Human-centric factories - Shaping the future of industrial engineering and management education

The industrial world is undergoing a profound metamorphosis. We have moved beyond the era of the factories depicted in Modern Times, where Charlie Chaplin is literally swallowed by the machinery of mass production. And yet, the satirical force of that film remains strikingly relevant. Today’s workplaces still raise the same essential question: What is the role of the human being in a world increasingly shaped by automation, artificial intelligence, and digital systems?
This is where the vision of Industry 5.0 marks a paradigm shift. Rather than displacing humans, it calls for a renewed alliance between human intelligence and technological power. Industry 5.0 values not only efficiency and automation, but also creativity, ethics, empathy, and critical thinking –the distinctly human qualities that machines cannot replicate (or not yet).
The engineer of tomorrow must be more than a technical expert. They must be a systems thinker, an ethical decision-maker, and an orchestrator of collaboration –between humans, intelligent machines, and digital platforms. They must be equipped not only to optimize processes, but to understand the broader social and organizational implications of technology, ensuring that innovation serves people, not the other way around.