We sit down with Simon Ford, Founder and CEO of Blecon, who outlines why infrastructure-heavy Industry 4.0 models are reaching their limits, and how a new workforce-powered approach is defining the practical evolution of Industry 5.0.
UNLOCKING AUTONOMOUS VISIBILITY
As manufacturers push for greater resilience and efficiency, traditional fixed-infrastructure models are being re-evaluated.
Built around installed readers, gateways, and capital-intensive deployments, early Industry 4.0 strategies delivered process digitisation – but they also introduced cost, scale, and flexibility constraints that have become increasingly difficult to justify.
Blecon is championing a different approach with the launch of its new Blecon Agent software, which leverages frontline mobile devices already embedded across factories, warehouses, and logistics networks to create distributed Bluetooth tracking networks without additional hardware.
Simon Ford, Blecon’s Founder and CEO, explains why the future belongs to manufacturers who reduce friction, activate existing infrastructure, and treat visibility as a software deployment rather than a facilities project – unlocking continuous, cost-effective asset intelligence whilst keeping workflows uninterrupted.
Q&A WITH SIMON FORD, FOUNDER AND CEO, BLECON
Firstly, why do you think infrastructure-heavy Industry 4.0 approaches are becoming a thing of the past as they begin reach their economic and operational limits? What has encouraged this shift?
Simon Ford, Founder and CEO (SF): Industry 4.0 was built on the idea of installing technology around people, including fixed readers, gateways, and capital-intensive infrastructure deployed at defined points in an operation.
That model worked well for digitising specific processes, but it comes with structural limitations that are becoming harder to ignore.
Fixed infrastructure is expensive to install, difficult to scale across distributed supply chains, and slow to adapt when workflows change.
If you want visibility in a new area, partner site, or third-party facility, you often have to repeat that infrastructure investment. The economics become challenging, especially when tracking high-volume or lower-value assets.
Today, operating environments look different. Frontline mobile computing is now ubiquitous as devices are already in workers’ hands across warehouses, factories, retail environments, and logistics networks.
Instead of adding more hardware to the environment, companies can leverage the infrastructure they already own.
The shift is from building networks site by site to lighting up the workforce as a distributed sensing layer that reduces capital spend, accelerates deployment, and lowers risk from day one.
As technology begins to adapt to people and becomes more human-centric, how do you see Industry 5.0 evolving in 2026? What does this evolution signal about the practical direction of Industry 5.0 on factory floors?
SF: Industry 5.0 is often described as a human-centric evolution of Industry 4.0, but in real-world manufacturing environments, that means frictionless automation – not fewer machines.
In 2026, the shift is practical. Systems are designed to operate autonomously on the devices workers already use, rather than requiring more scanning, inputs, or additional hardware.
Technology is adapting to existing workflows instead of forcing workflows to adapt to technology.
This signals a clear direction, with Industry 5.0 centred on workforce augmentation. The goal is to capture data automatically as work naturally happens, amplifying the value of the people already on the floor without interrupting workflows.
In practice, that means reducing reliance on manual scan compliance for every movement event and instead capturing more signals autonomously, so teams can focus on production, quality, and exception handling rather than data entry.
As pallets move, materials transfer, and assets change hands, visibility follows the workforce rather than being anchored to fixed locations.
Rather than installing more technology, the real evolution is unlocking the intelligence already embedded in everyday operations.
How is Blecon is enabling asset visibility across factory floors through its new generation of manufacturing IoT systems? How does your approach enable continuous visibility without added friction or capital expansion?
SF: Blecon enables continuous asset visibility by transforming the frontline devices manufacturers already use into autonomous Bluetooth tracking networks.
This is particularly valuable on factory floors where manufacturers require visibility for work-in-progress, returnable containers, tools, mobile equipment, and materials moving between production, staging, and packaging.
Because Blecon Agent can be deployed across existing device fleets as a software roll-out, organisations can treat visibility activation as an IT deployment rather than a facilities infrastructure project.
Instead of installing fixed readers and new infrastructure, Blecon Agent activates the built-in Bluetooth radios inside existing Zebra handhelds and mobile computers.
These devices automatically detect nearby Bluetooth Smart Labels and securely transmit location data to the cloud without manual scanning or workflow changes.
In this model, visibility follows the workforce. As materials move and workers carry out their day-to-day tasks, asset data is captured autonomously in the background.
Because the readers are already deployed and the labels are consumable, organisations can launch pilots in days rather than months.
The result is continuous, cost-effective visibility without added friction or capital expansion.
Can you talk about how this relates to the launch of Blecon Agent software – developed with Zebra Technologies – that turns existing Zebra frontline devices into an autonomous Bluetooth tracking network?
SF: The launch of Blecon Agent with Zebra Technologies is a concrete example of this shift in action.
Zebra devices are already deployed at scale across logistics, warehousing, and manufacturing environments worldwide.
By deploying Blecon Agent on these devices, organisations can immediately activate their built-in Bluetooth radios to detect and track nearby assets, turning hardware already in the hands of frontline workers into a continuous, autonomous visibility network without the need for new gateways, additional infrastructure, or disruption to existing workflows.
This matters operationally because Zebra devices are already embedded in frontline workflows across receiving, production support, warehousing, packaging, and shipping.
Thanks to Blecon Agent, the same device can contribute to continuous asset detection across these zones, helping to close visibility gaps between process steps without introducing a parallel scanning workflow.
The software runs quietly in the background, capturing location and sensor data automatically whilst workers continue their jobs as normal.
From a commercial standpoint, this changes the risk calculus of adopting asset tracking.
Rather than committing capital expenditure to new infrastructure before seeing any return, companies can start a proof of value using devices they already own.
This lowers both financial and operational barriers and compresses time-to-value from months to days.
It also changes who can own deployment internally. Instead of requiring a large facilities-led infrastructure rollout, fleet and IT teams can pilot and scale through software deployment across managed Zebra devices, making rollout faster and easier to govern.
More broadly, it demonstrates a different way to think about scale. Instead of expanding physical infrastructure, organisations can unlock networks already deployed across frontline devices.
In this way, every worker becomes part of a distributed Bluetooth network, expanding visibility as work happens.
Looking ahead, what does the future hold for Blecon? How do you see Industry 5.0 continuing to take shape in the year ahead?
SF: Tracking is only the beginning. The next evolution is moving from the simple question of “Where is my asset?” towards a richer model of visibility, where the differentiator is no longer tracking but execution.
Sensing data will be used to prevent the small percentage of failures that create outsized cost and disruption.
In areas like cold chain, where conditions are product-specific, and breakdowns happen at operational edges, product-level sensing and flexible, infrastructure-light deployment are becoming essential.
At the same time, economics remain central. Not every asset can justify expensive hardware or capital-heavy rollouts, and solutions must scale beyond pilots in environments defined by exceptions, contractors, and changing routes.
Taken together, these trends point to where Industry 5.0 is headed. It is not about replacing people; it is about augmenting them with autonomous, infrastructure-light sensing that fits into existing workflows.
Frontline devices become part of a distributed data layer. Labels and beacons become data carriers, and cloud-based coordination turns episodic scans into continuous visibility.
In manufacturing, this will increasingly connect asset visibility to execution systems and frontline decision-making.
The value is not just knowing an item was seen but understanding whether materials arrived in the right condition – whether tools and returnable transport items (RTIs) are where they need to be and whether delays are likely before they impact throughput or service levels.
For Blecon, the future is about deepening that model. Tracking remains the entry point, but the trajectory is towards richer sensing, better context, and tighter integration with automation and decision systems.
As costs continue to fall and form factors evolve – including more disposable and flexible labels – the barrier to high-volume, product-level visibility will continue to shrink.
