The stage of Industry 4.0 vision with intelligent and digital concepts has passed already to a next stage more focused onto the human control upon the technology which are gravitating around the principles of human centricity of Industry 5.0. Although society lives the comfort resulting from the innovative technologies, the manufacturing industry is confronted with the early stage of construction a suitable system adapting the updated technical means to perform and become collaborative with human resources. The objective of actual paperwork is aiming to answer the manufacturing industry concern of balancing the essential competences of specialists which are provided by manual and artisanal creativity and turned into efficient and performant asset for industrial companies aiming profitability and competitive advantage. The post-Covid business environment is confronted with both instability due to the turmoiled international events and human resources shortage in the same, very difficult to be managed and create profitability for the involved stakeholders. The research methodology is based on a qualitative approach combining recent literature review published in the last 7–8 years, data collection from case studies and personal managerial experience as empirical investigation. An analytical approach has been developed using a SWOT diagram with more focus on the textile and clothing industry as critical representative of manufacturing trade. The unbalance of internal organizational system which is assumed to the technical component domination of new industrial revolution shall be evaluated through Leavitt diamond concept. The vulnerability of manufacturing small/medium organizations which need to invest important financial resources for digitizing a production flow might be an important limitation. Thus, a model gathering the main players along the vertical chain becomes a potential solution. The finding of the paperwork revealed a proposal for a triple smart system involving the initial suppliers, processing and final customer to the manufacturing system, customized for textile & apparel industry. This could accomplish a reduction of unskilled work by transferring to automates, increase activities with creative, innovative, and decision-making content, valued and better motivated than the traditional system applied based on outdated salary scales. At the same time, the role of final customer in determining the types of products is increasing, actively involved in the life cycle of consumer and as customized as possible. The possible “smart factory-with smart operators I.4.0” models could achieve versatility, multi-skilled staff and productivity thanks to cyber- physical systems (CPS), internet of things (IoT), internet of systems (IoS). The current conclusion detects a potential balance of Leavitt diamond of manufacturing organization through a SMART factory I4.0 shaped as triple smart system which gather “smart factories” + “smart networks” + “smart products”. Thus, application of I4.0 + 5.0 concepts appropriate to the profile and nature of the execution activities is provided along the whole vertical supplying chain, while the performance is obtained within all the clustered production units from initial producer till the final beneficiary.