Editing Manufacturing (section)

==Industrial policy==
{{main|Industrial policy}}

===Economics of manufacturing===
[[Emerging technologies]] have offered new growth methods in advanced manufacturing employment opportunities, for example in the [[Rust Belt|Manufacturing Belt]] in the United States. Manufacturing provides important material support for national infrastructure and also for [[defense (military)|national defense]].

On the other hand, most manufacturing processes may involve significant social and environmental costs. The clean-up costs of [[hazardous waste]], for example, may outweigh the benefits of a product that creates it. Hazardous materials may expose workers to health risks. These costs are now well known and there is effort to address them by improving [[efficiency]], reducing waste, using [[industrial symbiosis]], and eliminating harmful chemicals.

The negative costs of manufacturing can also be addressed legally. Developed countries regulate manufacturing activity with [[labor laws]] and [[Environmental policy|environmental]] laws. Across the globe, manufacturers can be subject to regulations and [[Ecotax|pollution taxes]] to offset the [[Environmental impact of manufacturing|environmental costs of manufacturing activities]]. Labor unions and [[craft guilds]] have played a historic role in the negotiation of worker rights and wages. Environment laws and labor protections that are available in developed nations may not be available in the [[third world]]. [[Tort law]] and [[product liability]] impose additional costs on manufacturing. These are significant dynamics in the ongoing process, occurring over the last few decades, of manufacture-based industries relocating operations to "developing-world" economies where the costs of production are significantly lower than in "developed-world" economies.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Manufacturing reshoring and sustainable development goals: A home versus host country perspective|first1=Cristina|last1=Di Stefano|first2=Luciano|last2=Fratocchi|first3=Carmen|last3=Martínez-Mora|first4=Fernando|last4=Merino|date=August 2, 2023|journal=Sustainable Development|volume=32 |pages=863–875 |doi=10.1002/sd.2710|doi-access=free|hdl=10045/136803|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

=== Finance ===
From a financial perspective, the goal of the manufacturing industry is mainly to achieve [[cost-benefit analysis|cost benefits]] per unit produced, which in turn leads to cost reductions in product prices for the market towards [[end user|end customers]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Young |first=Julie |title=Unit Cost Definition |url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unitcost.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220520060438/https://www.investopedia.com/terms/u/unitcost.asp |archive-date=May 20, 2022 |access-date=May 20, 2022 |website=investopedia.com |publisher=Investopedia}}</ref>{{unreliable source|date=January 2024}} This relative [[cost reduction]] towards the market, is how manufacturing firms secure their [[profit margins]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Spence |first=Michael |year=1984 |title=Cost Reduction, Competition, and Industry Performance |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1911463 |url-status=live |journal=Econometrica |publisher=Econometrica – Journal of the Economic Society, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Jan. 1984) |volume=52 |issue=1 |pages=101–121 |doi=10.2307/1911463 |jstor=1911463 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305234525/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1911463 |archive-date=March 5, 2022 |access-date=May 20, 2022}}</ref>

=== Safety ===
Manufacturing has unique health and safety challenges and has been recognized by the [[National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health]] (NIOSH) as a priority industry sector in the [[National Occupational Research Agenda]] (NORA) to identify and provide intervention strategies regarding occupational health and safety issues.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PPC-R01.2N-N-V2-FW {{!}} PPC Controllers {{!}} Indramat Controls {{!}} Indramat USA |url=https://indramat-usa.com/series/indramat-controls/ppc-controllers/ppc-r01.2n-n-v2-fw |access-date=2024-05-30 |website=indramat-usa.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=February 11, 2019 |title=Manufacturing Program |url=https://www.cdc.gov/nora/councils/manuf/default.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403174921/https://www.cdc.gov/nora/councils/manuf/default.html |archive-date=April 3, 2019 |access-date=March 14, 2019 |publisher=Centres for Disease Control and Prevention |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=February 4, 2019 |title=National Occupational Research Agenda for Manufacturing |url=https://www.cdc.gov/nora/councils/manuf/researchagenda.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190618084046/https://www.cdc.gov/nora/councils/manuf/researchagenda.html |archive-date=June 18, 2019 |access-date=March 14, 2019 |publisher=Centres for Disease Control and Prevention |language=en-us}}</ref>

===Manufacturing and investment===
[[File:KapaAuslUSABRDEngl.png|thumb|Capacity use in manufacturing in Germany and the United States]]
Surveys and analyses of trends and issues in manufacturing and investment around the world focus on such things as:
* The nature and sources of the considerable variations that occur cross-nationally in levels of manufacturing and wider industrial-economic growth;
* Competitiveness; and
* Attractiveness to foreign direct investors.

In addition to general overviews, researchers have examined the features and factors affecting particular key aspects of manufacturing development. They have compared production and investment in a range of Western and non-Western countries and presented case studies of growth and performance in important individual industries and market-economic sectors.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49552466 |title=Manufacturing and Investment Around the World: An International Survey of Factors Affecting Growth and Performance |date=2002 |publisher=Industrial Systems Research |isbn=0-906321-25-5 |edition=2nd |location=Manchester |oclc=49552466}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4H07TL4rvyYC |title=Manufacturing and Investment Around the World: An International Survey of Factors Affecting Growth and Performance |date= 2002 |isbn=978-0-906321-25-6 |access-date=November 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401100940/https://books.google.com/books?id=4H07TL4rvyYC |archive-date=April 1, 2021 |url-status=live|last1=Research |first1=Industrial Systems |publisher=Industrial Systems Research }}</ref>

On June 26, 2009, [[Jeff Immelt]], the CEO of [[General Electric]], called for the United States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce, commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much in some areas and can no longer rely on the financial sector and [[consumer spending]] to drive demand.<ref name="Immelt">{{Cite news
 |date         = 26 June 2009
 |author1      = David Bailey
 |author2      = Soyoung Kim
 |url          = https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ge-immelt/ges-immelt-says-u-s-economy-needs-industrial-renewal-idUSTRE55P4ZT20090626
 |language     = en-GB
 |work       = Reuters
 |title        = GE's Immelt says U.S. economy needs industrial renewal
 |access-date  = March 6, 2023
 |archive-date = December 12, 2020
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20201212184050/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ge-immelt/ges-immelt-says-u-s-economy-needs-industrial-renewal-idUSTRE55P4ZT20090626
 |url-status   = live
}}</ref> Further, while U.S. manufacturing performs well compared to the rest of the U.S. economy, research shows that it performs poorly compared to manufacturing in other high-wage countries.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 2012 |title=Why Does Manufacturing Matter? Which Manufacturing Matters? |url=http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/2/22%20manufacturing%20helper%20krueger%20wial/0222_manufacturing_helper_krueger_wial |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121008093333/http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/2/22%20manufacturing%20helper%20krueger%20wial/0222_manufacturing_helper_krueger_wial |archive-date=October 8, 2012}}</ref> A total of 3.2&nbsp;million&nbsp;– one in six U.S. manufacturing jobs&nbsp;– have disappeared between 2000 and 2007.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Martin Crutsinger |date=2007 |agency=Associated Press |title=Factory Jobs: 3 Million Lost Since 2000 |url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-04-20-4155011268_x.htm |access-date=March 6, 2023 |website=USA Today |archive-date=December 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221204013007/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/economy/2007-04-20-4155011268_x.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In the UK, [[EEF the manufacturers organisation]] has led calls for the UK economy to be rebalanced to rely less on financial services and has actively promoted the manufacturing agenda.