Feature Article Are You Ready for Your Digital Transformation? by Roy Kok, Marketing Director, CESMII


reliably, and improve their profit margin. The introduction of the internet, cloud computing, AI and ML, and a handful of other “Industry 4.0” technologies are the catalyst that will herald a new age of innovation and productivity. But the challenges to adoption


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at scale are great, and while large companies have the teams of people in IT and OT, and have the deep pockets to fund potential high-risk new initiatives, a meaningful digital transformation remains out of reach for the majority of manufacturers, especially the small and medium manufacturers that make up over 98% of the market. In a best-selling book, Crossing


the Chasm, by Geoffrey A. Moore, we learn that this challenge of adoption is typical when confronted by disruptive new technology. The market quickly segments into groups called Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and Laggards. The Chasm is the market transition from Early Adopters to the Early Majority. CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing


Institute, is a government funded, non[1]profit entity with the focus to democratize Smart Manufacturing (SM), benefit from Industry 4.0 and CESMII technologies to enable innovation and enhanced productivity for all of U.S. manufacturing. We exist to facilitate “Crossing the Chasm.” But we’ve recognized that industry as a whole is attempting to implement Industry 4.0 technologies with Industry 3.0 techniques. We have also recognized that with today’s boundary conditions, industry will never cross the chasm and leverage innovation at scale. One critical component is missing. Data today, is housed in various silos,


often in proprietary and vendor specific repositories. We may see high levels


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very company wants to improve quality, reduce scrap, run their equipment more efficiently and


of interoperability within a particular vendor technology stack, but not across industry as a whole. While there are general purpose interoperability standards, such as those from the OPC Foundation, they don’t fully define the available data structures, and those definitions are created at the whim of the integrator or engineer on the project. While most other high technology markets have discovered the benefits of Plug and Play, computing examples include Bluetooth, USB, Monitor, Mouse and Keyboard standards, the world of industrial automation products and their associated data remains a custom configuration. We are seeing efforts in the definition of a Unified Namespace, a central repository or directory of all available data, but this doesn’t solve the fundamental problem to enable Plug and Play. A Standardized Namespace, not just a Unified Namespace, is what is needed, and ideally, that Standardized Namespace will deliver Data Names and Descriptions, Data Binding information, Data Intent (Type) information, and Semantic information (data relationships). This is the mission for CESMII,


the development and distribution of an Industrial Plug and Play standard, along with all the accompanying initiatives


in Ecosystem support and


Education to facilitate its adoption. CESMII is delivering the SM Innovation Platform, an example interoperability solution for member adoption and a proven set of data model standards for vendor implementation, within their own products. To support widespread adoption, CESMII is also developing the SM Marketplace. Data Models, the descriptions of available data that is associated with equipment or processes are called SM Profiles. Once developed, an SM Profile can be shared with others in the SM Marketplace. The SM Marketplace will also list all Applications


that have been built to support those SM Profiles. The benefit to users? Industrial Plug and Play, where I can install the SM Innovation Platform, select SM Profiles for the equipment in my plant or process, and then install high value and innovative applications that deliver the capabilities I need. CESMII has the government mandate to deliver a “50% reduction in cost and time to deploy SM into existing processes within 5 years.” The SM Profiles, SM Innovation Platform and SM Marketplace are the CESMII solution. CESMII Members will be the first to benefit from this coming wave of innovation and capability. But it isn’t just about the Data Model


technology, to enable interoperability. There are 7 other principles that make up all successful digital transformations. CESMII calls them the Smart Manufacturing First Principles™. These principles include: 1. Open & Interoperable Openness and interoperability


in Smart Manufacturing empower a connected ecosystem of devices, systems, people, services, and partners communicating in a natural yet structured manner. Smart Manufacturing works across on-premise, edge and cloud computing platforms, exchanging information in a collaborative ecosystem with broad adoption of machine- to-machine (M2M), application-to- application (A2A), and business-to- business (B2B) integration standards and APIs that enable multi-vendor hardware and software plug-and-play solutions. Facilitated by the CESMII SM Innovation Platform.


2. Sustainable & Energy Efficient Smart Manufacturing drives


sustainable manufacturing of products through processes and systems that optimize use of resources, minimize negative environmental impacts, and maximize positive socio-economic


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