Wallace Hopp, University of Michigan
By most measures, manufacturing has been shrinking as a part of the U.S. economy for decades. Prevailing opinion among economists is that this represents a natural, even beneficial, progression toward a post-industrial economy. In contrast, politicians continue to be fond of factory photo ops and soaring rhetoric about the revitalization of American manufacturing. So what is the truth? How important is manufacturing to the economy of a developed country? How healthy is the U.S. manufacturing sector? Is a new era of manufacturing dawning? What factors will determine success in the manufacturing landscape of the future? To address these questions, Hopp examines the economic data and argues that manufacturing in the U.S. is both more central to the economy and more cost competitive than commonly thought. But he also notes that a wide swath of the manufacturing sector is at risk, largely due to non-economic factors. Hopp discusses the implications of these findings for practice and policy, and highlights research questions where operations research scholars can play important roles in understanding and shaping the future of the manufacturing industry.
Presented at the 2012 INFORMS Annual Meeting Phoenix
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