NUTS AREN'T the only types of fasteners used in product assembly. Retaining rings, Speed Nuts and a variety of other specialized metal and plastic fasteners have been developed. These specialty fasteners can often save time in the assembly process.

By the time you read this, George W. Bush will be president of the United States. And regardless of whether the country is going through a temporary slowdown or headed for a genuine recession, one of his top priorities will be the nation's economy.

President Bush will need to be aware of the role that manufacturing plays in the strength of the U.S. economy, especially in these times of hysteria over high-tech stocks. Traditional economic measures of productivity alone do not reveal the full extent of contributions made by machine tools and related advanced manufacturing technologies to the nation's economic progress. Over the past 5 years, those benefits amounted to nearly $1 trillion, according to a study just released by AMT--The Association for Manufacturing Technology.

"Machine tools and technologies other than computers and microprocessors receive inadequate credit for America's prosperity," says Joel Popkin, Washington D.C.-based economic consultant and author of the study. He says that during the past two decades, a revolution in manufacturing technology--and advances in machine tools specifically--enabled manufacturers to reinvent themselves and to restore the competitive power of the United States as a world-class producer of durable goods.

From 1992 to 1998, growth in manufacturing contributed 22 percent of the gain in gross domestic product, more than any other sector, according to the National Association of Manufacturers.

But Dan McDonnell, president of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, is concerned that American manufacturers may have lost their focus. He remembers when U.S. manufacturers were jolted out of their complacency in the 1980s and had to concentrate on quality and innovative manufacturing methods to restore their competitive stature. "My fear," he says, "is that we've peaked and are starting to slide back."

Although manufacturing excellence still gets lip service, without pressure from the top many manufacturing managers are now either being driven hard to follow the trends du jour or are lowering the standards for manufacturing excellence. "It's this complacency that is endangering the American manufacturer again," McDonnell says.

Making products that improve and enrich our lives is still the foundation of generating real and enduring wealth. Manufacturing isn't just "useful" to the economy, or even just "important." It is indispensable. And to let manufacturing slip back into the abyss of the 1980s would be unthinkable.

McDonnell, who is responsible for five manufacturing plants in his full-time position as manager of global operations for General Electric, says "Companies need to be vigilant and continue to strive to develop the best and most efficient manufacturing practices. Keeping the quality edge is more like a peacekeeping mission than a war; it goes on indefinitely. A company that stops will decline and fall; there are no rest stops on the road to success."