18 Jul Convention 2023 Reflection: Democratizing the Adoption of Smart Manufacturing

Democratizing the Adoption of Smart Manufacturing

Smart manufacturing uses emerging and advanced technologies to increase the efficiency of traditional processes. During Convention 2023, John Dyck, CEO of CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute shared how the public/private partnership is transforming the U.S. manufacturing market through smart manufacturing technologies.

Non-profit CESMII works to help democratize the tools of smart manufacturing by reducing cost, complexity and time to values. This includes enabling the movement of raw and contextualized data between real-time operations and the people and systems that create value in and across manufacturing organizations.

Although many see the benefits of using advanced technologies, its adoption has been largely relegated to larger companies. Because of the financial commitment and lack of digital expertise of staff, small- and medium-sized companies are being left behind in the adoption of these technologies. Many of these companies simply do not have the funds or buy-in to invest in such projects.

Making the Leap

Data is an important investment for any manufacturer, and there is benefit in identifying ways to drive down the costs of smart manufacturing to make it accessible to more companies. With smart manufacturing considered a national priority, CESMII is working to create a roadmap to demonstrate how more U.S. manufacturers can adopt smart manufacturing processes.

But that will require demonstrating how to bridge the gap between Industry 3.0 ideas and the adoption of smart manufacturing needs. Currently, there are headwinds that are causing U.S. manufacturing from expanding and the pursuit of ROI is not productive.

There are too many data silos, duplication of information and the use of proprietary systems that don’t work well with other systems. Instead, every single layer needs to be able to exchange data in a safe and secure manner, OT and IT needs to agree on the same architectures and agree on common ideas and languages to create a new baseline to target continuous improvement.

Paving the Way

The Smart Manufacturing Executive Council, created by CESMII and The Society of Manufacturing Engineers, is working to accelerate the adoption of smart manufacturing in the U.S. It’s a leap that will necessitate transitioning away from legacy behaviors, business models and technology architectures. This is important when you consider there’s a 25% gap between recording manually and having a system that provides manual views.

The objectives of the Council include demonstrating and leveraging leadership of admired manufacturing businesses, helping evolve strategies and business models, providing guidance to help businesses understand the role of investment in the knowledge and skills, and informing U.S. policy makers on the actions and policies that will accelerate adoption of smart manufacturing in the U.S.

The Smart Manufacturing Acceleration program can help assess your organization’s current capabilities in the six dimensions. This will create a representation of where the information has landed and then help plan a roadmap of where you’re heading next, including a “back of the napkin” business case.

Thank you to our Smart Manufacturing business session sponsor Vantage Food.