Questioning the Concepts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Industry 4.0 When Describing Modernization as a Sequential Framework

This study analyzes existing concepts used to describe process modernization, including industrial revolutions and Industry 3.0, Industry 4.0, and Industry 5.0, here collectively referred to as the Sequential Industrial Modernization Framework. A simple industrial scenario was considered to evaluate whether current conceptual foundations could answer key questions regarding process classification and technological definitions. Surprisingly, the findings revealed that the industrial revolutions and Industry 3.0, Industry 4.0, and Industry 5.0 concepts fail to provide consistent answers, as different authors assign varying dates and technologies to each stage without offering clear definitions and explanations. These results highlight the need to critically reassess and improve the theoretical foundations to enhance the internal coherence, reproducibility, and applicability of the concepts in the scientific literature to describe modernization.