POSTED: 04 Nov, 2024

TL;DR

• Industry 5.0 highlights environmental sustainability, human centricity, and resilience, pushing corporate responsibility to the social and planetary boundaries.
• Cobots play an essential role in achieving human centricity and resilience.
• Developing a holistic understanding of the technology is essential before adoption.
• Allocating time for innovation is the key to sustainable growth.

Introduction

Industry 4.0, digital transformation, and smart factories with cyber-physical systems bring unprecedented capabilities for a seamlessly connected industry and improve production and business efficiency. As technology continues to advance, the vision of Industry 5.0 is within reach. Is Industry 5.0 all about cobots? This article discusses the concept of Industry 5.0 and the role of cobots and provides tips for technology adoption.

The Industry 5.0 vision

Industry 5.0 is a vision proposed by the European Commission in 2021. It envisions the industry’s next step toward becoming more environmentally sustainable, human-centric, and resilient. How can achieving success in these three aspects benefit companies and the industry?

• Understanding planetary boundaries is essential for manufacturing as they provide guidelines for balancing industrial growth with environmental sustainability. Adopting circular processes, such as reducing waste, reusing materials, and improving energy efficiency, contributes to both environmental and operational benefits.
• A human-centric approach prioritises workers’ needs, cultivating a thriving and innovative manufacturing environment. In Industry 5.0, technology goes beyond being a mere tool for improving production efficiency. “How can technology best support the workforce?” is the key question to ask. This vision paves the way for a future where technology enhances employee guidance and training, boosting productivity, job satisfaction, retention, and worker sustainability.
• Geopolitical changes, natural disasters, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the vulnerabilities within current globalised production systems. Industry0 addresses these challenges by enhancing the resilience of industrial production through the establishment of resilient strategic value chains, adaptable production capacities, and flexible business processes.

The role of cobots in Industry 5.0

Cobots, or collaborative robots, are special robots equipped with advanced safety sensors and designed specifically for a secure human-robot co-working environment. With a reduced payload, speed, and force, using cobots does not require fencing and laser screening as required for traditional industrial robots. Therefore, cobots can provide promising solutions for achieving human centricity and resilience.

The key design principle of cobot application is for cobots to handle repetitive and hazardous work while workers can focus on complex and intelligent work. Some of the use cases are as follows:

• Product assembly, where a cobot lifts and holds an item while workers perform jobs on the item.
• Material transportation, where a cobot picks and places or delivers materials to the worker while the worker focuses on complex manufacturing tasks.
• Machine tending, where a cobot loads and unloads items onto and from heavy machinery while the worker focuses on machine programming and finished goods inspection.

The characteristics of cobots also make them more flexible to deploy than traditional industrial robots. In case supply chain disruptions occur and production reconfiguration is required, cobots can be adapted quickly to fit the needs of the new production line, making the production line flexible and resilient.

Towards successful cobot adoption

Successful adoption of cobot is much more than acquisition and integration. Like any other technology, adopting cobots requires a holistic understanding of the technology, which goes beyond understanding the use cases and evaluating the fitness to the manufacturer’s context.

To support Australian manufacturing companies, especially small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in successfully adopting new technologies, current adoption practices were investigated as a part of my PhD research. Based on academic literature and expert discussions, the following action items are recommended for building a holistic understanding of cobot before adoption:

• Operational capabilities. Understand what cobots can do and which are relevant to the current and future applications. E.g. pick-and-place and welding.
• Key areas and processes. Understand where cobots can be applied and which are relevant to the current and future applications. E.g. assembly and warehousing.
• Key performance indicators. Clarify how adopting cobots aligns with the company’s strategy and how the outcome can be measured. These can range from production speed to job satisfaction.
• Stakeholders. Investigate who might be affected by adopting cobots. E.g. customers and current workers.
• Implementation capabilities. Understand what skills are required for adopting cobots, e.g. installation and programming. Clarify if the in-house engineering team has these skills, if the technology provider has the skills or provides training, or if new hires are necessary.
• Technology dependencies. Consider prerequisite technologies, technologies that complement cobots, potential technologies that can be adopted afterwards, and their compatibility. E.g. conveyor belts, welders, and 3D printers.

As technology advances, the holistic view should expand, incorporating new capabilities as they emerge. Therefore, it is important to retain knowledge about cobots and the relevant technologies within the company while continuously seeking improvement needs and refining strategies. Despite manufacturers, especially SMEs, being found to be extremely overwhelmed by their daily activities, allocating minimal time to identify improvement needs, obtain new knowledge, and scan new opportunities is crucial to sustainable business development.

Our research will continue to develop a practical procedure model to support successful technology adoption, incorporating relevant methods and tools to guide companies from strategic planning through to identifying technology and adoption planning.