Why manufacturing is important

Manufacturing has come quite a long way since pre-Revolutionary War times when it was limited to skilled artisans working their craft for the needs of their local community. Innovations in the late s like the first automated flour mill and the first factory and the Industrial Revolution sparked a change in how we create goods.

Even today, with advancements in technology, manufacturing continues to change. We can ship you parts, send field service technicians to your site and answer any questions you have.

Whatever you need, we are here for you. October 4, For Manufacturing Day, we take a look at what manufacturing is, why it is important and how it works at companies like McLanahan Corporation. What is manufacturing? Manufacturing careers Manufacturing Day also serves to inspire the next generation of manufacturers by highlighting the importance of manufacturing and drawing attention to the numerous careers in the industry.

Some of these subsectors include: Machinery manufacturing Petroleum and coal products manufacturing Food manufacturing Plastics and rubber products manufacturing Apparel manufacturing In the machinery manufacturing sector, the types of jobs available can include: Assemblers and fabricators Welders Paint technicians CNC machine operators Mechanical engineers CAD draftsman Quality inspectors Safety managers Cost estimators Laborers Material handlers Production managers Pattern makers 3-D printing specialists To provide some insight into the industry, we asked McLanahan Executive Vice President of Manufacturing and Supply John Rabel and McLanahan Manufacturing Managers Randy Hatch and Brenda Wilt some common questions about manufacturing.

Why is manufacturing important? Why does it matter? Tags: Manufacturing. Related Blog Posts. View All Blog Posts. Knockoffs that are one or two years behind the curve look dated. Once again, the American culture of innovation rises to this challenge like no other. What the U. It already leads the world in creating disruptive technologies. It is rapidly moving toward energy independence. The imposing wage gap that once separated it from other nations is closing.

Now, it must widen the gap in innovation implementation. Some American companies have begun reshoring manufacturing operations located in other nations. I think that trend will grow stronger. I also see a growing consensus for taking steps to ensure that the innovations invented in America get made in America. No one is talking about an industrial policy or picking winners and losers. Instead, they want to make it easier for domestic manufacturers and academia to work together to solve the practical problems of turning new and innovative technologies into commercial products and processes.

This is vital to our future, because manufacturing, and especially advanced manufacturing , is not just another sector of the economy.

It is a cornerstone of a culture of innovation that makes the U. Before that he was assistant director for advanced manufacturing at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Video: Robots Take to the Streets. ASME Membership 1 year has been added to your cart. The price of yearly membership depends on a number of factors, so final price will be calculated during checkout. For Further Discussion. Related Content. Continue Browsing View Cart. You are now leaving ASME. Go back. For the U. That means that we need goods to trade for foreign goods, or we rack up a large and growing trade deficit, which the United States has been doing for many decades now.

This will eventually threaten the value of the dollar; if the dollar becomes very cheap, imports will become very expensive, and the U. In addition, the global trade system has become very unbalanced, with many nations basing their own growth on growth of exports to the U. This state of affairs can not go on forever; even Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has said so. Even though about two-thirds of most economies are composed of service industries, these service industries are dependent on manufactured goods for their operation and for their own technological progress.

For instance, the retail and warehousing industries, which comprise about 11 percent of American GNP value-added , are in the business of selling manufactured goods.