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1 Why Manufacturing Matters | Unit Manufacturing Processes: Issues and Opportunities in Research | The National Academies Press

Unit Manufacturing Processes: Issues and Opportunities in

Research (1995)
Chapter: 1 Why Manufacturing Matters

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1
Why Manufacturing Matters
Overview
A nation that does not produce well may not, in the long run, lose jobs for
its citizens, but its citizens will most likely find that the quality of their jobs
and their standard of living will deteriorate in comparison to nations that
do produce well. Manufacturing matters, because it is a significant
component of economy of the United States: nineteen percent of the U.S.
gross domestic product is production of durable and nondurable goods;1
approximately 65 percent of total U.S. exports are manufactured goods;
the manufacturing sector accounts for 95 percent of industrial research
and development (R&D) spending and more than two-thirds of total R&D
activity (Jasinowski, 1992); and manufacturing in 1992 provided roughly 17
percent of total nonfarm payroll employment (Manufacturing Subcouncil,
1993).
U.S. companies must be able to manufacture products of superior quality
at competitive prices. Key to the quality of any product is an
understanding of the manufacturing process by which it is produced. Many
different studies undertaken in recent years to define the most important
areas of future industrial research have placed process understanding at or
near the top of the list. For instance, the report by the National Research
Council, Materials Science and Engineering in the 1990s: Maintaining
Competitiveness in the Age of Materials, highlights materials synthesis and
processing as an important area of expanded emphasis over the next
decade (NRC, 1989). Indeed, every nation's success as a global
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1 Why Manufacturing Matters | Unit Manufacturing Processes: Issues and Opportunities in Research | The National Academies Press

manufacturer requires the development and use of manufacturing

1

At the end of the third quarter in 1990, manufacturing accounted

for 18.9 percent of the gross domestic product in constant 1977
dollars, with 10 percent in durable goods and 8.9 percent in
nondurable goods (DoC, 1993).

processes capable of producing high-quality products rapidly and

economically in an environmentally acceptable manner.
International competitiveness depends on the timely implementation of
new and improved manufacturing processes. Although global integration
of product markets and advances in reverse engineering techniques have
improved the ability of competitors to determine the components of new
Unit Manufacturing Processes: Issues a
products, the ability to clone successful products still depends on
competitors' ability to make those components. Excellence in developing
and implementing manufacturing processes that provide unique
Manufacturing,
reduced
to its
production capabilities with cost
and quality
advantages
can be the
simplest
form,
involves
the
Buy Paperback
| the
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determinant of market
success
and
key toforms
future U.S. competitiveness
sequencing
of product
through
a number
of different
in manufactured products, since
this
strategy
cannot be easily duplicated.

processes. Each individual step,

MyNAP
known as an unit manufacturing
members save
Unit Manufacturing
Processes:
The
process,
can be viewed
as theCogs That Drive
10% online.
fundamental building block of a
Manufacturing
Productivity
Login or
nation's manufacturing capability. A
committee of the National
Register to
Any manufacturing system can
be decomposed
into aa series of unit
Research
Council has prepared
save!

report to help
define
national
processes that impart both physical
shape
and
structure to the product.
priorities for research in unit
Unit processes are intimatelyprocesses.
linked to
one another; the output of one
It contains an organizing
Download Free PDF
process becomes the input for
the next
process.
framework
for unit
process The quality of the final
criteria for determining
product depends not only on families,
the capability
of each unit process but also
the criticality of a process or
on the proper sequencing of unit
processes.
Continuous improvement of
manufacturing
technology,
examplescreation
of researchof an understanding of each
the manufacturing system involves
opportunities, and a prioritized list
process by itself, as well as of the influence of each unit process on
of enabling technologies that can
subsequent unit processes. lead to the manufacture of
products of superior quality at
competitive costs.
The study
The R&D priorities of an industrialized
country
arewas
key indicators of the
performed under the sponsorship
emphasis attached to different
areas. The United States has tended to
of the National Science Foundation
and the Defense
Department's
invest most heavily in the invention
of new
products. Other nations have
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Manufacturing Technology

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1 Why Manufacturing Matters | Unit Manufacturing Processes: Issues and Opportunities in Research | The National Academies Press

Manufacturing
Technology
invested more heavily in process
technologies.
For example, the military
Program.
R&D spending in the United States allocates 3 percent to process
technology and 97 percent to product technology (Thurow, 1987). Overall,
current industrial R&D spending in the United States is two-thirds on new
products and one-third on new processes. Japanese companies invest at
the inverse ratio (i.e., one-third on new products and two-thirds on new
processes) and have successfully employed that R&D strategy to become
highly competitive in the manufacture of consumer electronic products,
such as the video camera, the video recorder, and the facsimile machine.
The Japanese have graphically demonstrated that the greatest benefits
accrue to those who can cost-effectively manufacture new product
technologies.

Some believe that the U.S. focus on products rather than processes has
been fueling the relative decline of American manufacturing with respect
to other manufacturing nations (Thurow, 1987). It is time to reverse this
trend and to emphasize improvements in the most promising
manufacturing processes, so that

the nation can create products that not only excel in function but also are
competitive in both quality and cost in a global market.
Since manufacturing is important to a nation's well-being and it is
recognized that creation of the product is dependent upon each unit
manufacturing process, both individually and together with other
processes as a whole, sufficient resources should be provided to educate
the manufacturing work force and to develop and improve key
manufacturing processes. The alternative will lead to the decline of the
United States as a manufacturing nation.
R&D in unit manufacturing processes can be considered to occur on two
levelsproprietary research that is conducted on a confidential basis, since
it may have near-term applicability in a competitive market, and
precompetitive or generic research that helps establish the foundation for
a technology for the benefit of everyone with access to the results. This
report primarily deals with the latter case.

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1 Why Manufacturing Matters | Unit Manufacturing Processes: Issues and Opportunities in Research | The National Academies Press

References
DoC (Department of Commerce). 1993. Economics and Statistics
Administration, Bureau of Economic Analysis News Bulletin.
Dertouzos, M.L., R. Lester, and R. Solow. 1989. Made in America: Regaining
the Productive Edge. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute
of Technology Press.

Jasinowski, J. 1992. Report on Manufacturers 1992. Washington, D.C.:

National Association of Manufacturers.

Krugman, P. 1990. The Age of Diminished Expectations: U.S. Economic

Policy in the 1990s. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Press.

Manufacturing Subcouncil. 1993. Forging the Future: Policy for American

Manufacturing. Manufacturing Subcouncil to the Competitiveness Policy
Council. Washington, D.C.: Competitiveness Policy Council.

NRC (National Research Council). 1989. Materials Science and Engineering:

Maintaining Competitiveness in the Age of Materials. Committee on
Materials Science and Engineering, NRC. Washington, D.C.: National
Academy Press .

Thurow, L. 1987. A weakness in process technology. Science 238:1659-1663.

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