Factories of the future in industry 5.0—Softwarization, Servitization, and Industrialization

The transition from industry 4.0 to industry 5.0 represents a profound paradigm shift in the manufacturing domain, emphasizing the convergence of advanced digital technologies with human-centric collaboration, sustainability, and operational resilience. This paper rigorously investigates the transformative potential of softwarization and servitization within sophisticated cloud architectures, which are pivotal enablers for the realization of Factories-of-the-Future (FoF) in the industry 5.0 context. We explore the technical intricacies of softwarization, harnessing technologies such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), Artificial Intelligence as a Service (AIaaS), and cloud-native architectures to achieve unprecedented levels of flexibility, scalability, and operational efficiency in manufacturing ecosystems. Concurrently, servitization facilitates a shift from traditional product-centric models to dynamic, service-oriented frameworks, enabling highly customizable, on-demand manufacturing processes and significantly enhancing customer engagement. By meticulously examining the symbiotic relationship between these technologies, this paper presents a comprehensive roadmap that addresses critical technical challenges, including scalability, interoperability with legacy systems, and robust cybersecurity in distributed environments. Furthermore, we identify emergent opportunities such as AI-driven predictive maintenance, large-scale hyper-personalization, and the dynamic orchestration of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) paradigms. Our contributions offer valuable insights for researchers, industry experts, and stakeholders, aiming to fully leverage the potential of Industry 5.0 to drive innovation and transform global manufacturing practices.