Industry leaders SME, a non-profit professional association dedicated to advancing manufacturing, and CESMII – The Smart Manufacturing Institute, are partnering to drive smart manufacturing further and faster by aligning their resources and educating the industry, helping companies boost productivity, build a strong talent pipeline, and reduce manufacturers’ carbon footprint.
“The past decade has revealed an unprecedented flattening and even decline in our manufacturing productivity by worker,” said Robert Willig, CEO, SME. “Together, CESMII and SME will optimize our strengths and resources to accelerate the transformation and democratization of the smart manufacturing ecosystem and jumpstart productivity.” Willig said the collaboration will help bring clarity amongst often-conflicting voices offering guidance about the way forward.
Without recreating the wheel, CESMII and SME will strategically combine their rich networks and resources to advance smart manufacturing adoption and address the “digital divide” by connecting manufacturers to technical knowledge. These efforts will especially help small and medium-size companies—a large part of the supply network—to overcome the cost and complexity of automation and digitization that has constrained productivity and growth initiatives.
“The prospect of the Fourth Industrial Revolution catalyzing the revitalization of our manufacturing productivity in the U.S. is real, but still aspirational, and demands a unified effort to accelerate the evolution of this entire ecosystem,” said John Dyck, CEO, CESMII. “We couldn’t be happier to join with SME on this important mission to combine and align efforts with the best interest of the employers and educators in mind.”