jobs and growth while respecting the production limits of the planet."

Industry 5.0 does not represent another industry revolution but reflects a shift in focus from economic value to creating a societal impact. It layers Industry 4.0 concepts with the aspects of even more advanced technologies, and most importantly human-machine collaboration, and human creativity and well-being to not just drive industrial productivity, but a positive environmental and societal impact.

 

Industry 4.0

Industry 5.0

Focused on collecting and analyzing data with sensors, embedded software, robots, and digital technologies, allowing better decision-making.

Focused on synchronization between humans, robots, and intelligent machines to enhance human-machine collaboration and well-being.

Technology-driven – integrates intelligent digital technologies into manufacturing and industrial processes.

Value-driven – aims at creating a societal impact by shifting the focus on higher value jobs, sustainable practices, and enterprise agility.

Enables the shift towards smart manufacturing.

Enables the shift from mass production to mass customization.

 

Examples of advanced technology applications focused on human machine collaboration:

  1. Industrial Co-workers or Cobots – the use of "cobots" or collaborative robots in industrial environments, such as in automotive and manufacturing can augment human-machine interactions and offload tasks that are repetitive in nature, non-value adding, or has the potential to harm the industrial workers, such as heavy lifting.

Benefits

  • Offloads repetitive and dangerous tasks such as product quality inspection, and handling poisonous substances ensuring workers focus on more critical activities.
  • Raises the potential to personalize and customize goods that can help in mass customization.

 

Case in Point

  • Sanofi leverages cobots at the end of its line to assist with product packaging, and to reduce ergonomic risk to workers by relieving them from strenuous tasks. This was done by implementing a palletizing solution capable of palletizing 150,000kg of products per month with robotics to boost production efficiency and relieve workers from repetitive tasks.

 

  1. Industrial Metaverse – Industrial Metaverse, which can be defined as a blend of physical and digital environments within industrial setups is enabled through the convergence of digital technologies, like IIoT, AI/ ML, and AR/VR, and leads to advanced digitalization in the form of applications like digital twin. Some of the key use cases of Industrial Metaverse include 3D modeling and simulation using product and process digital twins, optimizing assembly/ packaging lines using process digital twins, and plant digital twins for virtual commissioning.

Benefits

  • Enables real-time collaboration and connectivity amongst industrial workers/ remote technicians, and between critical data, development processes, and applications.
  • Reduces efforts around testing, commissioning, and maintenance to lay the groundwork for customization.

Case in Point

  • BMW is set to open its Debrecen, Hungary plant in 2025 capable of producing 150,000 vehicles annually. For this, it is collaborating with NVIDIA to create a digital twin of the entire factory, that will enable global design teams to work together across multiple software suites in a shared virtual space. With this initiative, BMW envisions to be the world's largest custom-manufacturing company.

With the progression towards Industry 5.0, the industrial sector is seeing widespread adoption of advanced technologies. Technologies like Metaverse, 5G/6G, and Quantum Computing are poised to supercharge the next phase of the industrial revolution.

  • Amidst the current challenges around legacy data, and computing environments, what does it take to realize the vision of Industry 5.0?
  • How can companies take advantage of the industrial big data that’s out there?
  • What’s the missing link between Industry 5.0, industrial connectivity, and industrial big data?

To be continued in the next blog.


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