Essay Example on Manufacturing: Transforming Raw Materials Into Usable Goods

Introduction

Manufacturing is the process of totally transforming or changing the raw material into consumable or usable good. It is a physical, mechanical and chemical process. The input products involved in this transformation include components and commodities which are mostly found on the supply chain in the second stage. In the North American Industry Classification System, the manufacturing sectors involve factories; mills and plants systems. These factories produce their output by using heavy power-driven machines. Apart from the large manufacturing industries, there are also small and home-based, which mostly make their products using a hand; these include tailors, candy shops and bakeries. It is important to note that manufacturing in the U.S is ranked the biggest amongst others in the world, which marks 18.2% of the world's total products manufactured.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Assessment of the Manufacturing Industry's Size and Growth Rate in the Economy

The manufacturing industry is a significant contributor to the gross domestic product in the previous year; it was about $2.33 trillion. This actually drove about 11.6% of the economy of the United States as per the result of the bureau of economic analysis. The output from the manufacturing industry contributes of the exports by the United States (Cicas, Hendrickson, Horvath & Matthews, 2007). Every single dollar used during manufacturing adds $ 1.89 in the growth of business in the other sectors involved; which are transportation, the retail industry and other services. The jobs that are created by the manufacturing industry in the U.S are about 12.75 million jobs. This is according to labor report statistics. The jobs from this sector pay 12 percent more than all other industries in the economy. In the financial year, 2018 workers got an average of $84,832 to every employee, on top of this, they included the benefits, which was about $40.79 paid hourly to every worker.

How and Why the Manufacturing Industry Should Monitor Unemployment

Today's manufacturing output has increased compared to previous years. However, the production has changed from labor involving capital involving has in the manufacturing sectors. The rate at which the employee's losses jobs have resulted to reduction of participation by the labour force in the U.S. The gap between the skills employees needed and the unskilled workers required in the production is among the factor that has contributed to unemployment in the manufacturing industry. When the data between labour turnover and job opening from a survey were analyzed; it was found that job opening rates almost double from 1.8% in the year 2001 to 3.1% in the year 2018(Fayer, Lacey & Watson, 2017). This increase is likely to originate from the skills mismatched from the manufacturing sector.

Most of the prime-age workers with knowledge not exceeding high school are affected by the changes in the manufacturing sectors. The sector has shifted to highly skilled personnel like the of computer programming, engineering and software developers. This has resulted in the unemployment of low skilled workers. The changes in the knowledge needed operating and performing the new roles in manufacturing sectors and the competition from the imported goods have resulted in a reduction of employment from the year 2000.

A Recent Trend in the Manufacturing Sector

The manufacturing sectors have employed the use of internet of things (IoT) to enable them to achieve different goals, including cost reduction, improved safety, increased efficiency and product innovation. This technology mainly operates under the existence of internet access, smaller sensors and cloud computing.63% of the manufacturers believes that using IOT in production will increase profitability. IoT and predictive analytics have contributed a lot to the manufacturing sector by offering exciting opportunities in management and operations (Economics, 2010).

The use of predictive maintenance technology is another trend in the manufacturing industry. This is to ensure that all equipment is functioning correctly and efficiently. The adoptions of technology reduce the maintenance costs by 20% and reduce the unplanned outages by 50%; then it extends the machinery life. Predictive maintenance programs use metrics to monitor the operations of the machinery. The prediction of the maintenance time saves the management's time, money and other resources. The monitoring is done during the production, and this means no loss of production due to breakdown.

Summary of How the Manufacturing Industry Will Perform in the Future

The manufacturing sector is entering a new phase. By the year 2025, there will be a global consuming class which would have emerged. The developing countries will provide the majority of consumers. This development will create market opportunities for manufactured goods. In the market structure, when there is an increase in demand for commodities will always require an increase in the supply of that product. And in the market, the order is likely to fragment when the customers need the variation in the market and more need of the after-sale services being offered. These business opportunities will arise in a challenging market environment. The volatile prices are likely to exist and the shortage of highly skilled talent.

References

Cicas, G., Hendrickson, C. T., Horvath, A., & Matthews, H. S. (2007). A regional version of a US economic input-output life-cycle assessment model. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 12(6), 365-372. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net ' publication ' 226786076_A_regional_versio

Economics, T. (2010). China GDP growth rate. tradingeconomics. com. Retrieved from: https://tradingeconomics.com ' China

Fayer, S., Lacey, A., & Watson, A. (2017). BLS spotlight on statistics: STEM occupations-past, present, and future. Retrieved from: https://www.bls.gov ' spotlight ' 2017 ' pdf ' science-technology-enginee