Manufacturings Importance to Enterprises

I am working on an article on manufacturing's importance to the enterprise. I'm interested in what your experience has been as you have led or defended manufacturing's role in the overall company. Where do you see manufacturing as strategic to the success of a company? How? How do you explain it? What can we do to assure that manufacturing plays a crucial role?

You can reply here or send an email. gmintchell@automationworld.com Thanks for your insights.