Manufacturing the future: The next era of global growth and innovation

The global manufacturing sector has undergone a tumultuous decade: large developing economies leaped into the first tier of manufacturing nations, a severe recession choked off demand, and manufacturing employment fell at an accelerated rate in advanced economies. Still, manufacturing remains critically important to both the developing and the advanced world. In the former, it continues to provide a pathway from subsistence agriculture to rising incomes and living standards. In the latter, it remains a vital source of innovation and competitiveness, making outsized contributions to research and development, exports, and productivity growth.

But the manufacturing sector has changed - bringing both opportunities and challenges - and neither business leaders nor policy makers can rely on old responses in the new manufacturing environment ... READ MORE

Released by McKinsey Global Institute - November 2012