small urban manufacturers
Rethinking Federal Policymaking for the Small Urban Manufacturing Sector
In researching our soon-to-be-released Field Guide study of the Manufacturing Renaissance Council we discovered an illuminating 2011 Brookings Institution white paper, “The Federal Role in Supporting Urban Manufacturing,” co-authored by Joan Byron and Nisha Mistry. The paper focuses exclusively on the emergence of Small Urban Manufacturers (SUMs) as a trend that is transforming the American manufacturing landscape. SUMs are defined as urban manufacturers employing less than 100 people. The authors offer specific suggestions on how federal policy, which has largely failed to serve the needs of these entities, can be retuned to support them.
