"Industry 4.0 is far from complete"
Dr. Harald Schöning, Software AG and industry spokesperson on the 'Industry 4.0' research advisory board, is sceptical about the term 'Industry 5.0'.
You describe the use of the word pair 'Industry 5.0' as a mistake. Why?
Firstly, in 'Industry 4.0', 4.0 stands for the fourth industrial revolution - after mechanization, division of labour and automation, it now stands for industry based on cyber-physical systems. A fifth industrial revolution is not in sight. Secondly, 'Industry 5.0' only addresses aspects that were included in 'Industry 4.0' from the outset. Thirdly - the most important reason - small and medium-sized companies could be unsettled on the way to 'Industry 4.0'. This would hinder progress.
The neologism is intended to draw attention to 'soft' factors such as emotions, meaning and humanity in an industrial era in which people increasingly work together with machines and robots and communicate with AI algorithms. Do you think this is exaggerated?
On the contrary. People have been at the heart of 'Industry 4.0' from the very beginning. It cannot succeed without involving people in their entirety. The 'Industry 4.0' platform has its own working group on this topic. 'Industry 5.0' suggests that the topic of people is separate from the other aspects of 'Industry 4.0'. We think this is wrong.
According to your criticism, the new term suggests that 'Industry 4.0 is complete' ...
It is far from that. The theoretical and technical foundations have largely been laid, but industry-wide implementation will still take time. Necessary investments still need to be made, especially in small and medium-sized companies, and topics such as data rooms are only now gaining momentum.
