Manufacturing is the production of merchandise for use or sale using labor and machines, tools, or chemical or biological processing. Anything from handicraft to high tech falls into this category, but it's usually applied to industrial production.

A manufacturing business is any business that uses components, parts, or raw materials to make a finished good. The finished goods can be sold directly to consumers or to other manufacturing businesses that use them for making a different product. Manufacturing businesses are normally comprised of machines, robots, computers, and people all working in a specific manner to create a product.

Manufacturing plants often use an assembly line, which refers to a process in which a product is put together in sequence from one workstation to the next. By moving the product down an assembly line, the finished good can be put together quicker with less manual labor. Some industries refer to the manufacturing process as fabrication.