The European Union is currently pushing to enlarge and upgrade the current vision of Twin Transition (Green & Digital) toward the concept of Industry 5.0, which places the wellbeing of workers at the centre of the production process and uses new digital technologies (e.g. Artificial Intelligence) to provide companies’ prosperity beyond efficiency and productivity while respecting the production limits of the planet. Overall, it should bring benefits for companies, workers and society.

FURN5.0 project will focus on furniture sector Industry 5.0 transition, providing key analysis, tools and recommendations to promote and strengthen social dialogue at regional, national and EU level to properly address this topic.

It will also provide EU furniture companies and workers with knowledge, skills, guidelines and tools to facilitate a successful transition, as this sector greatly need to tackles problems related with workers and talents attractiveness.

In this framework, EU furniture stakeholders need to:

• Know the maturity level of EU furniture companies toward Industry5.0 transition.
• Identify their priority lines of action for facilitating this transition and make them more competitive and resilient.

Increase the knowledge available for EU social partners of the furniture sector (to be possibly exploited also by other ones) about the progress level of Industry 5.0, with a special attention to Artificial Intelligence, across the EU and in the sector and on how to facilitate the related sector transition, and thus enhance the quality of social dialogue at all level.

Design and implement a survey for EU furniture companies that allows to collect information on their level of understanding and take-up of Industry 5.0 principles and about their progress in Industry 5.0 practices.

Develop practical and validated guidelines to implement actions and activities for deploying Industry 5.0 practices in furniture companies and integrate them in company strategies and management models. Their validation will be done through the involvement of at least 50 experts with complementary expertise and from at least 12 EU countries. The guide will be available in 10 EU languages.

Develop and provide companies with an online tool for the self-evaluation of their level of maturity and real readiness to deploy Industry 5.0 practices and to identify the appropriate and priority improvement options. The tool will be fully adapted to furniture sector companies and will include specific methods and criteria for them. The priorities will be discussed and better identified thanks to an experts workshop (at least 20 participants). The online tool will be available in 10 EU languages.

Implement a pilot assessment of the online tool for self-evaluation by European companies. It will be done in selected companies across different EU countries (at least in 10 countries and 18 companies in total). Specific instructive cards will be the practical outcomes of this SO.

Identify employers’ and employees’ knowledge and skills needs (update-upgrade of DIGIT-FUR, SAWYER, FurnCSR and FurnCIRCLE results to the new taxonomy ESCO v1.1) to successfully implement Industry 5.0 practices. Create a set of recommendations for furniture and other sectors stakeholders to foster and support the deployment of these practices in companies.

Facilitate a wide and effective dissemination, in addition to two project flyers and a video, we will deliver a Full Report (printed and electronic version in 10 languages) containing the guidelines for the Industry 5.0 practices deployment, the presentation of the on-line self-evaluation tool and the recommendations for all the different stakeholders.

A follow-up plan will be designed during project last months and jointly implemented by partners after the end of the project. Open to be joined by other sector stakeholders.

Deliverables

FURN5.0 will produce the following key deliverables:

• Summary of the results and conclusions of the survey regarding the level of Industry 5.0 maturity of EU furniture companies. In 10 languages, printed and in PDF (SO1+2).

• A Guide for Furniture Sector Employers, Workers and Stakeholders for deploying Industry5.0 practices in furniture companies. In 10 EU languages, printed and in PDF (SO3+7).

• An online tool for self-evaluating the readiness of furniture companies for Industry5.0 practices deployment and identify which should be their specific priorities in the field. In 10 EU languages (SO4).

• A pilot assessment of the online self-evaluation tool done by at least 18 EU companies, which will provide inputs on their key priorities for Industry5.0. Data will be collected in specific instructive cards (SO5).

• A report identifying employers’ and employees’ industry 5.0 knowledge and skills needed (update-upgrade of DIGIT-FUR, SAWYER and FurnCIRCLE results to the new taxonomy ESCO v1.1) to successfully implement Industry5.0 practices and a set of recommendations (in 10 EU languages) for furniture and other sectors stakeholders to foster and support the deployment of these practices in companies (SO6+7).

• A Follow-up plan with clear guidelines for all project partners and other sector stakeholders (SO8).