• U.S. manufacturing productivity Also, nearly 3 out of every 4 • Similarly, 83 percent of the and competitiveness are thought manufacturing plants in plants supplying prime con-to depend on the use of these industry groups used tractors of defense agencies advanced technology. This Brief advanced technology: had technology, versus 62 presents the results of a percent that did not supply first- time Census Bureau survey these contractors. that explores the prevalence of

Electronics and I 181% • Surprisingly, older and newer technology among major U.S. other equipment

plants both had technology manufacturers. lndLSriall

181%

prevalence of about 75 per-

Was technology cent. madl1nery

widely present? and equipment

Yes. Advanced manufacturing Instruments and I 177%

Were there differences technology was found at most related prodLCts by technology? plants in the five major industry Yes. The presence of specific groups covered by the survey: AJI five major 74% advanced technologies in current

Industries manufacturing plant operations • • Fabricated metal products varied markedly .

Industrial machinery and Transportation D G9o/.

Seventeen specific technologies • equipment 0

equipment were covered in the survey and Fabricated D were grouped into five broad • Electronics and other metal 64%

electrical equipment products categories.

• Transportation equipment In 1988, about half of the plants used advanced tech-

• Instruments and related nology from three of the five

products. categories:

In 1988, these five groups Were there differences employed over 40 percent of all by plant? manufacturing employees, and Communication D provided nearly half the value Yes. In general, the prevalence and control 53%

added in U.S. manufacturing. of technology varied among plants according to selected

Fabrication, D characteristics. For example: machining, 52%

and assembly

• Over 90 percent of the plants with more than 500 em- Design and D 47% ployees had technology, ver- eng1neenng

/_~{i" sus only about 60 percent of Automated sensor

\~) the smaller plants. based inspection D 16o/.

and handling 0

~~

On average, 82 percent of the • Automated ~ • SB- 13- 90 plants supplying U.S. Federal materials 4 % Issued December 1990 defense agencies used ad- handling

U.S. Department of Commerce vanced technology, compared BUREAU OF THE CENSUS with 71 percent of those not

supplying defense agencies.

Did plants use multiple technologies? Yes. Most U.S. manufacturers used more than one category of advanced technology in 1988.

More than 70 percent of the manufacturing plants with technology used two or more categories:

Number of technologies

3% Five

11% Four

28% Three

30% Two

28% One

Will the use of technology increase? Yes. U.S. manufacturers plan to obtain more advanced manufac­turing technology within the next 5 years.

• Almost two- thirds of all the plants surveyed intend to ac­quire technology.

• Nearly 3 out of 4 current users of advanced manufacturing technology will acquire at least one additional technolo-gy.

• Over 40 percent of the man-ufacturing plants without an advanced technology plan to acquire some.

While U.S. manufacturing com-petitiveness continues to be scru-tinized, it is clear that the pres-ence of advanced technology is widespread and scheduled to in-crease. Future surveys wi II ad-dress benefits, costs, implemen-tation problems, training requirements, and other issues surrounding technology used in U.S. production processes.

This is one in a series of occa-sional reports from the Census Bureau that provide timely infor-mation about our people and economy. The data presented come from a 1988 sample survey conducted by the Census Bu-reau, and are subject to both

More advanced technology will be acquired In 5 years

Plan1s with technology

74%

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA stp,gov c 3.205/8:13-90

sampling and nonsampling er-rors. For a complete description of statistical methods, quality, and limitations, see the lntroduc-tion and Appendices of the printed survey report, Current In-dustrial Reports, SMT(88) - 1 .

For further Information on this Brief: Contact Robert Tinari (301) 763- 1924

See Manufacturing Technology 1988, Current Industrial Reports, SMT(88)- 1, May 1989.

This report is for sale by the Su-perintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. For telephone orders, call (202) 783- 5303.

For further Information on other Briefs: Contact Robert Bernstein (301) 763- 1584

Plans to acquire No plans to a~uire

Plan1s without technology 26%

•

•

•