Kitchen Flatware

Why I Think Manufacturing Has a Future

24.02.11

I recently read article an article in the New York Times under the headline “When Factories Vanish, So Can Innovators .” Since I run a small factory, I read it with interest. Here are a couple of highlights:

o “Losing an industry or ceasing to manufacture a particular product, in this case stainless steel flatware, has indeed become a fairly frequent event. Just in the last few years, the last sardine cannery, in Maine, closed its doors. Stainless steel rebars, the sturdy rods that reinforce concrete in all kinds of construction, are now no longer made in America. Neither are vending machines or incandescent light bulbs or cellphones or laptop computers.”

o “The loss of manufacturing capacity, measured in lost workers, is startling. From the high point in the summer of 1979, through last month, employment in manufacturing has fallen by 8.1 million, to 11.6 million, with most of the drop in just the last decade.”

I’m not sure that these kinds of articles — and there are plenty of them — give a fair representation of manufacturing in America. For instance, one might get the impression that American factory jobs are about to disappear, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , we actually have two million more factory workers today than we did in 1939. I’m also not sure why one would measure lost manufacturing capacity in terms of lost workers. The fact is, total manufacturing output has more than doubled since 1975 (here’s a look at our manufacturing output versus that of other countries). Within a mile of my shop there are factories that make stainless steel hardware, concrete drains and stairs, custom-printed T-shirts, electronic components and lots of other stuff.

Source: New York Times (blog)