Industry 5.0 is the new business scenario promoted by the European Commission, in a report published in January 2021 entitled “A sustainable, human-centred and resilient European industry”.
According to this new approach, in order to continue to generate prosperity, industry must lead an energy and green transition, not by setting efficiency and productivity as the sole objective but by strengthening its role in society. The well-being of the worker will be at the center of the production process, thanks to the help of new and intelligent technologies, which already fueled the fourth industrial revolution. Industry 5.0, therefore, cannot be defined as a real technological revolution, rather more cultural. Its function is to increase the technologies of Industry 4.0 by strengthening the collaboration between humans and robots.
One of the fears associated with the adoption of new technologies has always been the loss of jobs. However, if applied correctly, technological progress and dedicated solutions potentially make workplaces more inclusive and safer for workers, as well as increasing their satisfaction and well-being. The emergence of new technologies requires resources to specialize more in specific areas, such as data science and cloud engineering, so new jobs are being created.
Summing up, there are three characteristics attributed to the new industrial model in the report of the European Commission: humanocentricity, sustainability and resilience.
Humanocentricity
People are at the heart of the industrial process. Technology is used to improve the quality of life of citizens and workers, and not vice versa. One of the consequences is a more attentive approach to fundamental rights such as privacy, autonomy and human dignity.
Sustainability
Industry 5.0 is sustainable: it guarantees the needs of current generations without compromising those of future generations. It reuses and recycles natural resources or in any case avoids their exhaustion, optimizes energy consumption and emissions, develops circular processes that reduce the environmental impact of its activities. A reduction that can happen thanks to the use of specific technologies for every phase of the life cycle of the product/ service, beginning from the simulation until the optimization of the supply chain.
Resilience
Industry 5.0 is resilient: able to react to sudden changes without having permanent consequences. It has therefore developed a high degree of robustness in production, ensures high levels of business continuity and has an adaptable production capacity and flexible business processes, able to guarantee products and/or services even in the event of pandemics, natural disasters, geopolitical changes.
For 60 years, EPF has supported companies that want to implement their production department with the best technology on the market: from Shibaura Machine full-electric presses, which guarantee high performance in terms of production and energy saving, up to reach turnkey robotics solutions equipped with AI, to improve the production efficiency of the existing production department or to support companies in the creation of new production lines.
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