Purpose –

The purpose is to apply the co-workership approach to contribute guidelines for manufacturing managers to exploit the potential of digital technologies through a human-centric perspective.

Design/methodology/approach –

A longitudinal single case study within manufacturing including a mix of qualitative methods with 18 in-depth interviews and focus groups with 25 participants covering all organizational levels and functions.

Findings –

Findings demonstrate that to re-interpret manufacturing management through the lens of Industry 5.0 (I5.0), managers need to respond to the call for a more human-centric perspective by focusing on organizational prerequisites, such as holistic understanding, inclusive organizational change, leadership practices, learning and innovation processes.

Research limitations/implications –

Limitations due to a single case study are compensated with rich data collected over time with the strengths of mixed methods through in-depth interviews and focus groups with participants reflecting and developing ideas jointly.

Practical implications –

Managers’ awareness of organizational prerequisites to promote human perspectives in all functions and at all levels in digital transformation is pivotal. Thus, proposed organizational prerequisites are presented as managers’ guidelines for future innovative manufacturing.

Social implications –

Findings emphasize the need for digital transformation managers to apply a human-centric perspective acknowledging how organizational changes affect the inclusion of employees, and thus challenge culture, structure, communication and trust toward I5.0.

Originality/value –

The study contributes to the emerging field of I5.0 by applying an interdisciplinary approach to understand the elusive phenomena of enfolding technology and humans.