Sep 17, 2026
Smart Manufacturing Mindset™: Becoming a SM Roadmap Professional
#Smart Manufacturing Mindset™ #Podcast #Virtual Event #Smart Manufacturing Roadmapping

CESMII has teamed up with the team at Rensselaer at Work & NxGen Group to develop the SM Acceleration Roadmap Professional Certification Course. Attendees learn CESMII’s strategic approach to developing SM Roadmaps and gain the necessary tools to guide manufacturers through their transformation journey. Learn more and sign up here.
Top 5 Takeaways
- Not all Smart Manufacturing and industrial IoT courses are equal. The CESMII approach includes a focus on internal alignment and looks at both capabilities and outcomes. Thanks to the CESMII mission, the primary goal is oriented around the value to be gained across companies of all sizes and industries.
- The process is key to success. The technology side of Smart Manufacturing is only one of the six things that are important. You look at strategy and then culture. For example, perhaps some things that be stopped because they don’t make business sense to continue.
- It generates actions and clear next steps. Other assessments give a summary of findings or final report, but upon completing the CESMII process, manufacturers are given specific things to act on right away. The roadmap identifies immediate things to help make progress.
- Manufacturers need a common language. This topic seems to come up every month from our SM Mindset series panelists, the importance of being on the same page is critical. Having a standard set of definitions and processes in the industry helps answer the question form a customer of how and ‘where do I start?’
- The CESMII roadmap toolset is flexible and focused on the now, next, and future. Unlike other assessments available today, CESMII is enabling manufacturers to take advantage of the technology in the market today, as well as prepare for the future.

Our panelists this month are recent graduates of the Smart Manufacturing Acceleration Roadmap Professional Course:
- Jim Wetzel, Co-Founder of NxGen Group
- Jeff Winter, Senior Director of Industry Strategy at Hitachi Solutions America
- Mike Ungar, CEO, Industry 4.0 Club
- Mike Yost, Host
We'll be releasing episodes the last Tuesday of the month. Follow us on LinkedIn to get notified about upcoming episodes.
About CESMII
CESMII – the Smart Manufacturing Institute – has a total current investment commitment of $201M from Department of Energy funding and public/private partnership contributions, with a mandate to create a more competitive manufacturing environment in the US through advanced sensing, analytics, modeling, control, and platforms. CESMII is one of 17 Manufacturing USA institutes on this mission to increase manufacturing productivity, global competitiveness, and reinvestment by increasing energy productivity, improving economic performance and raising workforce capacity. University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) is the program and administrative home of CESMII. For more information about CESMII, its history and Smart Manufacturing, visit cesmii.org.
