The U.S. Department of Labor reported 13.9 million unemployed Americans in July 2011, and even the creation of 117,000 jobs last month didn’t put a dent in the 9.1-percent unemployment rate. In fact, there has been little change in the unemployment rate since December 2010. So why am I repeating these depressing statistics? As bad as this may sound, we are much better off compared to the climb to more than 10-percent unemployment last year.

If you are reading this, you probably know something about metrology, and knowing something about metrology is a good thing these days. Why is that? I’m taking the long route to the answer, but I will explain.

What is going on with U.S. industrial production? It has actually been expanding every month this year, despite the stagnant employment figures. So how has U.S. industrial production increased without additional labor? The answer is efficiency. And where does efficiency in manufacturing come from? Stay with me; I am getting there. It comes from things like reducing rework and scrap, running at faster cycle times, and minimizing downtime on the assembly line.

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