In today’s increasingly complex manufacturing operations, Murphy’s Law is only an unexpected hiccup away—anything from a data error to an errant vibration to a dulled cutting tool can undermine production. In a future with fully effective sensing and information technologies that anticipate and avert potentially harmful process spasms, however, everything that might go wrong, simply could not.

Measurement Science Roadmap for Prognostics and Health Management for Smart Manufacturing Systems, a new report generated for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and published last month, charts a course toward this ideal. The new road map is based on input received during a 2014 workshop of industry, university, and government experts on prognostics and health management (PHM) technologies, systems, and practices.

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