Explore Industry 5.0 With Digital Engineering

During the Fourth Industrial Revolution, known as Industry 4.0, industrial processes and manufacturing shifted toward digitization in nearly every market, from agriculture and mining to heavy machinery and building automation systems. Today, this digital transformation is not slowing down. A global industrial robotics survey from McKinsey & Co. revealed that industrial companies are expected to invest 25% of their capital spending on automation from 2022-2027. The survey also found that automation is already being implemented or piloted for popular industrial tasks such as palletization and packaging, material handling, and unloading.

5.0 Pillar: Sustainability / Digital Engineering Benefit: Virtual Prototyping

There are many ways that simulation and digital solutions support sustainability, but one of the most clear and fundamental ways is through virtual prototyping. Virtual prototyping empowers engineers to analyze and improve their design models earlier in the process. This enhances accuracy and often reduces or even eliminates the need for redesigns while decreasing the number of physical prototypes required. Although some level of physical prototyping will likely always be part of the industrial design process for the foreseeable future, virtual prototyping can greatly cut material use, costs, and time compared with traditional methods, leading to a more sustainable process and less waste.

Ansys, part of Synopsys, supports virtual prototyping with a comprehensive open ecosystem of multiphysics simulation tools spanning engineering disciplines from structures and fluids to electronics. In addition, Ansys Connect solutions make digital engineering even easier by linking simulation, data, and resources across an organization into one digital thread, which increases operational efficiency and collaboration. These solutions include simulation process and data management (SPDM), materials management, process integration and design optimization (PIDO), and model-based systems engineering (MBSE). Additional solutions support niche technologies and areas such as digital twins, artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), additive manufacturing, and cloud computing.

5.0 Pillar: Human-Centricity / Digital Engineering Benefit: IoT and Cyber-physical Systems

The human-technology connection is a relationship dynamic inherent to digital engineering and simulation workflows across all disciplines, but you can really see the connection shine when working with software-defined architectures.

Ansys multiphysics simulation supports software-defined architectures, including embedded software, sensors, and other network technologies that enable connectivity across cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things (IoT) applications, and digital twins. Such tools include the Ansys SCADE embedded software product collection and Ansys Twin Builder simulation-based digital twin platform.

By integrating Ansys simulation into system design and development, industrial teams can improve accuracy, reduce risks, and collaborate more closely using advanced technologies. For example, sensors and cyber-physical systems — including robots, conveyors, and specific material processes like coating, calendaring, or mixing — can utilize simulation and digital twin technology to enhance operations and enable real-time operator interaction.

The Industry 5.0 drive for human-centricity has led some researchers to explore human cyber-physical systems (HCPS), also referred to as cyber-physical human systems (CPHS), that feature human-in-the-loop (HIL) paradigms.

5.0 Pillar: Resilience / Digital Engineering Benefit: Predictive Maintenance and Planning

Manufacturers have sought ways to establish more resilient systems after experiencing supply chain issues during COVID-19 shutdowns. In many instances, digitalization has become instrumental in this effort. Some industry executives even deem predictive planning essential for supply chain management and maintain that companies that implemented digitalization before the pandemic fared better than those without it.

Ansys simulation provides predictive insights through tools like Ansys TwinAI AI-powered digital twin software, which combines digital twin technology with AI/ML integration. Ansys hybrid digital twins blend data and physics to support real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and performance optimization.

In addition, with configurable, role-based dashboards in data management solutions like Ansys Minerva SPDM software, managers and team members can retrieve the status of works in progress, key metrics, and much more. This helps prevent production delays, regardless of who’s in the office or away from the plant, as well as whether they have prior experience with simulation. Minerva software is also part of the Connect product family of digital engineering enablement solutions, empowering organizations to create digital threads more easily.

In connection, workflow automation empowers predictive planning and democratizes simulation. Workflow automation should not be confused with industrial automation. Industrial automation leverages digital solutions to automate physical workflows, completing tasks and processes traditionally performed by humans, such as palletization and material handling. Workflow automation uses digital solutions to automate digital workflows.

For example, Ansys optiSLang PIDO software enables users to capture their workflow, publish it to the Minerva platform or a dedicated service automation framework (SAF), and build automatically generated applications. This means simulation experts can build optiSLang workflows, capture repeatable processes, and publish them so other team members, including nonexperts in simulation, can use those workflows and run simulations without optimization or simulation expertise.