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Digital manufacturing readiness assessment

A digital manufacturing readiness assessment checks how far a plant's data, systems and habits have got toward running on digital information: whether work is recorded where it happens, whether each number is entered once and reaches the people who act on it within the shift, and whether leaders and operators are ready to use it. This template scores 24 statements, eight each for process, technology, and people and organization, from 0 (not in place) to 4 (followed, checked and used to make improvements). Several people from different jobs score every statement on their own and write the evidence. The plant then sets a target and an importance for each statement, because not every statement matters equally and the target need not be 4, and the sheet ranks the gaps by gap times importance. It builds on ideas in two public frameworks, the Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index and the acatech Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index, but the statements, the scale and the flags are our own: it is an example scoring model, not a certified standard, and the scores do not convert to either framework's bands or stages. Pages 1 and 2 are one person's sheet; page 3 is the group sheet with the block summary, the balance checks and the ranked statements; page 4 has how to run it and a worked example. The Excel version takes up to 6 people, works out the averages, the spread between people, the gap to target and the priority, flags views that differ and scores of 3 or 4 with no evidence, compares the three blocks, lists the five gaps to work first, keeps an action log with late items, and includes a worked example.

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Page 1 of the digital manufacturing readiness assessment: fields for plant, role and date, the 0 to 4 score key, then sixteen statements under Process and Technology, each with score circles from 0 to 4 and a column for the evidence.
24 statements in three blocksScore 0 to 4Evidence columnTarget and importanceGap and priorityBalance between blocksSpread between peopleFive gaps to work first

When to use it

When to use a digital manufacturing readiness assessment

  • Before you choose or buy an MES, sensors, a connected worker platform or other systems, to check that the process and the people are ready as well as the technology.
  • When a plant still runs on paper checklists and the shift report is retyped, to find which gaps to close first.
  • When a corporate or customer digital program arrives and you need the plant's own starting point, in numbers and with evidence.
  • Once or twice a year with the same people, to check that the gaps you chose to close did close.

How to fill it in

  1. 1

    Pick the scope

    One plant, or one section of a large plant. Write it at the top and do not mix scopes on one sheet: a machining area and a packing line may sit at different scores.

  2. 2

    Pick the people

    Four to six from different jobs: plant leadership, production, maintenance, quality, and IT or engineering. Not only the people running the project, who tend to see what is planned rather than what is done.

  3. 3

    Score alone first

    Each person scores all 24 statements from 0 to 4 on their own, from what they have seen, and writes the evidence. A blank is better than a guess.

  4. 4

    Meet and compare

    Put the scores on the group sheet. Start with the statements where views differ and where a score of 3 or 4 has no evidence. Ask the lowest and the highest scorer what they saw.

  5. 5

    Set the target and the importance

    For each statement, the score this plant needs and how much it matters here: 1 low, 2 normal, 3 high. The gap to target times the importance is the priority. A plant with one bottleneck line may only need machine data there.

  6. 6

    Act, then score again

    Turn the five biggest priorities into actions with an owner and a date, and keep the old way running until the new one works. Score again with the same people in six to twelve months.

What's on the assessment

The 24 statements, eight each for process, technology, and people and organization

Several people score every statement on their own from 0 (not in place) to 4 (followed, checked and used to make improvements), an example scale made for this template, and write the evidence. The three blocks follow the grouping the Singapore Smart Industry Readiness Index uses; the statements are our own.

Process

How the work and its information are meant to flow

  1. 1Each core process (receiving, making, checking, shipping) has a written current standard that the people doing the work use
  2. 2Results are recorded at the point of work as the work happens, not rebuilt from memory at the end of the shift
  3. 3Each key measure (OEE, scrap, on-time delivery) has one written definition that every shift and department uses
  4. 4A problem found on the floor goes down one path: logged, given an owner and a due date, closed, and checked
  5. 5Shift handover follows a set format and passes on the open problems and the plan
  6. 6Plan against actual is compared every shift, and the reason for each miss is written down
  7. 7A change to a method, material or machine setting is approved and recorded, and the standard is updated before the next shift runs it
  8. 8Information moves between planning, production, quality and maintenance by a set route, not by someone carrying paper or asking around

Technology

What captures, holds and shows the data

  1. 9The machines whose data matters can send counts, status or readings to a system without a person typing them
  2. 10Each piece of production data is entered once; no one retypes it from one system or sheet into another
  3. 11For each key set of data (orders, quality results, downtime) there is one named system of record that people agree is right
  4. 12The network reaches every station where work happens, has been tested there, and recording continues or has a fallback when it drops
  5. 13Data reaches the people who act on it within the shift it was created, not days later
  6. 14Quality and maintenance records can be traced to the order, lot and machine they belong to
  7. 15Each person has their own login, access follows the job, and a backup has been restored at least once as a test
  8. 16Reports and boards come straight from the data without anyone rebuilding them by hand in a spreadsheet

People and organization

Who decides, who learns, who owns the data

  1. 17Plant leaders can say in numbers what they want digital tools to fix, and a named person owns the plan
  2. 18Operators and supervisors help choose and test a new tool on the floor before it is rolled out
  3. 19Training time for new tools is planned into the schedule, and each role has a list of what it must be able to do
  4. 20A named person owns data quality and checks it on a schedule for missing entries and wrong codes
  5. 21People can show a bad number or a mistake without being blamed, and the data is used to fix the process
  6. 22Leaders use the data in the daily meeting and on the gemba walk, not in a separate report
  7. 23IT and operations meet on a set schedule and agree priorities together
  8. 24After each rollout someone checks whether it delivered the benefit it was bought for and shares the result

A filled-in example

Illustrative, not a benchmark

An example: five people at a plant that runs mostly on paper checklists (the plant manager, a production supervisor, the maintenance lead, a quality engineer and the IT and engineering lead) scored the 24 statements on their own (illustrative numbers).

  • Technology averaged 0.90 (36 points ÷ 40 scores), process 1.40 (56 ÷ 40) and people and organization 1.80 (72 ÷ 40). Overall: 164 ÷ 120 = 1.37.
  • Balance gap: 1.80 − 0.90 = 0.90, above the example flag of 0.75, so the sheet flagged that people and organization were ahead of technology.
  • Four statements had views that differed by 2. Statements 15 (logins and backups) and 17 (leaders can say what digital should fix) had a score of 3 and no evidence written, so both were flagged.
  • The plant kept target 3 on most statements, gave importance 3 to four it cared most about (statements 2, 10, 11 and 13) and set target 2 for statement 9, machines sending data, because only the bottleneck machines need it. Statement 13, data reaching the people who act on it within the shift, ranked first: gap 3 − 0.40 = 2.60, times 3 = 7.80.

Four of the top five priorities were about data that starts on paper and arrives days later. The plant put the hourly checks on lines 2 and 4 on a shared tablet at the line, stopped retyping the shift report into the weekly sheet, named one system of record for orders, quality results and downtime, and held any software purchase until those were done.

Common mistakes

  • Scoring from the plan, not the floor

    A tool that is bought is not a tool that is used. Score what you saw working this month, and write it down. Any score of 3 or 4 without evidence is an opinion.

  • Only IT or only the project team scores it

    People in different jobs see different things. When the lowest and highest scores on a statement are 2 or more apart, that gap is the finding.

  • Aiming for 4 everywhere

    A plant with one bottleneck line does not need every machine connected. Set a target for each statement that fits the plant, and rank by gap times importance.

  • Reading the average as a grade

    The 0 to 4 scale and the flags are example values made for this template, not a standard, and the average is not a pass mark. Look at the weakest block and the ranked gaps, and use the scores to compare this plant with itself over time.

Download the template

Free to use: print it, copy it and edit it for your team. Enter your name and work email once to download.

Run this template in LeanSuite

In LeanSuite operators sign in with an employee ID on a phone, a shared tablet or a kiosk, and what they record reaches the people who act on it: a tagged issue gets an owner and a due date, and a failed audit item becomes a tracked action.

FAQ

Digital manufacturing readiness assessment: common questions

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