Högskolan i Skövde

Industry 5.0 has emerged to address the limitations of Industry 4.0 by emphasizing inclusive sustainability through environmentalism, human-centricity, and resilience. However, its development faces barriers across technological, organizational, and social dimensions. This study proposes a structured decision-making framework to identify critical barriers, design targeted strategies, and prioritize them for implementation. Strategies are evaluated using seven criteria: impact, cost, timeframe, feasibility, risk, complexity, and acceptance. A hybrid fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making method, informed by systematic literature review and expert consultation, ensures reliable and balanced prioritization. The analysis identified 54 barriers and 35 strategies, highlighting the highest importance of “public–private partnership programs in driving digital transformation,” “resilience-focused business continuity,” and “localized and regional digital infrastructure development,” respectively. Considering all criteria, the strategies “clarity on long-term return on investment,” “resilience-focused business continuity programs,” and “ethical AI adoption programs for smaller enterprises” received the highest implementation priority, respectively. This study makes three key contributions to the literature on Industry 5.0. First, it provides a comprehensive and structured summary of Industry 5.0 barriers, identifying 54 barriers across seven distinct dimensions. Second, it develops a systematic QFD-based framework that directly links these barriers to strategies for overcoming them and facilitating the development of Industry 5.0. Third, it introduces a novel MCDM method called F-WASKOR. The study provides a phased roadmap for advancing Industry 5.0 transformation and realizing inclusive sustainability goals.