U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Manufacturing Innovation Blog

Powered by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Data and Trends

What Keeps You Up At Night?

I often keep myself up at night by noodling over some obscure question or asking myself why I ate that spicy lunch item. This got me thinking. What keeps MEP

Georgia on my Mind...

Some recent data out of Georgia provides interesting insight into what is happening in manufacturing in the state. It’s relevant to us at MEP since our mission

Facts About Exporting

The Facts About Exporting addresses some of the misconceptions that exist and paves the way for exporting more American-made products around the world. What

Painting a Picture with Data

With advances in technology such as social media, innovative information systems, and sophisticated tracking systems, organizations are gathering information

Recipes Matter But So Does Execution

A recent survey by the Manufacturing Performance Institute in association with the American Small Manufacturers Coalition, the Association for Manufacturing

Painting by the Numbers

Plato suggested that a “good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.” To that end, I hope to impart some knowledge and not just numbers… although I

15 a Day...

15 a day. That is how many manufacturing establishments have closed every day (including weekends and holidays) over the last 13 years. The journey to getting

The Manufacturing Facts are in the Data

The difference between a myth and a reality can be as stark as the difference between day and night. Indeed, the gap between popular perception and reality

Guess Again

How many times during the day do you guess? You probably do it more than you think. I’ll bet you guess when it’s time to leave for work in the morning, or you

Mid-Year Review

As I monitor the data on U.S. manufacturing, I feel it is important to step back and take stock of where things stand. As the economy emerged from the recession

The Demand for Consulting Services

The most recent issue of the Economist contained an article regarding the increasing demand for consultants and consulting services among firms. The article

Think Globally, Act Locally

Manufacturing is becoming increasingly global (and thus less constrained by national borders) while simultaneously becoming more geographically specialized with

Wishing Upon a Star

I often wonder what the future may hold. Most of that is idle speculation and qualitative scenarios I play out in my head regarding where manufacturing is

Management Matters to Manufacturers

The U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies released an initial report earlier this month that examines the effect of management practices on the

Challenging Times

As part of the MEP client survey process, MEP clients are asked to identify the top 3 challenges their companies face over the next three years. We’ve been

Search

Put exact phrase in quotes (e.g., "advanced manufacturing")

Email alerts

Subscribe to free e-mail alerts from the Manufacturing Innovation blog by entering your e-mail address in the box below.

Stay connected

Categories

About this blog

Manufacturing Innovation, the blog of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), is a resource for manufacturers, industry experts and the public on key U.S. manufacturing topics. There are articles for those looking to dive into new strategies emerging in manufacturing as well as useful information on tools and opportunities for manufacturers.

The views presented here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of NIST.

If you have any questions about our blog, please contact us at mfg [at] nist.gov (mfg[at]nist[dot]gov).

Blogroll