Industry 5.0 seminar on industrial competitiveness (https://industry50.ee/) brought three key themes clearly into focus:
- how to increase productivity and reach the next level of development
- how to connect technology, data and people
- how to ensure secure and trustworthy operations in a new value chain
One question echoed throughout the event: how can companies achieve growth and reach the next level — not only through technology, but across the whole organisation?
1️⃣ Wood industry company Barrus AS highlighted very well that productivity starts much earlier than on the production line: “A quality product starts in the forest” — meaning that the right decisions are already made when selecting the input, even from forest maps.
At the same time, the role of the organisation and its people was strongly emphasised:
• retaining employees and developing their skills
• creating a sense of belonging and recognition
• contributing to the local community, for example through IT education for young people in Võru and the Barrus volleyball team
This was captured perfectly in the thought: “Machines improve processes, data provides context and advantage, people deliver the breakthrough.”
2️⃣ Another strong theme was cybersecurity and trust:
• manufacturing is globally the #1 target for cyberattacks
• even large companies experience repeated attacks
• production downtime is a very real risk
This means that one-off checks are no longer enough:
• regular risk assessment
• continuous employee training
• systematic threat modelling
And when entering the defence industry value chain, the first question is: 👉 does your level of information security meet the required trust standards?
📌 A good reminder: “You cannot protect what you do not know.”