Human-centric production and logistics system design and management: transitioning from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0

Industry 4.0 was presented more than a decade ago as the fourth industrial revolution, aiming to significantly raise the level of sophistication of interconnected technologies and thus increase manufacturing industries’ profits. However, because the technology-driven narrow focus of Industry 4.0 on performance and profit fails to explain how to increase prosperity for all the stakeholders involved, the European Commission has introduced the concept of Industry 5.0. This vision overcomes the weaknesses of Industry 4.0 by paying explicit attention to outcomes for humans in the system and establishing an environment to create human-centric, resilient, and sustainable systems. Considering these developments, this position paper and editorial introducing the special issue of the International Journal of Production Research elaborates on the transition from Industry 4.0 to 5.0 through 10 papers focusing on the human-centric pillar of Industry 5.0 and its impacts on production and logistics system design and management. This work presents guidance for a more systemic approach needed in future research: to include empirically grounded works and data-driven multimethod approaches that consider diversity in system operators and human factors demands holistically in order to incorporate ethical implications missing from Industry 4.0 – in the pursuit of Industry 5.0 systems.