NIST Smart Manufacturing Systems Readiness Level (SMSRL)
Assess readiness for data-intensive factory improvements
About the method
Developed by the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, SMSRL examines organizational, software, data and performance-management foundations for specific factory improvements and data-intensive smart manufacturing.
Geographic adoption and scale
- Regions
- Developed and publicly released in the United States; NIST does not publish adoption figures by country.
- Scale
- NIST’s published resources do not state cumulative participating company or factory counts, or a large-scale rollout programme.
Published resources include a research paper, an Excel tool and guidance for activity-focused self-assessment. US development does not establish a predominantly US user base; the available materials explain the tool but do not quantify adoption.
Assessment areas
Organizational maturity, IT applications, performance management and information connectivity.
Assessment outputs
Current readiness results to inform factory improvement planning.
Implementation
Download the tool and guide
NIST provides an Excel macro workbook and guide; the environment must support .xlsm files.
Select the scope
Choose a full assessment or a scope covering layout, capacity, material flow, equipment or comprehensive review.
Assess selected activities
Complete generated sheets on management, personnel, systems, data and KPIs to calculate readiness.
Considerations for overseas operations
Useful before overseas plant upgrades to check people, software, data and performance-management foundations.