Industry interviews conducted during this project have revealed some potential inaccuracies in the conventional thought as to the readiness of the US industrial base to adopt digital manufacturing processes and procedures. The performers in this DMDII project went into the research phase with the assumption that approximately half of the supply chain would be ready to implement digital manufacturing capabilities into their organizations. With this assumption the deliverable of the project would be a set of technically-oriented playbooks for Original Equipment Manufacturers and Small/Medium Manufacturers to use as guides for implementation. What was found during the interview process was that less than 30% of those companies were actually in a position to adopt digital capabilities and that there is a gap in awareness and knowledge in what digital manufacturing means. Additional research into other studies has revealed similar issues in adoption of these necessary skills and capabilities. This realization has led the research team to rethink the deliverables of the project to include a digital manufacturing awareness/education component. In this paper the authors will present the findings and discuss the meaning of these revelations to the digital manufacturing and model based enterprise community.