The shift to digital technologies in various industries is one of the key goals in the digital agenda. Due to the essential role of interoperability of products and elements in complex systems, standardization stays in the forefront of government policy and business. In manufacturing systems, standards are of a prime importance, since they serve as a channel for modernization and innovation speedup. This paper makes a contributionto the currently rare literature on digital manufacturing standardization as a policy tool to promote digital technologies in business. By comparing five national cases of China, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the USA, we introduce national models of standardization in smart manufacturing according to the extent of state participation in standardization. In doing so, we examined initiatives in industry, digitalization, the development of a national system of standards, the reference architecture of digital production, as well as the countries’ cooperation in the field. Along with this, an overview of international initiatives in the field is presented, namely the ISO and the IEC. Taking into account the existing landscape, an assessment of the Russian case of digitalization in manufacturing and standardization is presented. Like China, Russia follows the third model of standardization. Given the results, we developed recommendations for Russia with the aim of intensifying efforts at standardization and the country’s presence in the international agenda, as well as to develop a Russian framework for digital transformation in sectors and achieve related economic effects.