Smart Manufacturing Roadmap: Your Journey to the Future

Are you ready to move beyond pilots and disconnected systems? Through a straightforward, two-step process, CESMII’s Smart Manufacturing Roadmap helps you align people, processes, and technology to accelerate results, minimize risk, and create measurable business value — culminating in a tailored roadmap for your journey.

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Step 1

Defining Your Journey

Step 2

Building Your Roadmap

Why Start with a Roadmap?

Too often, manufacturers fall into the “just start” trap — chasing pilots, shiny tools, or disconnected systems that never scale. The result? Wasted resources, skill gaps, fragile solutions, and stalled digital transformation.

A roadmap changes that. It provides clarity, alignment, and confidence to move forward with purpose.

STEP 1

Defining your Journey

The Defining Your Journey Kickoff & Framework Meeting is where your smart manufacturing journey begins. This free, personalized, one-hour session with a CESMII Certified Roadmap Professional is designed to help you and your team set the foundation for success.

In this session, you will:

  • Meet and align – Set the stage with introductions and leadership perspective on shifting the mindset

  • Define your future – Clarify the outcomes you want to create and the conditions that must be true to get there

  • Stack the odds in your favor – Explore how to tip the scales toward success and create measurable business value

  • Discover the framework – Learn how CESMII’s acceleration framework provides a practical guide for your journey

  • Set next steps – Walk away with a clear path forward, including creating a plan for Step 2: Building Your Roadmap

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Accelerating with the Framework Process

As part of your kickoff meeting, your CESMII Certified Roadmap Professional will introduce the Smart Manufacturing Acceleration Roadmap Framework — a practical, practitioner-built guide designed to help your team move from uncertainty to action.

This working session brings the right people to the table, leaders, operators, and technology owners, to establish shared goals and shape a clear direction for your smart manufacturing future.

During the kickoff, you’ll gain:

  • A clear framework – A proven blueprint for understanding where you are today and where you can go next

  • Expert insights – Lessons learned from companies who have successfully adopted Smart Manufacturing

  • Practical next steps – Tools to assess your current state, surface challenges and opportunities, and begin shaping a roadmap aligned with your business goals

The framework conversation is included as part of your kickoff session, giving your team immediate clarity and a structured, confidence-building starting point.

STEP 2

Building your Roadmap

This is where your journey becomes actionable. In this step, if your company has decided to move forward, you will begin working with your CESMII Certified Roadmap Professional who will guide you through the process of creating your own tailored Smart Manufacturing Roadmap. Together, you’ll define priorities, align people and processes, and outline the practical steps needed to achieve your business goals.

Why the CESMII Roadmap?

  • Industry-standard approach – Built on proven best practices from successful adopters across manufacturing.

  • Solution-agnostic – Independent guidance that’s not tied to specific vendors or tools.

  • Quick to complete – Designed for speed so you can move from planning to action without delays.

  • Low cost / High value – Minimal investment with meaningful impact.

  • Light resource commitment – Requires only a manageable level of engagement from your team.

By the end of this step, you’ll have a custom, actionable roadmap that empowers your organization to accelerate results, minimize risk, and create measurable business value.

Already Aligned? Begin Building Your Roadmap Today.

Is your organization ready to get started? Skip ahead and begin Step 3: Building Your Roadmap. A CESMII Certified Roadmap Professional will work directly with your team to create a tailored plan aligned to your business goals.

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CUSTOMER STORY VIDEO
BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY AND GROWTH

Develop stategic vision and plan for multiyear profitable growth.

NO BOTTLENECKS

Establish culture and process to eliminate bottlenecks

SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH (IN REAL TIME)

Establish culture and process for real-time trusted data

TESTIMONIALS

What our customers say

Our experience was very positive. We completed the process in just eight weeks—our CEO moves fast and doesn’t believe in waiting three to five years for results. We worked with Jennifer Mansfield from Rexel, who was fantastic. Rexel has a new group focused on smart manufacturing and intelligence, and that’s how we got connected. I first learned about CESMII at a joint event with Manufacturing Works last year, and it’s been a great partnership since. The process brought together a strong leadership team with full CEO support. The six pillars of Smart Manufacturing helped us align roles, responsibilities, and processes across the organization, especially as we’ve been growing quickly and adding new departments. Our biggest takeaway? “People first, process strong, and technology enabled.” Many assume Smart Manufacturing is all about technology, but we learned it starts with people and processes. That alignment has been huge for us as an organization.

Greg Schumacher
Director of Manufacturing, Novagard Solutions Greg Schumacher

The roadmap process helped us in three key ways. First, it eliminated silos—projects across efficiency, IT, and continuous improvement now connect through a single technology roadmap, improving collaboration and communication. Second, technology became a core part of our business plan. It now has its own place in our strategic planning, and every initiative includes a technology component. Third, it improved communication and idea sharing, giving us more input and leading to better decisions. Our engineers have brought incredible energy and expertise to the process—they’re a big part of what’s made this so successful.

Mark Dawson, President, Cleveland Steel Tool
President, Cleveland Steel Tool Mark Dawson
FAQ

Need clarification?

Who is CESMII?

CESMII is the “Collaborative Ecosystems for Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute”. They are the official USA government body responsible for the promotion of Smart Manufacturing. They are run out of NIST through the Manufacturing USA initiative. Here is a link to their site: https://www.cesmii.org/

After I complete the interest form, who is going to start calling me to sell something?

Nobody! The process was created for manufacturers, large and small, across any industry segment, not to sell solutions. Your information is not shared with vendors, consulting companies, or anyone else.

How is this roadmap process different from a vendor pitch?

CESMII’s process is solution-agnostic and based on industry standards — it’s not tied to selling tools or technology.

What business value can I expect?

Clarity on priorities, minimized risk of false starts, stronger alignment across stakeholders, and a faster path to results.

Does it matter whether we have already started with Smart Manufacturing?

No – the assessment and roadmap process will provide a benefit no matter where you are on your Smart Manufacturing journey. If you are just getting started, this can provide direction and uncover the “North Star” for your journey.

If you have already started your journey, this can provide a valuable check point for determining whether you are headed in the right direction, or if a slight course correction may be required. Additionally, it will help to determine the next steps beyond where you are today.

Who should attend these sessions?

Typically a mix of leadership, operations, and technology stakeholders who influence or execute manufacturing strategy.

What deliverable will I walk away with?

After the completion of Step 3: Building Your Roadmap, you will walk away with a full roadmap with insights from all areas of your organization. 

Here are the primary outputs from the process:

  • Current State Assessment Survey Results
  • Current State Benchmarking With Over 1,000 Other Participants
  • Future State Survey Results
  • Deep Dive Assessment Results & Potential Initiatives List
  • High-Level Business Case for Smart Manufacturing
  • Three Year Roadmap with Prioritized List of Programs & Initiatives
  • Additional Execution Detail on “Now” Initiatives

How much time will it take from my team?

The process is intentionally light on resources. Two focused one-hour calls are enough to start the process.

Following that, if you choose to move forward with Step 3: Building Your Roadmap, the process is designed to be about 40 hours of effort for the person facilitating the process for a SMB manufacturer. The duration of the process has taken as little as a few weeks and as long as several months. The difference in timing is driven by how long it takes for people to complete the surveys and a sense of urgency when scheduling meetings.

What is the cost associated with the Smart Manufacturing Roadmap process?

Steps 1 & 2 are completely free! If you decide to move forward with Step 3: Building Your Roadmap, cost can scale a bit based on the size and complexity of the company. But the process is designed to be around $10k - $15k for small to mid-size manufacturers.

What is a CESMII Certified Roadmap Professional?

A CESMII Certified Roadmap Professional is a trained, solution-agnostic advisor who guides your organization through CESMII’s proven Smart Manufacturing Roadmap process. They bring real-world industry expertise to help you align stakeholders, identify opportunities, and build a tailored roadmap that accelerates results and delivers measurable business value.

View All CESMII Certified Roadmap Professionals

What is the purpose of the Defining your Journey Kickoff?

It’s designed to help you define the outcomes you want, align leadership, and set the foundation for your roadmap.

How does the Acceleration Roadmap Framework fit in?

Covered in Step 2: Accelerating the Process, it provides a proven structure to assess your current state, identify opportunities, and map a practical path forward.

What comes after the roadmap is built?

You’ll have options for next steps — whether that’s piloting a project, scaling proven practices, or connecting with CESMII resources and partners.