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1. Introduction to manufacturing laboratories

According to McKinsey & Company, the U.S. manufacturing industry represents only 11 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and eight percent of direct employment, yet it "makes a disproportionate economic contribution, including 20 percent of the nation’s capital investment, 35 percent of productivity growth, 60 percent of exports, and 70 percent of business R&D spending." These categories of economic contribution are important as many of them indirectly point to how the work of laboratories is interwoven within the manufacturing industry. As we'll discuss later in this chapter, manufacturing-based laboratories primarily serve three roles: research and development (R&D), pre-manufacturing and manufacturing, and post-production regulation and security (e.g., through exports and trade). We can be sure that if U.S. manufacturers' efforts represent huge chunks of total business R&D spending, trade, and capital expenditure (capex), a non-trivial amount of laboratory effort is associated with that spending. Why? Because R&D, trade, and manufacturing quality control (QC) activities rarely can occur without laboratories backing up their work.

Labs in the manufacturing sector provide vital services, including but not limited to quality assurance (QA), QC, production control, regulatory trade control (e.g., authenticity and adulteration), safety management, label claim testing, and packaging analysis. These activities occur in a wide array of manufacturing industries. Looking to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), employed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), manufacturing industries and sub-industries include:

• apparel (e.g., knitted goods, cut-and-sew clothing, buttons and clasps)
• chemical (e.g., pesticides, fertilizers, paints, cleaning products, adhesives, electroplating solutions)
• electric power (e.g., light bulbs, household appliances, energy storage cells, transformers)
• electronics (e.g., sensors, semiconductors, electrodes, mobile phones, computers)
• food and beverage (e.g., baked goods, probiotics, preservatives, wine)
• furniture (e.g., mattresses, sofas, window blinds, light fixtures)
• leather (e.g., purses, saddles, footwear, bookbinding hides)
• machinery (e.g., mining augers, air conditioning units, turbines, lathes)
• materials (e.g., ceramics, cements, glass, nanomaterials)
• medical equipment and supplies (e.g., ventilators, implants, lab equipment, prosthetics, surgical equipment)
• metal forming and casting (e.g., steel beams, aluminum ingots, shipping containers, hand tools, wire)
• paper and printing (e.g., cardboard, sanitary items, stationery, books, bookbinding papers)
• petrochemical (e.g., solvents, fuel additives, biofuels, lubricants)
• pharmaceutical and medicine (e.g., antivenom, vaccines, lab-on-a-chip diagnostic tests, cannabis products, nutraceuticals)
• plastics and rubbers (e.g., dinnerware, tires, storage and shelving, outdoor furniture)
• textiles (e.g., carpeting, upholstery, bulk fabric, yarn)
• vehicular and aerospace (e.g., electric vehicles, reusable rocketry, railroad rolling stock, OEM auto parts)
• wood (e.g., plywood, flooring, lumber, handrails)

If you've ever used a sophisticated two-part epoxy adhesive to repair a pipe crack, used an indoor sun lamp, gotten a lot of mileage out of a pair of leather gloves, received a medical implant, taken a medication, eaten a Twinkie, or ridden on Amtrak, one or more laboratories were involved somewhere in the manufacturing process before using that item. From endless research and testing of prototypes to various phases of quality and safety testing, laboratory science was involved. The importance of the laboratory in manufacturing processes can't be understated.

But what of the history of the manufacturing-focused lab? What of the roles played and testing conducted in them? What do they owe to safety and quality? This chapter more closely examines these questions and more.