Citation: Bajic, B.; Suzic, N.; Moraca, S.; Stefanovi´ c, M.; Jovicic, M.; Rikalovic, A. Edge Computing Data Optimization for Smart Quality Management: Industry 5.0 Perspective. Sustainability 2023, 15, 6032. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su15076032 Academic Editor: Mirco Peron Received: 21 February 2023 Revised: 27 March 2023 Accepted: 28 March 2023 Published: 30 March 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Edge Computing Data Optimization for Smart Quality Management: Industry 5.0 Perspective Bojana Bajic 1,2 , Nikola Suzic 3 , Slobodan Moraca 1 , Miladin Stefanovi´ c 4 , Milos Jovicic 2 and Aleksandar Rikalovic 1,2, * 1 Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Novi Sad, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia; bojana.bajic@uns.ac.rs (B.B.); moraca@uns.ac.rs (S.M.) 2 Institute for Artificial Intelligence Research and Developments of Serbia, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia; milos.jovicic@ivi.ac.rs 3 Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy; nikola.suzic@unitn.it 4 Center for Quality, Faculty of Engineering, University of Kragujevac, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia; miladin@kg.ac.rs * Correspondence: a.rikalovic@uns.ac.rs or aleksandar.rikalovic@ivi.ac.rs Abstract: In the last decade, researchers have focused on digital technologies within Industry 4.0. However, it seems the Industry 4.0 hype did not fulfil industry expectations due to many imple- mentation challenges. Today, Industry 5.0 proposes a human-centric approach toimplement digital sustainable technologies for smart quality improvement. One important aspect of digital sustain- ability is reducing the energy consumption of digital technologies. This can be achieved through a variety of means, such as optimizing energy efficiency, and data centres power consumption. Complementing and extending features of Industry 4.0, this research develops a conceptual model to promote Industry 5.0. The aim of the model is to optimize data without losing significant infor- mation contained in big data. The model is empowered by edge computing, as the Industry 5.0 enabler, which provides timely, meaningful insights into the system, and the achievement of real-time decision-making. In this way, we aim to optimize data storage and create conditions for further power and processing resource rationalization. Additionally, the proposed model contributes to Industry 5.0 from a social aspect by considering the knowledge, not only of experienced engineers, but also of workers who work on machines. Finally, the industrial application was done through a proof-of-concept using manufacturing data from the process industry, where the amount of data was reduced by 99.73% without losing significant information contained in big data. Keywords: human-cyber-physical systems (HCPS); big data analytics (BDA); Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT); smart quality management; digital sustainability; data optimization 1. Introduction In the last decade, global hype has been built around creating smart, connected man- ufacturing systems based on Industry 4.0 and emphasizing the role of cyber-physical systems (CPS) [1,2]. In turn, the CPS environments, in which physical objects and soft- ware are closely integrated via the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) [3,4], improved the human–machine interaction but limited the socially sustainable aspect [5]. Moreover, the relevant literature reports the managerial implementation challenges [6]. These challenges pointed out the lack the human resources as the biggest barrier for hindering Industry 4.0 implementation. Thus, the technological transformations of Industry 4.0 did not carefully consider humans as a central point in the manufacturing environments [7]. Therefore, it seems that the technology-centered approach of Industry 4.0 has proved inadequate, since the lack of a human impact in the application of Industry 4.0 has been reported [6,8]. The new Industry 5.0 concept intends to put the human aspect back into the center of the Sustainability 2023, 15, 6032. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15076032 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability