Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization | 2026
Authors: Mihoubi S.; Goumih B.E.; Benazzouz T.
DOI: 10.3934/JIMO.2026082
Journal: Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization
Year: 2026
Publisher: American Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Document Type: Article
Open Access: All Open Access; Gold Open Access
Cited by: 0
This study responded to the need for practical and transparent assessment frameworks for Industry 5.0 human-centric manufacturing maturity. Current maturity models show two recurring limitations: arithmetic mean aggregation may mask critical weaknesses when high scores compensate for low scores across criteria, and equal weighting does not reflect expert judgments about the relative importance of assessment criteria. To address these issues, we have proposed the human-centric assessment model (HCAM), which integrates the best–worst method (BWM) weighting with min– max goal programming to generate expert-weighted and non-compensatory maturity levels. The HCAM operationalizes five dimensions, which are human–machine collaboration, workforce wellbeing, adaptive learning, ethical use of technology, and resilience, through 30 sub-dimensions derived from a systematic synthesis of the literature. In an empirical application to twenty firms, the optimizationbased evaluation changed 42% of the maturity assignments compared to a simple average, indicating that the o_setting e_ects were substantial in the specific sample analyzed. The BWM comparisons showed acceptable consistency across the five dimensions (maximum consistency ratio = 0.038), and the instrument as a whole demonstrated moderate to acceptable internal consistency for an exploratory validation study (Cronbach's α = 0.693). Overall, the HCAM provides a rigorous and interpretable approach for assessing human-centric maturity. © 2026 2026 the Author(s) licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
best-worst method; compensation effects; goal programming; human-centricity; Industry 5.0; manufacturing; maturity assessment; supply chain 5.0