Industry 5.0 Industry for people instead of machines

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The increase in efficiency and automation will continue to play a role in the economy. Experts are now heralding the age of Industry 5.0, which also increasingly focuses on the needs of people and the planet. Family-owned companies like Lapp from Stuttgart play an important role in this transformation.

What is Industry 5.0? Professor Oliver Riedel, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO and Director of the University Institute for Control Engineering in Stuttgart, has been hearing this question more frequently lately. He likes to answer it with the following anecdote: About six years ago, an acquaintance from Japan asked him what Industry 4.0 was. Riedel explained the networking of things and cyber-physical systems, as envisioned by the Platform Industry 4.0 when it introduced the term to the public in 2011, sparking a real hype. The friend then wanted to know: "And where is the human in all this?" Riedel had to admit that in Germany, much attention was paid to how machines communicate with each other—but how they communicate with humans and what benefits it brings to people was not addressed. However, the IAO has never lost sight of this issue, emphasizes the Fraunhofer scientist.

With the guiding principle of human-technology-organization, the institute laid the foundation for the further development of Industry 4.0 as early as 1981—hence Industry 5.0: technology that serves people, takes social aspects into account, and promotes sustainable economic activity.

For the first time in the history of industrial revolutions, Industry 5.0 focuses on human well-being instead of solely on increased digitalization and machine networking to further boost efficiency, as was the case with Industry 4.0.

The fact that Riedel's friend confidently rubbed salt into the wound of Industry 4.0 is likely related to the Japanese concept of Society 5.0. This refers to "a human-centered society that balances economic progress with the resolution of social challenges through a system that highly integrates cyberspace and the physical space"—a Japanese perspective that is now gaining significance in Germany with Industry 5.0 and entering our industrial landscape.

In Industry 5.0, for the first time in the history of industrial revolutions, the focus is on the well-being of people rather than solely on increased digitization and machine networking to further enhance efficiency—as was still the case in Industry 4.0. Instead of replacing people with machines, the aim is to support people in performing their work better. Here, "better" doesn't simply mean "more efficient" again, but also work that is perceived as more meaningful and promotes the protection of both physical and mental health.

Artificial intelligence and humans complement each other

The biggest hurdle is the increasing technical complexity in factories, where humans can hardly keep up. Therefore, there is a need for filters to reduce complexity to the right level, demands Oliver Riedel. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) could be such filters that support people. But conversely, AI also relies on human assistance. With the new AI studios, the experimental environment in the model factory, and the topic-focused innovation networks, the IAO offers transformation formats for the industry.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning always need humans as the catalyst.

Prof. Oliver Riedel, Fraunhofer IAO

This is illustrated by the following example: A doctoral student of Mr. Riedel focused on arc welding in his dissertation and developed a method that uses machine learning with an acoustic sensor to determine the quality of welds. The goal is to improve quality and relieve employees from tedious inspection tasks. The question was how many welds the model needed for sufficient training. It was assumed that a few thousand would suffice. However, by the end of the dissertation, after many hours in the lab, the sobering result was that 120,000 welding processes were needed to feed into the model before it could accurately indicate quality. "AI and ML always need humans as an initial spark," says Riedel. For the IAO director, AI is neither a competitor for humans nor a threat to jobs. "AI is intended to reduce technical complexity for the benefit of humans, making it a good example of the Industry 5.0 concept."

In the eyes of the institute director at IAO, Industry 5.0 offers significant opportunities for companies like Lapp. He has been in contact with the CTO for years, discussing possibilities for the company. These exist internally—for example, in the development of products and their manufacturing. But also in the culture.

At Lapp, employees have always been at the forefront and are seen as part of the Lapp family. Now, the focus is particularly on placing those working in production at the center through innovations and optimizations. "Our employees are the most important success factor for Lapp. Therefore, our strategy emphasizes not only how new technologies can be used efficiently for our production but also how these technologies can best support our employees—that is, the interaction of humans with artificial intelligence in procedural workflows," explains Hubertus Breier, Board Member for Technology and Innovation at Lapp.

How medium-sized family businesses benefit from AI applications

The medium-sized family-owned company has been using AI applications in everyday work for several years—such as in the finance sector. In electronic bank statement processing, bank statements are now fully automatically interpreted in the cloud at Lapp during post-processing. The Supply Chain Management also relies on an AI application for finding new suppliers: the software used there can swiftly scour the internet, find suppliers worldwide, evaluate them, and generate a list of the most promising companies. The purchasing team can then target these companies specifically.

The focus on people is particularly evident at the French cable production plant of the Lapp Group in Forbach (Germany): The Câbleries Lapp SARL is the first plant to undergo extensive modernization as part of the optimization strategy within the Lapp Group's global production network. An example of this is the optimization of the wire production line: traditionally, the layout of such a production line is linear. This primarily means long walking distances for the employees. The new setup is arranged in a U-shape, centered around the people. The goal is to place all workstations of the facility as close to each other as possible. This reduces the walking distances for employees by 96 percent, cuts changeover times from ten to six minutes, and allows the machine to produce almost 50 percent faster—ultimately benefiting the customers.

Industry 5.0 also means focusing more on customer needs

Externally, the idea of Industry 5.0 is reflected in an even stronger focus on the needs of customers and their employees. For example: if a customer orders 12.4 miles of Ethernet cable, Lapp knows that the customer wants to ensure communication in their factory—preventing outages. As an industry partner in constant dialogue with customers, the connectivity specialist can therefore meet customer needs not only with cables but also through hubs and switches.

For Lapp, the idea of reducing complexity in highly automated and technological machine parks is not new. An example is Etherline Guard, a small box that assesses whether a data cable should be replaced soon based on its transmission quality. Or the Health Check Service for network security, which detects EMC problems, among other things, and suggests improvements. New from the innovation team at Lapp is the smart cable drum, which automatically orders replenishment when the cable runs out. This ties back to Industry 5.0 and Lapp's effort to always prioritize customer needs: "Our technology aims to reduce complexity and make life easier for people at the customer," says Dr. Susanne Krichel, Head of Innovation & Advanced Technology. "While this topic already seems to be 'old hat' in Japan, we still have some catching up to do—but the fact that this approach is now gaining so much importance in our industry as well shows me that Lapp is on the right path. To ultimately contribute to a more livable world."