THE TRANSITION FROM LEAN 4.0 TO LEAN 5.0: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

An exploratory bibliometric examination of the growing body of research on the shift from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 and its effects on Lean management in businesses—a novel and innovative idea for the future of industry—is presented in this study. Although Industry 5.0 has started to draw attention from academics and practitioners in recent years, this new discipline is still in its infancy and has little documentation. Thus, the purpose of this study is to map the field and give an initial overview of the development and state of the Lean 4.0 to Lean 5.0

scientific literature. The Web of Science database was used to obtain bibliometric data by analyzing 242 articles for the years 2001–2025. Bibliometric analyses are performed on the total number of publications, the growth trajectory, important documents, authors, sources, and nations. The study employs VOS viewer, and biblioshiny software to delineate publishing trends, discipline contributions, prominent authors, geographic distributions, keyword networks, thematic analysi, and fractional analysis. This study integrates methodologies from bibliometrics and visual analytics to offer a thorough assessment of the research landscape and prospective avenues to analyze the transition from Lean 4.0 to Lean 5.0. A brief summary of the beginnings and development of this new area of study is given by the exploratory analysis.