CESMII: Smart Manufacturing News and Major Events

In manufacturing, we (too) often lead conversations with technology, not knowing what problem we're trying to solve. CESMII is working to change that through their roadmap process. Thanks to Jim Wetzel and Tim Stuart for sharing their knowledge about how to change the conversation and mindset.

Manufacturers today face a growing challenge: every platform, historian, and application exposes data through its own proprietary API, creating integration complexity that slows innovation. The Industrial Information Interoperability eXchange (i3X) is emerging as a solution—an open, vendor-agnostic API designed to standardize how applications interact with contextualized manufacturing data across platforms....

Jim Davis, UCLA Office of Advanced Research Computing, Vice Provost IT (CIO/CTO) & Professor Emeritus, executive oversight CESMII, highlights the findings of three industry-academic-government studies conducted between 2020 and 2025 on Al in Smart Manufacturing/I4.0 enterprises. These studies provide direction and benchmarks for CESMIl's operational Al and data application strategies...

In this ARC Advisory Group article, analyst Colin Masson examines how CESMII's i3X initiative addresses the context engineering gap limiting Industrial AI at scale. By standardizing data models in JSON Schema, enabling MCP server integration, and uniting a growing ecosystem of automation and cloud partners, i3X advances CESMII's federal mandate...

At the ProveIt! Conference, CESMII and industry partners demonstrated the i3X Open API live — a breakthrough moment for industrial interoperability.

Despite uncertainty in 2025, CESMII experienced the strongest growth in membership, engagement, and Smart Manufacturing adoption in its history. With federal funding reinstated and momentum accelerating, CESMII enters 2026 focused on scaling impact through strategic roadmapping, workforce enablement, and interoperability as a foundation for AI-ready manufacturing. The year ahead centers...

In Part 1 of this special two-part Smart Manufacturing Mindset™ series, we explored the journey of the world’s Lighthouse factories — how leaders at Foxconn, Johnson & Johnson, Schneider Electric, Unilever, and Western Digital navigated culture, scale, technology and legacy systems to achieve world-class digital maturity. Now available, Part 2...

We’re joined in this episode by a select group of World Economic Forum Lighthouse factories. Leaders from Foxconn, Johnson & Johnson, Schneider Electric, Unilever, and Western Digital discuss the cultural mindset and change management needed for digital transformation. They reveal how industry, scale, and legacy constraints steer each site down a unique...

Explore how today’s leading technology providers are shaping the future of Smart Manufacturing. This episode brings together leaders of some of the world’s great manufacturing technology providers, aligned around one critical goal: driving openness and interoperability to strengthen the U.S.’ manufacturing competitiveness.

CESMII member, Accenture, surveyed 552 experienced factory managers and engaged 15 heads of production in detailed qualitative interviews between August and December 2024. Those taking part in the survey and research represented automotive manufacturers, automotive suppliers, industrial machinery manufacturers, industrial equipment manufacturers, electrical equipment manufacturers, heavy equipment manufacturers, commercial aerospace...

We’re proud to share that CESMII community leader and longtime industry advocate Jim Wetzel has been named the 2025 Digital Transformation Leadership Award winner by the Manufacturing Leadership Council (MLC), the digital transformation division of the National Association of Manufacturers. Presented during the MLC’s Rethink conference in Marco Island, Florida,...

Smart Manufacturing is often viewed through the lens of cutting-edge technologies—AI, automation, sensors, digital twins. But in Episode #8 of Practitioners Unplugged, Jim Davis, one of the original pioneers of the Smart Manufacturing movement, urges us to look deeper. With over four decades bridging academia, industry, and innovation leadership, Jim...

This month, members of the Smart Manufacturing Executive Council (SMEC)—co-led by CESMII and SME—traveled to Washington, D.C. to champion policies that will strengthen U.S. manufacturing competitiveness through the acceleration of Smart Manufacturing.

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed important flaws in the inbound supply chain for vaccines. NIIMBL and CESMII are working with key stakeholders to develop a means for vaccine manufacturers and suppliers to share information securely for improved supply chain tracking, resilience, and optimization.

Behind every digital initiative is an ops leader thinking, "How will this affect the bottom line?" The next episode of Smart Manufacturing Mindset™ join us for a deep dive with the leaders who balance operational realities, manage change fatigue, and determine when new technology is worth the risk.

Is AI finally ready for manufacturing data -- or is the problem the other way around? Here's my updated thoughts on the evolution of not-really-intelligent AI, and how its finally becoming something we might be able to apply to Industry 4.0...

In our first episode, we’re tackling one of the most critical factors for success: leadership—not just to set the vision, but to execute it effectively and sustain it over time.

​In the article "Smart Manufacturing: The Path to the Future," John Dyck, CEO of CESMII, and Olivia Morales, Senior Solution Architect at CESMII, explore the transformative potential of smart manufacturing in the industrial sector. They discuss how integrating advanced technologies can enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and drive innovation. The authors...

This panel explores the current state of U.S. manufacturing, what technologies the next few decades will bring, and what steps companies, big and small, can take to future-proof their business. Experts from the Manufacturing USA network, with diverse manufacturing backgrounds, will discuss innovations in areas like predictive analytics, automation, sustainability,...