Manufacturing

What It Means

Manufacturing involves transforming raw materials into new products using mechanical, physical, and chemical processes. Generally, manufactured goods are made in large quantities by machinery or by manual labor using mass-production techniques. This results in goods that are identical to one another and that are relatively inexpensive to produce. Many goods that modern consumers purchase, from plastic products to tools to mattresses to jelly beans, are manufactured using these methods.

The production, sale, and consumption of manufactured goods form the basis of modern economies. An industrialized country manufactures goods in order to build and maintain the nation’s infrastructure (its roads, bridges, airports, and other public works) and to develop advanced areas of industry, such as information technology and national defense. In order to industrialize, a developing country must first establish manufacturing industries to provide the products it needs to build an infrastructure.

Manufacturing employs many workers. In the United States, manufacturing jobs represent over 10 percent of all employment. In 2006 approximately 14 million U.S. workers had manufacturing jobs. Among the largest manufacturing industries are those that produce iron and steel, textiles, automobiles, aircraft, lumber, and chemicals.

Manufacturing techniques involve a variety of mechanical processes, including machining, forging, casting, and injection molding. Machining is the most important manufacturing process. It involves using a machine tool to remove material from an object (by drilling, turning, milling, or grinding, for example) to create a final product. Machined parts, such as pins and fasteners, are used in many other manufacturing industries. Forging is a process in which heated metal is hammered, rolled, and shaped. Forging produces strong iron and steel parts that are used to make cars, trains, and other manufactured goods. In casting (also called founding), metal is shaped by being poured into a mold made out of sand or other materials. The casting process is used to make a variety of materials, including wheels and jewelry. Injection molding is a process used to shape heated plastic by pouring it into a mold. It is used to make a variety of plastic products, such as computer parts, toys, and containers.

When Did It Begin?

Before the American Revolution the economy of colonial America was based largely on agriculture. Some types of commercial manufacturing, such as iron forges, existed and even prospered, but in general the colonies imported manufactured goods from England in exchange for such goods as tobacco, wheat, and fish.

After the American Revolution many Americans began their own manufacturing businesses as they sought economic independence from England. In New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, artisan-manufacturers pressured the state governments to pass legislation protecting manufacturing. Organizations such as manufacturing societies helped support and fund large-scale textile factories. In 1791 U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton called for greater investment in factory production in his Report on Manufactures. One of the results of the report was the creation of a multifactory corporation in Paterson, New Jersey, which attracted many wealthy investors.

The Industrial Revolution transformed the production of goods, especially the production of textiles, iron, steel, and transportation, in eighteenth-century England, and much of the knowledge about factory technologies was brought to the United States by skilled European immigrants. For example, British industrialist Samuel Slater (1768–1835) came to the United States in 1789 and helped establish the manufacturing technology for the nation’s modern production of textiles, which involved the use of water-powered mills.

What eventually came to be known as the “American system of manufacturing” started in the 1790s with the technological innovations developed by U.S. inventor Eli Whitney (1765–1825). Whitney discovered the benefits of using “interchangeable parts” to make guns for the U.S. government. Until then guns had been made by hand, and each was unique. Whitney designed a new gun and the machines to make it. His machines produced many identical (or interchangeable) parts. The parts were put together by workers on an assembly line, a concept also developed by Whitney. Each finished gun was exactly identical. Whitney’s manufacturing methods made it possible to produce better goods quickly and more cheaply.

More Detailed Information

The manufacture of iron and steel in the United States is located primarily in the northeastern and midwestern states. Ohio has the largest number of iron and steel forging employees. The aerospace, national defense, and automotive industries are the primary purchasers of iron and steel. Agriculture, construction, mining, and industrial-equipment manufacturers also use large quantities of forged steel. Many consumer products are forged, including hardware tools and bicycles.

The manufacturing process of forging heats iron and then presses, hammers, and shapes it. There are several different types of forging processes. Closed die forging, or impression die forging, uses metal blocks called dies to create a specified form. Open die forging hammers metal as it moves between flat dies. Seamless rolled ring forging punches a hole in a thick, round piece of metal and then rolls and squeezes it into a thin ring. Different types of metal can be forged; carbon steel and alloy steel are the most commonly produced metals.

Textile manufacturing plays an important role in U.S. manufacturing because it was of central importance to the Industrial Revolution in the United States. In its early years, textile manufacturing was simple enough to be conducted under the roof of one factory. Since then textile manufacturing has developed into a large industry encompassing several smaller industries, including those that produce fibers, those that produce cloth and dye, and those that spin yarn and print goods. Approximately one-third of the cloth manufactured in the United States is produced for use in clothing. Textiles are also used to make floor coverings, home furnishings, and cloth goods used in agriculture, construction, and medical supply.

At one time all textiles came from plant or animal sources and were made by hand, but modern textile manufacturing is a complicated process. The production of most textiles involves multiple processes, including the formation of the yarns or threads, formation of the fabric by weaving or by another method, processing the fabric using dyes or other chemicals, and fabrication (the assembly of a garment). Many different mechanized processes in textile production have replaced the manual production methods that were used for centuries. For example, cotton used to be picked by hand, a slow and labor-intensive task. Today machines called cotton gins quickly remove seeds from the cotton fiber.

Chemical manufacturing is an important part of modern industry because chemicals are essential to the production of motor vehicles, paper, electronics, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and other products. Chemical manufacturers make synthetic materials (such as polyester), agricultural chemicals (such as fertilizers), paints and adhesives (such as glue), cleaning chemicals (such as soap and cleansers), and pharmaceutical chemicals (such as aspirin). Based on the type of product they make, different chemical manufacturers use differently designed and operated factories. Companies that produce synthetic materials typically have large plants, while those that manufacture paints and adhesives tend to operate smaller plants. Chemical plants are usually located near other kinds of manufacturing. There are many chemical plants located in the Great Lakes region near automotive manufacturers, on the West Coast near centers of electronic production, and on the Gulf Coast near petroleum and natural gas manufacturers.

The U.S. manufacturing sector has been an important player in the development of the labor movement. Labor unions and trade unions are organizations of employees who unite to improve working conditions, benefits, and pay. In 1938 the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed to represent the basic manufacturing industries, including iron and steel, automobile, rubber, electric and radio, and shipping. Workers and union leaders in the CIO organized strikes, or work stoppages. The most effective work stoppage was the “sit-down strike,” during which workers took over the plants in which they worked until their requests were met. The result was that many of the country’s largest manufacturing firms were forced to negotiate collective bargaining agreements, which set out the terms of employment for members of a labor union and describe such aspects as wages, working hours, health-insurance benefits, and vacation time. One of the greatest achievements of labor unions came in 1955, when U.S. auto manufacturers accepted a union-sponsored plan that guaranteed that workers would receive pay during unemployment.

Recent Trends

In the latter decades of the twentieth century, the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs declined because of outsourcing, or the practice of sending production activities that were previously done in the firm’s plant to remote plants. For example, many manufacturers have outsourced the assembly of their products, recognizing that they do not need to build or purchase plants or equipment if they can have their products assembled at so-called contract manufacturers. In the 1970s contract manufacturers were typically smaller operations that offered a single service, such as the assembly of circuit boards, to a larger firm. Since then they have grown into multiservice specialists that can not only assemble and manufacture products but also design and distribute them. The main reason that manufacturers outsource aspects of production is so that they can save on materials, labor, and expenses.

Although it has many advantages, contract manufacturing has disadvantages as well. Since 2001 the United States has outsourced millions of manufacturing jobs to contract manufacturers located in other parts of the world, often to countries where workers have lower wages and fewer protections, such as negotiated wages, safe-working conditions, and health benefits. This is a major concern of international human-rights and labor-issues groups. Also, when a firm employs a contract manufacturer it gives up a certain element of control that can make it hard to make extensive changes to engineering. Contract manufacturing is best for firms that have a steady demand for their products and that do not depend on assembly processes or equipment that is very complicated.