Development of an Industry 5.0 Implementation Framework for Small Manufacturing Industries

Abstract

Industry 5.0 extends the automation-centric vision of Industry 4.0 by placing human well-being, environmental resilience, and organisational sustainability at the core of manufacturing transformation. While large enterprises have begun piloting collaborative robotics, human-centric artificial intelligence, and circular production models, Small Manufacturing Industries (SMIs) continue to lag behind because of capital constraints, limited digital skills, and the absence of a structured adoption pathway suited to their scale of operation. This paper develops a practical, phase-wise Industry 5.0 Implementation Framework tailored to the resource realities of small manufacturing units, drawing on a structured review of recent literature and field-level observations from small manufacturing clusters in Maharashtra. The proposed framework organises implementation around five pillars — human-centricity, resilience, sustainability, technology integration, and governance — operationalised through four progressive maturity phases: Awareness and Readiness, Foundational Digitalisation, Human-Centric Automation, and Sustainable Optimisation. A readiness-assessment instrument and a barrier-mitigation matrix are proposed to help SMI owners self-diagnose their starting point and select low-cost, high-impact interventions. The framework is discussed against common barriers reported for small manufacturers, including financial constraints, workforce skill gaps, and limited managerial bandwidth, and mitigation strategies such as shared-resource models, cluster-based financing, and government skilling schemes are outlined. The paper concludes that a phased, human-centred, and cluster-supported approach can make Industry 5.0 adoption feasible for small manufacturers without requiring the capital intensity typically associated with digital transformation, and it identifies directions for future empirical validation of the framework across sectors.

Introduction

This paper examines how Industry 5.0 can be practically implemented in small manufacturing industries (SMIs). Unlike Industry 4.0, which focused on automation, connectivity, and efficiency, Industry 5.0 emphasizes human-centricity, sustainability, resilience, and collaboration between humans and technology.

The study highlights that while large manufacturers can adopt advanced technologies such as collaborative robots and AI, small manufacturers face significant challenges, including limited finances, lack of technical expertise, minimal digital infrastructure, and owner-driven decision-making. Existing Industry 5.0 frameworks are largely designed for large organizations and provide little practical guidance for small businesses.

To address this gap, the paper proposes a resource-sensitive implementation framework based on five pillars:

• Human-centricity
• Resilience
• Sustainability
• Technology integration
• Governance and culture

The framework follows a four-phase maturity model:

1. Awareness and Readiness – Build understanding of Industry 5.0 and assess current capabilities.
2. Foundational Digitalisation – Introduce basic digital tools, data collection, and process monitoring.
3. Human-Centric Automation – Adopt collaborative automation and improve ergonomics while keeping workers central.
4. Sustainable Optimisation – Use collected data for predictive maintenance, energy efficiency, and continuous improvement.

A readiness assessment matrix enables manufacturers to evaluate their maturity across the five pillars and determine the appropriate implementation phase. The paper also demonstrates the framework through an illustrative case of a small engineering unit, showing how gradual, affordable improvements can lead to greater productivity, resilience, and sustainability.

Finally, the study identifies key barriers—financial limitations, skill shortages, organizational constraints, and low awareness—and recommends phased investments, workforce training, shared resources, simple governance practices, and government support to overcome them.

Conclusion

This paper has developed a phased, resource-sensitive Industry 5.0 Implementation Framework for Small Manufacturing Industries, built around five pillars — human-centricity, resilience, sustainability, technology integration, and governance — and operationalised through a four-phase maturity model supported by a readiness-assessment instrument. The framework responds directly to a gap identified in the literature: existing Industry 5.0 guidance is largely conceptual or scaled for large enterprises, leaving small manufacturers without a practical, proportionate pathway for adoption. The proposed framework suggests that Industry 5.0 adoption need not require large upfront capital if approached as a staged journey that begins with awareness and basic digitalisation before progressing to human-centric automation and sustainability optimisation. Cluster-based collaboration and institutional support from local technical education providers are identified as practical enablers that can lower barriers for individual small units. This study is conceptual in nature and its illustrative case is indicative rather than empirically validated. Future research should apply the readiness-assessment instrument across a sample of small manufacturing units in different sectors to test and refine the phase boundaries, quantify typical investment and payback levels for each phase, and examine how cluster-based and government-supported models affect the pace of adoption. Longitudinal studies tracking units as they progress through the four phases would also help establish causal evidence of the framework\'s impact on productivity, worker well-being, and sustainability outcomes.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Prof. Megha Vasant Kamble. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.