Industry 4.0 & Digital Training for Manufacturers
Practical adoption of digital tools on the shop floor — not a theoretical survey of buzzwords, but training built around what a plant actually needs to evaluate and adopt.
What’s included
- Digital Transformation — Are You Ready?
- IIoT: Industrial Internet of Things
- GenAI for Manufacturing
- Advanced Manufacturing Technology Adoption
Wondering what a digital twin actually is, or where to start? Read the full guide to digital twins for manufacturers — how it differs from a 3D model or simulation, and why starting with one machine beats a whole-plant project.
Defense manufacturers handling Controlled Unclassified Information need to know their required level before bidding. Read our guide to CMMC 2.0 compliance — the three levels explained.
Choosing an industrial Ethernet protocol usually comes down to whatever equipment is already on the floor. See our guide to industrial Ethernet protocols — EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, and Modbus TCP compared.
MES sits at Level 3 of the ISA-95 hierarchy, between ERP and plant-floor control. See our guide to MES and ISA-95 — what manufacturing execution systems actually do.
A SCADA system tells an operator what’s happening right now, not what happened over the last five years. See our guide to Industrial IoT (IIoT) — how sensors and connectivity differ from SCADA.
An ERP system can tell you what was ordered; it has no idea whether the machine making it is running. Read our guide to ERP and ISA-95 — where business planning meets the shop floor.
A paper work instruction gets coffee-stained and goes out of revision the day a process changes. See our guide to digital work instructions — and the pitfall of digitizing a broken process.
Most manufacturers hear “AI” and picture a robot that replaces a job — the more immediate use looks a lot less dramatic. Read our guide to GenAI in manufacturing — practical applications beyond the hype.
An IT security policy that makes sense on an office laptop can shut down a production line if applied unmodified. See our guide to OT cybersecurity fundamentals — why legacy equipment is the recurring problem.
A digital thread is what lets an engineer trace a part back through every design change and inspection record that touched it. Read our guide to the digital thread — connecting PLM data across a product’s lifecycle.
Augmented reality for maintenance has moved past the demo reel — remote assistance and overlay work instructions are in use today. See our guide to augmented reality for maintenance and assembly — what’s actually real today.
Sending every sensor reading to the cloud before deciding whether a machine should shut down adds a delay that matters. Read our guide to edge computing in manufacturing — where it actually helps.
An MES tracks what a work order is doing right now, and a SCADA system shows current process state — neither is built to answer what a sensor read a year ago. See our guide to manufacturing data historians — what they do differently.
Why this matters
An honest readiness check
Digital Transformation — Are You Ready? is built to assess where your plant actually stands before recommending a technology investment.
Plain-language IIoT
Industrial Internet of Things training aimed at manufacturing staff, not software engineers.
A current, practical view of GenAI
GenAI for Manufacturing looks at real, current applications on the shop floor and in operations — not speculation.
Frequently asked questions
We haven’t adopted any digital tools yet — is this still for us?
Yes — Digital Transformation: Are You Ready? is specifically built for plants at the very start of that conversation.
Is the GenAI course technical?
No coding or data science background is assumed — it is aimed at manufacturing and operations staff evaluating where GenAI is genuinely useful.
Do you cover cybersecurity for industrial systems?
Not as a dedicated course today — contact the training team if this is a priority for your plant.
Related training
Explore related areas: Automation & Robotics, Maintenance & Reliability, or see the full learning paths and complete training catalog.
How to enrol
Most SCMEP courses can be delivered virtually, at an SCMEP location, or on-site at your facility. Availability and scheduling change through the year, so the training team is the fastest route to current dates.
- Tell us what you need — the area, roughly how many people, and whether you’d prefer on-site or virtual.
- We confirm what’s scheduled — or what it takes to run it for your team.
- Your team trains — with follow-up through the OpExChange peer network where it helps.
SCMEP offices
Greenville
250 Executive Center Drive, Suite 200Greenville, SC 29615
Columbia
250 Berryhill Road, Suite 115Columbia, SC 29210
A NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership affiliate serving South Carolina manufacturers since 1989.