Many experts have spoken about how well the manufacturing business is doing, but when you can actually look at the numbers it adds an entirely new level to the discussion. It is much like being able to add a face to a name.

A recent article from Cerasis examined the sector and offered up some hard facts that show how well manufacturing is stacking up not only in the U.S. but around the world.

Every sector wants to focus on long term, sustainable growth, but not all of them are able to put their head down, work hard and actually do it. Manufacturing has done that and more. The report of a resurgence in the U.S. market and the boom of reshoring operations away from China make for great anecdotes, but the numbers presented show the improved industry growth across the industry.

There were several areas of the industry that experienced performance improvement in 2013 compared to 2012. These were all determined through a series of metrics for each category that breaks down mountains of data specific to the part of business in question. The increases include:

• Financial – 8.6 percent
• Innovation – 7.8 percent
• Efficiency – 17 percent
• Responsiveness – 10 percent
• Quality – 13.7 percent
• Inventory – 15 percent
• Maintenance – 14.7 percent
• Compliance – 14.7 percent

"As can be discerned from the findings, manufacturers in the U.S. have been working hard to improve their competitiveness on the global stage," the article reads. "Certainly overseas competitors have been making improvements as well, but improvements of this magnitude are not easily obtained, especially when using prior year performance in a mature marketplace such as the US manufacturing sector as a basis for comparison."

The piece goes on to say that sustaining year-over-year improvements in the future in the U.S. manufacturing sector will be key to developing the rebirth of the local market. This is true regardless of "which direction the winds of extraneous good fortune happen to be blowing."

The manufacturing business is still widely considered to be one of the backbones of the U.S. economy. With strong improvements across the board and a push toward long-term growth, there is a bright outlook. This could be the perfect time for organizations to start looking into a way to improve overall operations through the use of improved hardware or manufacturing business software to streamline operations.