Manufacturing is the transformation of raw materials into finished
goods for sale by means of tools and a processing medium, and
including all intermediate processes involving the production
or finishing of component parts ("semi-manufactures").
It is a large branch of industry and of secondary production.
Some industries, like semiconductor and steel manufacturers
use the term "fabrication".
While it remains a huge part of the modern world economy—perhaps
a quarter of aggregate world production of goods and services—many
of the world's wealthier nations devote an ever smaller proportion
of their workforce to manufacturing activity owing to relocation
of enterprises to lower-wage countries and the rising proportion
of economic activity devoted to service activity.
