Baldrige/MEP Help Manufacturers Implement Industry 4.0 Concepts

“Digital transformation—often informally referred to as Industry 4.0 —. . . is and will continue to redefine the standards of competitiveness, performance and, further, the minimal ability [of U.S. manufacturers] to participate in the market,” said Phil Centonze, managing partner, POS-IMPACT LLC (formerly director of performance assessment at FloridaMakes, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) business management consulting center that serves organizations in the state of Florida).

Therefore, the changing of the U.S. market requires “a rapid, yet disciplined, approach to integrate [advanced] technologies into core processes as the new threshold for competitiveness,” he added.

So how can U.S. manufacturers ensure that they have the systems and processes in place to implement the latest advanced technologies? That is where the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program and its Baldrige Excellence Framework come in.

As Centonze noted, the Baldrige Program was created “to enhance the competitiveness of U.S. businesses, particularly concentrated on quality products and services. Many manufacturers and other businesses adopted the Baldrige framework with that focus on quality . . . and global competitiveness. . . . Improved quality . . . is today the price of admission in the marketplace.”

Such thinking led Centonze and FloridaMakes to team up with IMEC (formally known as the Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Center), as well as the Baldrige-based Florida Alliance for Performance Excellence Program The Sterling Council, the national MEP program, and the national Baldrige Program.