A life of making things.
In the simplest terms, that’s what a career
in manufacturing provides. Manufacturers
are makers and builders. From running shoes
to cars to airplanes, from computer chips
to smartphones to laptops, manufacturing
professionals are the people behind the
countless number of products, systems,
and things we use every single day.
While it’s easy to acknowledge the importance
of the work manufacturers do, it’s harder
for some people to envision doing that work
themselves. Because of misconceptions and
myths about manufacturing and what it looks
like in the twenty-first century, the industry is
sometimes incorrectly stigmatized as being a
place of menial, repetitious work that pays
poorly and simply isn’t a lot of fun.
For example, surveys have shown that fewer
than fifty percent of today’s teenagers have
any interest in manufacturing careers.1 At the
INTRODUCTION
THE
MANUFACTURING
INDUSTRY ISN’T
WHAT YOU THINK
IT IS