The Dilemma Between Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0: A Technological Evolution of Digital Transformation or a Humanitarian Revolution of Well-being?

Nowadays social cohesion and humanity prosperity are the issues directly linked to the evolution of traditional humanitarian ethics and the rethinking of indigenous cultural morals. In this context, the investigation of the entities of Society 5.0 and Industry 5.0 can be reviewed in terms of improving humanitarian values and ensuring sustainable development at an Industry 4.0 meta-epoch. Subsequently, humans and machines symbiosis is actually considered as a debate of Industry 5.0 vs. (evolving from) Industry 4.0, or (shifting) Industry 4.0 vs. (towards) Society 5.0. In this review study, a critique has raised of how digital transformation could actually identify and characterize an unstable era of threatening social cohesion, being considered as a global human-centricity issue by adopting production planning and suitable control systems towards Industry 5.0. Additionally, in the study an integrated approach of Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0 was structured and valued in alignment with sustainable development goals’ (SDGs)-authorized/-driven sustainable societies. Conclusively, the main constraints, the prevalent challenges and the future research considerations of such a humanitarian (r)evolution towards a future well-being have been demonstrated.