What Does Manufacturing Mean to America?

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is America’s largest manufacturing organization. Representing manufacturers both large and small across the country, the NAM is a leading advocate for policy agendas that help manufacturers to compete in the global economy, and create jobs right here at home. Recently, the NAM launched a campaign to ask factory owners, workers, and consumers what manufacturing means to them, and to America.

The results—many of which were collected in this video, or on Twitter under the hashtag #WeAreMFG—ranged from direct definitions of the manufacturing process, to job creation, providing for family, creating products, building a better life, learning new skills, and empowering people and giving them a future. For millions of Americans, manufacturing benefits them not only by providing them with stable, well-paying work, and enabling them to provide for their families and live a better life, but also by producing many of the products that we use every day. From the clothes we wear to the tools we use, almost everything that we buy was manufactured somewhere.

Near the end of the NAM video, different individuals wrote one-word responses to the question of what manufacturing means on whiteboards and held them up to the camera. The words ranged from production, progress, mobility, convenience, value, and quality to family, security, stability, and the future. In just a few days, the hashtag has already gotten dozens of responses and retweets, including people providing additional factoids like that every dollar spent on manufacturing generates $1.48 for the economy, or that enough Post-it notes are manufactured in Kentucky every year to circle the globe 98 times!

One thing that comes up again and again in the video and in the tweets is that manufacturing is the future of America. Manufacturing employs more than 12 million people in America, and contributes more than $2 trillion to the economy annually, the largest impact of any economic sector. Manufacturing has the highest multiplier effect of any economic sector, meaning that for every dollar spent on manufacturing, more money is added back into the economy. 9% of America’s workforce is directly employed in manufacturing positions.

Manufacturers also perform 2/3 of all research and development in the private sector. One of the quotes in the video says that one of the most overlooked aspects of manufacturing is the amount of technology that’s involved. When people think of manufacturing technology, they often think of technological advancements replacing jobs, but in fact, technological advances in manufacturing often drive innovation, improve efficiency, and make jobs better, safer, and more productive.

Some of the technology that’s helping take manufacturing into the future is quality deburring machinery. At the Cleveland Deburring Machine Company, we believe in the importance of innovation and flexibility when it comes to the needs of our manufacturing clients. We know what manufacturing means to America, and we know that our clients rely on us to deliver deburring solutions that can keep their processes running smoothly, safely, and efficiently.