After wholesale trade, manufacturing in America is the second largest segment of the U.S. economy. One thing that makes this statistic so impressive is that if the American manufacturing sector were its own country, it would be the ninth largest economy in the world. What’s even more amazing is that America has held its position as the world’s manufacturing leader for 110 years, with China only finally claiming the top spot in 2010, at 19.9% of global output to America’s 19.4%, despite China having 1.3 billion people and America only having 307 million.

What makes American manufacturers so successful? Abundant natural resources, sparks of innovative brilliance, crises of grim necessity, and national determination have all combined to fuel the growth of the world’s manufacturing leader. The story of American manufacturing is a story of struggle and triumph that is worth retelling in an hour of recession, recovery, and renewed hope.

How America Became the World’s Manufacturing Leader

This is actually not the first time China has been the world’s leading manufacturer. China previously held that position until about 1850, when the industrial revolution propelled Britain into the lead. Britain would dominate the world stage for the rest of the 19th century.

But meanwhile the American economy gathered force like the locomotives then beginning to crisscross the nation, as one discovery and invention after another revolutionized the economy. The dawn of mechanical production methods, the growth of the steel industry, the expansion of the Rockefeller oil empire, and the invention of the light bulb all set the stage for the automotive assembly line that would become the hallmark of American industry.

World War I harnessed this surging economic engine into a mighty military machine. The end of the war saw swords beaten into ploughshares to rebuild Europe, spawning a series of cycles of growth, recession, and re-expansion that would continue through World War II into the Cold War. Befriending its defeated enemies Germany and Japan, America turned them into powerful economic allies. Together they outlasted the Soviet Union to survive to this day as three of the world’s top four manufacturers, joined by China, who got there by imitating its capitalist competitor and emulating American manufacturing.

American Manufacturing Industries

So just what are we referring to when we talk about American manufacturing? The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) that American government agencies use to collect statistics divides the manufacturing sector up into the following industries:

• Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products
• Textile Mills
• Apparel, Leather & Allied Products
• Wood Products
• Paper Products
• Printing & Related Support Activities
• Petroleum & Coal Products
• Chemical Products
• Plastics & Rubber Products
• Nonmetallic Mineral Products
• Primary Metals
• Fabricated Metal Products
• Machinery
• Computer & Electronic Products
• Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components
• Transportation Equipment
• Furniture & Related Products
• Miscellaneous Manufacturing (products such as medical equipment and supplies, jewelry, sporting goods, toys and office supplies)

In short, American manufacturers make just about everything you use to eat, live in, sit on, sleep on, heat your home, drive your car, use your phone, and entertain yourself.

American Manufacturers

To put some faces to that list, here are a few names you might recognize, ranked in order of revenue as of 2011:

1. Exxon Mobil Corp.
2. Chevron Corp.
3. ConocoPhillips
4. General Electric Co.
5. General Motors Co.
6. Ford Motor Co.
7. Hewlett-Packard Co.
8. IBM Corp.
9. Valero Energy Corp.
10. Proctor & Gamble Co.
11. Marathon Oil Corp.
12. Pfizer Inc.
13. Philip Morris International Inc.
14. Apple Inc.
15. Boeing Co.
16. Microsoft Corp.
17. Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.
18. Johnson & Johnson
19. Dell, Inc.
20. PepsiCo, Inc.
21. United Technologies Corp.
22. Dow Chemical Co.
23. Kraft Foods Inc.
24. Merck & Co. Inc.
25. Lockheed Martin Corp.

As you can see, this list is heavily populated by representatives from certain industries. The four biggest groupings in the American manufacturing industry are food, fabricated metal products (including cars), chemicals (including petroleum), and computers and electronic products. Which makes sense, when you consider how much money it takes to buy a car or computer, or how many people need to eat.

Where Is American Manufacturing Going?

So where is American manufacturing going? Is China destined to overtake U.S. manufacturing leadership? Or will the American economy bounce back?

Despite the recent recession and continued challenges, American manufacturing grew consistently for 27 straight months from July 2009 to October 2011. The Chinese and European manufacturing sectors contracted in October as Beijing tried to reign in inflation and the EU faced a debt crisis, which forecasters warn could have fallout for US manufacturing. But the long-term outlook by the International Monetary Fund is that the US, China, and the EU will continue to lead the global economy for the foreseeable future.

Innovation has always been key to American economic growth, and US business leaders and policymakers are looking to stimulate manufacturing by nurturing research and development in some key emerging industries. These include nanotechnology, biotechnology, robotics, and cyber-physical systems, and clean energy. Look to these and other emerging industries to propel America’s next economic surge into the future.

Worthy Manufacturing Resources

Manufactuing.gov
U.S. Census Bureau Manufacturing & Construction Statistics
Institute for Supply Management Report on Business
IndustryWeek U.S. 500

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