Journal of Advanced Manufacturing and Processing: CESMII Special Issue

The advent of low-cost sensing, ubiquitous connectivity, and cloud computing has fundamentally transformed the ability of manufacturers to leverage real-time information to make Smart decisions that dramatically improve precision, productivity, and performance, from the shop floor level to the supply chain level. This is what Smart Manufacturing (SM) is all about, and its origins can be traced back to as early as 2006 according to a recent article that celebrates the 15th anniversary¹. Smart Manufacturing has gained visibility and acceptance throughout the world since then and has become a universal term.

CESMII is a US Department of Energy funded Manufacturing USA public-private partnership that was formed in late 2016 to dramatically increase manufacturing competitiveness through the use of Smart Manufacturing technologies that include sensing, control, modeling, analytics, and platforms. CESMII has a collaborative ecosystem that consists of manufacturers, academia, systems integrators, technology providers and equipment builders. The institute’s strategy is driven by a comprehensive roadmap² that covers focus areas in technology, education, and innovation.

Since its inception, CESMII has launched over 50 projects covering technologies including sensing, control, analytics, modeling, and platforms as well as workforce education and training. The projects are coordinated to build infrastructure, create building block tools and the SM application playbook comprehensively, and cover applications of SM technologies in nearly all key industry verticals. The publications that make up this Special Issue represent several of these projects, serving as great examples of the diversity of Smart Manufacturing technologies and their cross-industry application.

In this issue, CESMII sets the stage with a commentary on the Seven First Principles of Smart Manufacturing that are key to implementing and sustaining SM systems. The technical publications highlight the application of advanced process modeling, simulation, and machine learning techniques for optimizing quality and control of industrial processes including cement, gas, pharma, and precision machining. Advanced tools for data processing and edge computing are also presented with industry relevant use cases.

Launching this Special Issue in a year that marks the 15th anniversary of Smart Manufacturing is not only timely, but a great endorsement of the partnership and work done by the contributing authors through support from CESMII. We acknowledge the efforts of the authors and are confident that the cutting edge research represented by their work will go a long way in supporting the mission of CESMII and JAMP.