Founder Data Report41.8% of Manufacturing Plants Said Their Production Targets Needed More Than Normal Effort to Achieve
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Census’s 2021 management survey asked manufacturing plants how hard their production targets were to reach. More said hard than said easy, by a wide margin.
In the Census Bureau’s 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey, 41.8% of manufacturing plants said their production targets could be achieved only with more than normal or extraordinary effort. 35.2% said a normal amount of effort, and 13.6% said little or some effort. About half of plants, 49.6%, set a mix of short-term and long-term targets; 39.1% focused mainly on targets under a year out and 1.7% mainly on targets more than a year out.
- 41.8% of plants said their targets needed more than normal effort: 33.9% more than normal, 7.9% extraordinary.
- 35.2% said a normal amount of effort. That is level with ‘more than normal’ once the survey’s margin of error is counted.
- Only 2.6% said their targets could be met without much effort.
- 49.6% set a mix of short- and long-term targets, 39.1% mainly short-term, 1.7% mainly long-term, and 9.7% had no production targets.
- These are manufacturing plants, and the survey asks how hard the targets were, not whether they were met.
How hard the target is
The survey asked each plant how much effort its production targets took to achieve, with one answer allowed. Two answers dominate, and they are level with each other: 35.2% said a normal amount of effort and 33.9% said more than normal effort. The gap between them is inside the survey’s margin of error, so neither can be called the more common answer. Another 7.9% said their targets were only possible with extraordinary effort. At the easy end, 11.0% said some effort and 2.6% said not much effort at all. A further 9.4% gave no answer.
One answer per plant; the six shares add to 100. Orange bars: more than normal or extraordinary effort.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey (MOPS), survey table 6, response shares (mops_survey_tables_2021.xlsx, published April 2023, the most recent MOPS release), retrieved from census.gov on October 9, 2026. Manufacturing plants only.
Plants that called their targets hard outnumbered plants that called them easy by roughly three to one.
Hard outnumbers easy
Group the answers and the lean is plain. 41.8% of plants said their targets needed more than normal effort, against 13.6% that said little or some, roughly three to one. Counting only the plants that answered, the above-normal share is 46.1%. The survey does not record whether the plants then met those targets, or whether the harder ones did better or worse for it.
Sums of the published shares. A further 9.4% of plants gave no answer and is not shown.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey (MOPS), survey table 6, response shares (mops_survey_tables_2021.xlsx, published April 2023, the most recent MOPS release), retrieved from census.gov on October 9, 2026. Manufacturing plants only.
How far ahead the target looks
The survey also asked what timeframe a plant’s targets covered. About half, 49.6%, combined short-term targets of less than a year with longer ones. 39.1% focused mainly on the short term. Almost none, 1.7%, focused mainly on targets more than a year out, and 9.7% had no production targets at all.
One answer per plant; the four shares add to 100. Orange bar: a mix of short- and long-term targets.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey (MOPS), survey table 6, response shares (mops_survey_tables_2021.xlsx, published April 2023, the most recent MOPS release), retrieved from census.gov on October 9, 2026. Manufacturing plants only.
What to take from this if you run the place
Most of these plants set targets somewhere between normal effort and a stretch, and most set at least some of them inside the next twelve months. The survey cannot tell you which mix is right. It does not show that harder targets get more done, or that they wear people out. What it does show is that a target that needs not much effort is rare, and a target that looks past next year, on its own, is rarer still. A fair question for Monday: for the one number that matters most to your business this year, would the people chasing it say it takes normal effort or more, and is there a second number that looks further out than this year?
Three limits worth holding. The survey covers manufacturing plants drawn from the Annual Survey of Manufactures mailing list, which means every plant of a multi-plant company plus larger single-plant firms, so small single-plant shops are outside it. The figures are national only: the table gives no breakdown by plant size for these questions. And the survey asks how much effort the targets needed, not whether they were met.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey.
Frequently Asked Questions
How hard are production targets in US manufacturing plants?
In Census's 2021 management survey, 41.8% of manufacturing plants said their production targets needed more than normal or extraordinary effort to achieve, 35.2% said a normal amount, and 13.6% said little or some effort.
What is the most common answer?
Two answers are level: a normal amount of effort (35.2%) and more than normal effort (33.9%). The gap between them is inside the survey's margin of error.
Do plants set long-term targets?
Mostly alongside short-term ones. 49.6% of plants combined the two, 39.1% focused mainly on the short term, and only 1.7% focused mainly on targets more than a year out.
Do harder targets get better results?
This survey does not show that. It asks how much effort the targets needed, not whether they were met or what they changed.
Where does the data come from?
The U.S. Census Bureau's 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey, a supplement to the Annual Survey of Manufactures, published in April 2023. It covers manufacturing plants only.
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