Towards new-generation human-centric smart manufacturing in Industry 5.0: A systematic review

As businesses started to embrace Industry 4.0, along came the Fifth Industrial Revolution. Industry 5.0 complements the existing Industry 4.0 paradigm for the not-too-distant future by highlighting research and innovation as drivers for a transition to a sustainable, human-centric, and resilient industry. The core values of Industry 5.0 including human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience have prompted formal discussions that manufacturing should be human-centric. Human-centric smart manufacturing (HSM) takes full advantage of human flexibility, machine precision, and new-generation information technologies to construct a super smart, sustainable, and resilient manufacturing system. Nowadays, extensive research on the concept, architecture, enabling technologies, and applications of smart manufacturing have been conducted. However, research on HSM is relatively lacking, yet starting to gain traction rapidly. Hence, this paper primarily carries out a systematic literature review on HSM to identify promising research topics with high potential for further investigations. Firstly, this paper reveals the concept and connotation of HSM, on which the state-of-the-art architecture of HSM is introduced. Then, several promising Industry 4.0 technologies are identified as the key enablers that can continue to support the construction and operation of HSM, where a comprehensive survey and discussion on these technologies are conducted. Thirdly, what’s new in HSM applications and how HSM will reshape the entire lifecycle of industrial products are explored. Finally, this paper identifies limitations, barriers, and challenges that will be encountered during the developing, operating, and maintaining HSM, and provides valuable research directions to continuously improve HSM.