Founder Data ReportIn 26% of Manufacturing Plants, the People Who Are Not Managers Never Review the Performance Numbers
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Census’s 2021 management survey of manufacturing plants: managers look at the numbers. In a quarter of plants, the people below them never do.
In the Census Bureau’s 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey, 26.0% of manufacturing plants said their non-managers never reviewed the plant’s key performance indicators. For managers the figure was 9.8%. Only 46.9% of plants said all managers and most production workers knew the production targets, and 48.6% had no display boards showing how the plant was doing.
- Non-managers never reviewed the plant’s performance indicators at 26.0% of plants. Managers never did at 9.8%.
- Managers reviewed them monthly at 44.0% of plants; non-managers at 29.4%. Managers were ahead at every frequency from daily to yearly.
- At 31.1% of plants, most production workers did not know the production targets: only senior managers knew at 8.4%, and some workers at 22.7%.
- 48.6% of plants had no display boards at all.
- These are manufacturing plants. Small single-plant shops are outside the survey, so read it for the pattern, not as a portrait of your business.
Who looks at the numbers
Every plant in this survey was asked how often its key performance indicators, the handful of numbers that say whether the place is running well, were reviewed by managers and how often by everyone else. Plants could tick more than one answer, so the shares do not add to 100. The gap between the two groups runs the length of the scale. Managers reviewed the numbers monthly at 44.0% of plants; non-managers at 29.4%. Managers never reviewed them at 9.8% of plants; non-managers never did at 26.0%. For scale, 9.5% of plants reported tracking no key performance indicators at all. The one exception runs the other way: the people on the floor were slightly more likely to see numbers hourly (4.1% against 3.3%).
Share of manufacturing plants. Plants could select more than one frequency, so the shares do not add to 100. All bars on one scale.
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.
In a quarter of plants, the people who are not managers never review the plant’s performance numbers.
Who knows the target
The same survey asked who at the plant knew its production targets, with one answer allowed. The largest group, 46.9%, said all managers and most production workers. Another 12.6% said most managers and most production workers. That leaves 31.1% of plants where most of the people producing the goods did not know what they were aiming at: 22.7% where some production workers knew, and 8.4% where only senior managers did. A further 9.5% gave no answer.
One answer per plant; the five shares add to 100. Orange bars: most production workers knew the 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.
Where the numbers are posted
Display boards put a plant’s numbers where people can see them without asking. The survey asked where a plant’s boards were. Just under half of plants, 48.6%, had none. 33.9% had boards in several places and 17.5% kept them all in one place.
One answer per plant. A further 0.1% 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.
What to take from this if you run the place
You do not run a manufacturing plant, most likely, but the shape will be familiar. The owner knows the numbers. The people doing the work see them late, see a piece of them, or never see them. Then the owner becomes the only person who can tell whether the week went well, which makes every call on the business a call that waits for you. The survey does not say that sharing the numbers makes a business run better, and it does not say why so many plants keep them in the office. It does show how common that is, even in places that measure a great deal. A fair question for Monday: which two or three numbers would your team need to know whether they are winning, and where would they see them without asking you?
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 records what plants did, not why, or what it changed.
U.S. Census Bureau, 2021 Management and Organizational Practices Survey.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often do workers who are not managers see performance numbers?
In Census's 2021 management survey of manufacturing plants, non-managers never reviewed the plant's key performance indicators at 26.0% of plants, against 9.8% for managers.
Do most production workers know the targets?
At 59.5% of plants, most production workers knew the production targets. At 31.1%, most did not: only senior managers knew at 8.4% of plants.
How many plants use display boards?
Just over half had them: 51.4% of manufacturing plants. 48.6% had no display boards showing how the plant was doing.
Does showing workers the numbers improve results?
This survey does not show that. It records which practices plants used, not what those practices 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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