Manufacturing matters, and these three standout regional companies show why

By Tom Dennis

GRAND FORKS – Manufacturing is like the fuel injector of the engine of the region’s economy. It’s a comparatively small part that plays a very powerful role.

Manufacturing accounts for only about 9 percent of North Dakota and South Dakota’s gross state products. In Minnesota, the number’s a little higher, about 14 percent.

But “manufacturing generates more economic activity than other sectors,” said Stephen Gold, president & CEO of the Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity, in a 2016 interview.

“For every dollar of domestic manufacturing, another $3.60 of economic activity is generated elsewhere. For every manufacturing job, there are 3.4 jobs created in non-manufacturing industries.

“No other sector comes close to these numbers.”

Furthermore, manufacturing drives innovation. More scientists and engineers work in manufacturing (911,000) than in education (696,000), including colleges and universities, the National Science Board reports.

And the good-paying jobs in manufacturing are a reliable path to the middle class.

In short, “manufacturing helps raise living standards more than any other sector,” Gold concluded. That’s because “a vibrant manufacturing base leads to more research and development, innovation, productivity, exports and middle-class jobs.”

In this story, Prairie Business takes a look at three manufacturers – one each in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Their factories look nondescript when you pass them on the highway. But inside, each takes in raw materials and pumps out finished products, products whose sales pull millions or even billions of dollars into our region.