Better Business, 5/e

Chapter 11 Summary

1. 11-1 Explain how manufacturing and production are important to the U.S. and global economies.

• Production is the process of getting a good or a service to the customer; it is a series of related activities, with value being added at each stage. Companies are in business to provide a service or a good to consumers. The more efficiently a company can produce and deliver the product or the service, the greater the profit it will generate.

• Although the U.S. manufacturing industry has been declining over the years, it still generates a major portion of the U.S. GDP. Moreover, manufacturing uses services and commodities as inputs, so manufacturing is actually responsible for a bigger share of total output.

• The service industry ...