By John R. Brandt
The two top-performing industries based on speed, quality, and costs are chemical manufacturers and food manufacturers, according to data from the MPI Manufacturing Studies, 2006-2010. Performances were calculated by multiplying on-time delivery rate times finished-product first-pass yield times sales per employee.
Real Productivity*
On-time delivery rate (% of goods delivered on time) | Finished-product first-pass yield (% of product that passes final inspection) | Sales per employee | Revised Productivity | |
| Chemical Manufacturing | 96.0% | 97.0% | $250,000 | $232,800.0 |
| Food Manufacturing | 98.0% | 98.0% | $220,000 | $211,288.0 |
| Miscellaneous Manufacturing | 95.0% | 95.0% | $210,500 | $189,976.3 |
| Electrical Equipment, Appliance, Component Manufacturing | 95.0% | 98.0% | $200,000 | $186,200.0 |
| Paper Manufacturing | 96.0% | 97.2% | $195,000 | $181,921.0 |
| Nonmetallic Mineral Product Manufacturing | 95.5% | 97.5% | $195,000 | $181,569.4 |
| Primary Metal Manufacturing | 95.5% | 96.0% | $187,500 | $171,900.0 |
| Wood Product Manufacturing | 95.0% | 96.8% | $176,000 | $161,849.6 |
| Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing | 96.0% | 98.0% | $169,500 | $159,465.6 |
| Transportation Equipment Manufacturing | 96.0% | 96.0% | $170,000 | $156,672.0 |
| Fabricated Metal Product Manufacturing | 95.0% | 98.0% | $168,000 | $156,408.0 |
| Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing | 94.0% | 95.0% | $175,000 | $156,275.0 |
| Printing and Related Support Activities | 97.0% | 97.5% | $165,000 | $156,048.8 |
| Machinery Manufacturing | 93.0% | 96.0% | $170,000 | $151,776.0 |
| Furniture and Related Product Manufacturing | 95.0% | 95.0% | $133,000 | $120,032.5 |
| Textile Mills | 95.0% | 98.0% | $100,000 | $93,100.0 |
| Product description not available | 95.0% | 97.0% | $201,900 | $186,050.9 |
© 2011 The MPI Group, MPI Manufacturing Studies, 2006-2010
* combined U.S. and international plant data (medians) for industries with more than 20 plants reporting
Regardless of how well your industry stacks up vs. other sectors, you’ll probably want to know how you compare within your industry. If you lead a paper manufacturing plant, for example, are your performances in on-time delivery rate (96%), quality yield (97.2%), and sales per employee ($195,000) better than your competitors — or worse?
Find out today how your plants are compare against plants in and out of your industry. You can anonymously take the 2011 MPI Manufacturing Study today (deadline July 26) and receive valuable benchmarking tools for participating.
