It Takes a Factory to Make a Manufacturer

You mean to say buying stuff from China and gluing your label on isn't manufacturing?

Yeah, like the "Financial Industry"... industry? My ar$e!

Del

Don't miss the point here. Governments are desperate to show that their economies are healthy and growing. If you add to the definition of what constitutes manufacturing then you can included previously ineligible figures into your totals and boost your manufacturing at a stroke (of a legislative pen). Without all the faf of investment and new infrastructure and training and all the other things that make increasing manufacturing difficult.

You should applaud your Government. This is creative accounting at it's best.

Yup, GDP seems to be about the most looked at thing for any country no matter how many flaws there may be in calculating it.

This may not be that simple a designation as the article and comments imply. I design, build and market test equipment. I send the drawings to a machine shop who actually fabricates the metal parts. I buy other off the shelf components from specialized vendors. I then assemble and calibrate the equipment. My facility has no smokestack, no piles of metal shavings, no heavy equipment, forklift, loading dock, etc. Is this manufacturing?

Yes. Key words - assemble and calibrate. You are producing added value from "raw" materials, that without your smart input are just a pile of parts.

The place you assemble and calibrate is a factory... maybe a small one, maybe a work shop, but it is more than a warehouse.

Del

man·u·fac·ture

etymology

Mid-16th-century (denoting something made by hand): from French (re-formed by association with Latin manu factum 'made by hand'), from Italian manifattura. Sense 1 of the verb dates from the early 17th century.

noun: manufacture

1. the making of articles on a large scale using machinery. "the manufacture of armored vehicles"

   synonyms:

   production, making, manufacturing, mass-production, construction, building, assembly, creation, fabrication, prefabrication, processing "the manufacture of aircraft engines"

• a specified branch of industry. "the porcelain manufacture for which France became justly renowned"
• manufactured goods or articles.plural noun: manufactures "exports and imports of manufactures"

verb: manufacture; 3rd person present: manufactures; past tense: manufactured; past participle: manufactured; gerund or present participle: manufacturing

1. make (something) on a large scale using machinery. "a company that manufactured paint-by-number sets"

   synonyms:

   make, produce, mass-produce, build, construct, assemble, put together, create, fabricate, turn out, process, engineer "the company manufactures laser printers"

• (of a living thing) produce (a substance) naturally.
• make or produce (something abstract) in a merely mechanical way. "manufactured love songs"
2. invent or fabricate. "The Economic Classification Policy Committee (ECPC) of the Census Bureau is considering changing the definition of manufacturing to include "Factoryless Goods Producers" (FGP's) as part of an update to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2017."

   synonyms:

   make up, invent, fabricate, concoct, hatch, dream up, think up, trump up, devise, formulate, frame, contrive;