'India's AI mission', Can next-gen tech help usher in Industry 5.0 revolution?

New-age tech times: The fifth industrial revolution is knocking on the door, and it is to be driven by Artificial Intelligence. While the world has weathered four rounds of industrial revolution, the latest one, or the Industrial Revolution 5.0 is going to be slightly different – one which would see humans and machines in close collaboration than ever before. Are we set for the paradigm shift? Republic Business takes a deep dive.

Ola and Uber model 

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Industry 4.0 refers to the intelligent networking of machines and processes for the industry based on CPS – a technology that achieves intelligent control using embedded networked system while Industry 5.0 centers around three interconnected core values human-centricity, sustainability and resilience . The human-centric approach puts core human needs and interest at the heart of the production process, shifting from technology-driven progress to a thoroughly human-centric and society-centric approach, says Science Direct in its "Journal of Manufacturing Systems." 

At the heart of Industry 5.0, lies an effort to miniaturise the Industry 4.0 tools and make them available in the expanse of the country in form of customised products, says a study conducted by McKinsey and VDMA. This is exactly what Ola and Uber, the best examples of Industry 5.0 forerunners, are doing by offering customer survice without the worry of centralised manufacturing and sophisticated delivery system. 

The cab aggregators fulfill most of the criterias and experts feel that the country should adapt an "Ola/Uber phenomenon" to meet challenges for ushering in the new-gen technology.  To summarise, fifth industrial revolution, or industry 5.0 will be focused on the co-operation between man and machine and human intelligence working in harmony with cognitive computing.  By putting humans back into industrial production with collaborative robots, workers will be upskilled to provide value-added tasks in production, leading to mass customization and personalisation for customers.
 

Amazon style Delivery 

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The McKinsey-VDMA study, while pointing out how Industry 5.0 will affect the various factors in current manufacturing activity, has stated that a sophisticated design and development center to be created at the central hub, which will absorb and simulate the specialisation is seen as a world dominated by Industry 5.0. The center will create virtual presence such as that of Amazon for marketing these products globally.  It will create supply chain for delivery of the products.  The model could be created for highly customarised industrial products manufacturing where customerised assembly of parts supplied from the center are assembled at village or small town level and deliver to the customer along with required services.

Job Creation 

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The fourth Industrial Revolution is largely unsuitable for India to meet the immediate requirement of job creation. It is now being envisaged that country's focus area should rather be Industrial 5.0 revolution, a state of the industry having  people working alongside robots and smart machines. Before the world aims to usher in the fifth industrial revolution, it becomes imminent to bring customer focus into product value chain. Redefining not only the manufacturing process but also what the product is and the value it provides to the customers, remains a major concern as well. Experts suggests moving from being a bandle of automation functions with digital tools to become a platform for value creation both for the user and the maker of product. This will help to provide distinctive value to customer through the creation and delivery of more  complete offerings. 
 

Sustainable Solutions 

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Industry 5.0 will be ecologically and socially friendly, particularly since it will address elimination of waste. It will also be human friendly because it calls for efficient cooperation between humans and machines.  It means singe product manufacturing for the price of mass produced product but in village and small towns.  It will also be zero defect with very short delivery period and will be close to customer manufacturing like in old times but with differences making Industry 5.0 will be game changer, the report says.