LOS ANGELES—The Obama Administration will locate its ninth U.S. manufacturing hub here. The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute will bring together a consortium of nearly 200 partners from across academia, industry and nonprofits to spur advances in smart sensors and digital process controls to improve the efficiency of U.S. manufacturing.

The value of standard work is clear: improved productivity and quality. With standard work, the process is well documented, its yield is high, its cycle time is rock solid, and everyone has been trained to do it. It worked well once, so we do it again and again.

DETROIT—A new $148 million high-tech manufacturing research institute set to open this spring in metro Detroit is expected to bring 10,000 jobs to the region within the next five years. The American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute will be led by the University of Michigan, EWI and The Ohio State University.

CHICAGO—The U.S. Department of Defense awarded $70 million to UI Labs of Chicago, a public-private partnership that will combine the award with $16 million in state funds and other contributions to form a Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute.

COLUMBUS, OH—EWI has started a joint venture with Cumberland & Western Resources to commercialize newly developed manufacturing technologies. The new enterprise, Edison Industrial Innovations, will identify technologies of significant industrial value and deliver them to market.

To move your company to a better place, it matters more where you are than where you want to go. And before you can see clearly where you are, you must clarify your perspective.