Infographic: Essential Manufacturing Insights Revealed

There’s a very old parable, thought to have originated in the Indian subcontinent, of six blind (or blind-folded) men asked to describe an elephant.¹  They reach different conclusions depending upon which part of the elephant they touch:

• Side – it’s like a wall
• Leg – it’s like a tree
• Trunk – it’s like a snake
• Tusk – it’s like a spear
• Ear – it’s like a fan
• Tail – it’s like a rope

The point is that people have the tendency to project their partial observations to represent the entirety of something.  Each man was “correct” in their assessment, they just did a poor job of explaining the entirety of the elephant.

A similar challenge arises when trying to describe or characterize the role of manufacturing.  We use disparate data sources to see parts of manufacturing – Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census, International Trade Administration, National Science Foundation and the Federal Reserve Economic Data.  These data sources help us to remove our blind-folds and see a part of manufacturing more clearly.  But like the parable, taken alone they do not represent the entirety.  The more complete picture of manufacturing includes all these elements:

• Manufacturing is the 6^th largest employer
• Manufacturing jobs reflect higher earnings
• More than half of all exports are manufactured goods
• Manufacturing consistently represents more than 10 percent of GDP
• Manufacturing is the primary source (about two-thirds) of R&D

Like the elephant, U.S. manufacturing cannot be adequately explained through a narrowly focused observation and analysis, but by taking a broader look at the facts about manufacturing.