The Value of the New MESA Smart Manufacturing Model

 Authored by John Clemons, MESA Marketing Committee Chair, based on an interview with Corey Vodvarka, MESA International Board and Americas Board Member. 

The fourth industrial revolution is creating a step change in the way the manufacturing industries are operating. New technologies, new software, and even new ways of manufacturing are all part of Smart Manufacturing.

In the middle of all this, MESA, the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association, is creating a new MESA Smart Manufacturing Model.  This new model will be a straightforward, easy-to-use model to help people understand all the myriad aspects of smart manufacturing.

Corey Vodvarka, a member of the MESA International Board and MESA Americas Board, describes the new MESA Smart Manufacturing Model this way. “The new MESA model will be a great educational tool and a great time saving tool. It will help explain Industrie 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing, helping people get up to speed very quickly on the aspects of Smart Manufacturing that really matter. It will help people concentrate just on the most pivotal aspects of Smart Manufacturing, so they aren’t lost in the weeds of technology and vendor hype.”

The new MESA model is intended to set the baseline for conversations about Smart Manufacturing and provide a starting point for communications between different functional groups in a manufacturing company and between manufacturing companies and their suppliers and distributers. In short, the new MESA model will help people get on the same page very quickly and have meaningful conversations about Smart Manufacturing.

That means manufacturing companies shouldn’t get stuck in analysis paralysis mode and should be able to get to decisions a lot quicker.

Corey continues his thoughts on the value of the new MESA model by saying, “The new model will provide guidance on what a good Smart Manufacturing solution looks like and what a bad solution looks like. A good solution will cover the critical points outlined in the new model and a bad solution will miss all the critical points. Pointing out good and bad solutions is one of the key values of the new MESA model.”

Getting people using a common Industrie 4.0 language and providing a common Smart Manufacturing baseline will provide manufacturing companies with the confidence they need to proceed with their Smart Manufacturing projects. Lack of confidence often leads to what is sometimes called “pilot purgatory”, where the manufacturing company is always in a state of piloting new technology but reluctant to really do anything substantial.

And that leads to what Corey calls the biggest benefit of the new MESA model, pointing the way to value. “The new MESA model will clearly show the expected benefits of Smart Manufacturing technology. The model will point the way to specific benefits. It will give manufacturing companies the confidence that if they implement specific solutions then they will achieve specific benefits. It will connect the dots between capabilities and benefits.”

In fact, the new MESA model will connect the dots between all things Smart Manufacturing, what they really mean, how to implement them, and, most importantly, what the benefits really are and how to make sure you achieve the benefits.

There’s going to be a lot of aspects of the new MESA model to fully account for all the many technologies that are part of Smart Manufacturing. But the main focus is clear. It’s about the benefits. It’s always about the benefits. Technology for technology’s sake just doesn’t make business sense.

The new MESA Smart Manufacturing Model will connect the dots between the technologies and the benefits, clearly pointing out good solutions that deliver benefits and bad solutions that are just technology. Fundamentally, that’s what the new MESA Smart Manufacturing Model is all about.

Stay tuned for more on the new MESA Smart Manufacturing Model.

Enhance your exposure by sponsoring the MESA Smart Manufacturing Model.