Celebrating IoT Day and the Rise of Industry 5.0

It’s apt that IoT Day this year is themed around AI & IoT for good. While the technologies are at different stages in their evolution, both have enormous potential to move past the hype and deliver significant benefits that reach far beyond financial bottom lines.

Industry 5.0 challenges IoT to seek greater impact

With IoT now a more mature - though still evolving - proposition, Industry 5.0 challenges us all to think about how it (and other technologies) can make an impact beyond “making things smart”, and creating jobs and economic growth.

How can it - along with other technologies - achieve other societal goals? How can industry develop greater resilience, operate more sustainably, and place human wellbeing at the center of its processes?

What is Industry 5.0?

In its predecessor, Industry 4.0, the focus was on technologies like IoT and big data. Industry 5.0 builds on this, asking us to factor in human, environmental, and social aspects. The overarching idea is that we take the advances we’ve made in Industry 4.0 and use them thoughtfully - enabling humans, rather than superseding them.

In Industry 4.0 the focus was on automation - realizing the benefits of machines like repeatability and precision. Industry 5.0 asks us to step back and make human decisions on how we can best enjoy the benefits of automation, with a particular focus on the impact on people and planet.

Here's a concrete example:

A company that rode the Industry 4.0 wave made significant investment in technologies like robotics and automation. This streamlined their manufacturing processes, resulting in a significantly higher manufacturing capacity. It also caused some headaches due to over-automation.

In an Industry 5.0 world, their next steps are to consider:

• • • 1. How to find the right balance between humans and machines. They’ll need to identify where human resources have skills that machines lack; and how to adapt machines to support human-machine collaboration.

         This may mean re-allocating human resources to tasks that require experience, intuition, and problem solving, or that add greater value - things that automation and machines are still ill-equipped to handle.

      2. How to build both business resilience, and sustainability into their operations. Industry 4.0 largely ignored the impact of industrial automation on the planet, but in this next stage, it must be considered.

         An example of what this might mean is considering the overall carbon footprint of a business, and making changes across the board to reduce it - from source materials, to manufacturing operations, to facility management, and even staff travel policies.

LAIIER has embraced Industry 5.0

At LAIIER, we know that the bottom line matters - particularly to businesses who have a duty towards owners and shareholders. As a team, we’re driven by a desire to create social value and wellbeing as part of our work.

Solving liquid leak detection problems for commercial and industrial spaces and equipment sits very neatly at the intersection of technology that creates economic efficiency, and that has a positive impact on people and planet.

Early liquid leak detection that embodies the Industry 5.0 approach

Early liquid leak detection eliminates the need for manual inspections, meaning that workforces can be deployed on higher-value tasks and projects. Detecting leaks earlier means that less liquid is lost, and less damage is done. This has a positive impact on environmental factors that include the conservation of water and/ or hydrocarbons, and the reduction of the carbon footprint. And all these factors have a positive impact on the bottom line.

This is where we believe that LAIIER delivers its ultimate value: early liquid leak detection that supports people, the planet, and profitability.