Barriers and enablers of Industry 5.0 integration with Lean Six Sigma: a Fuzzy DEMATEL approach

Purpose This study aims to identify and analyze the critical barriers and enablers in integrating Industry 5.0 with Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in the manufacturing sector. Using a Fuzzy DEMATEL approach, this study uncovers the cause-effect relationships among key factors based on the judgments of 52 industry experts. Design/methodology/approach A fuzzy Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (Fuzzy DEMATEL) method was applied to data collected from 52 industry experts across multiple manufacturing sectors. Experts evaluated the mutual influence among 14 pre-validated factors (seven barriers and seven enablers) using a five-point linguistic scale. The fuzzy evaluations were defuzzified, aggregated and analyzed to derive prominence (D + R) and net causality (D–R) scores, leading to the construction of cause-effect diagrams. Findings The Fuzzy DEMATEL results revealed that strategic alignment and long-term vision, employee engagement and pilot project success were the most influential enablers driving Industry 5.0-LSS integration, while top management support and investment in digital infrastructure played key dependent roles. Among the barriers, technological incompatibility and high implementation cost emerged as dominant causal challenges, whereas data security concerns and lack of skilled workforce were highly impactful but largely effect-driven issues. Research limitations/implications This research is limited to perceptual expert-based data and focuses on discrete manufacturing industries. Future studies should apply longitudinal validation, include operational KPIs and extend analysis to other sectors such as services or public administration. Originality/value This study is among the first to apply Fuzzy DEMATEL to Industry 5.0-LSS integration using a large, diverse expert panel. This study contributes a data-driven, actionable framework for prioritizing strategic interventions and challenges top-down implementation models by identifying bottom-up enablers such as pilot success and workforce engagement. This study uniquely contributes by presenting a dual-perspective Fuzzy DEMATEL framework that simultaneously models the enablers and barriers influencing Industry 5.0-LSS integration, offering a novel causal-effect understanding of digital-human transformation in manufacturing.