After seven consecutive monthly increases. Year over year: +0.9%.
Federal Reserve ↗SMA scorecard / manufacturing signal mapWhat does
What does
manufacturing
actually say?
Expansion is real. So is the strain beneath it. One set of measures, four decisions that cannot be made from a headline alone.
Source-linked snapshot of US releases available September 28, 2026. Static edition; figures do not update automatically.
01 / The signalGrowth, with friction
Growth, with friction
in the system.
The headline says expansion. The underlying measures disagree on pace, output, staffing and cost. Pick a reader to see which signal matters to their decision.
Down 3.0 points from July, while headline PMI stands at 54.6.
ISM report ↗Price pressure persists while new-order momentum eases.
ISM report ↗Days of supply, a national inventory measure. It is not a local outage forecast.
EIA series ↗Expansion is not acceleration.
ISM diffusion indexes. The 50 line separates reported expansion and contraction for these activity indexes; prices measure a different condition. Bar length is an index reading, not a share of factories.
What the headline cannot settle.
+0.9% annual / −0.3% monthly
Both Federal Reserve output readings are true. They describe different windows.
51.2 hiring index / +16,000 jobs
ISM sentiment and BLS payrolls both rose in August, but answer different questions.
Concentration / median firm
Not calculated here. Industry-level distribution and firm-level median require additional matched data. No invented split fills that gap.
SMA interpretation
One source model. Several legitimate readings.
The question is what each measure represents, whose situation it describes, what it leaves out, and which decision it can actually support.
02 / Audience modes
Choose the decision you are making.
The source figures stay fixed. Each reader sees a different priority, state and concrete next move.
HOLD EXPANSION / VERIFY ORDERS
Orders are expanding, but slowing. Match new capacity to your own backlog and repeat demand.
- Decision
- Capacity and staffing
- Check next
- Segment-level orders, utilization, margins and forecast revisions.
- Shared evidence
- Dated Federal Reserve, ISM, BLS and EIA releases in the register below.
Do not treat a national aggregate as your order book.
Compare the same periods, industry definitions and geography. Record the source and revision for each input before making the call.
03 / Evidence register
Follow each number home.
Static snapshot assembled September 28, 2026. The release period and measure matter as much as the value. Open the primary sources before reusing a finding.
August 2026, seasonally adjusted industrial production release.
OPEN SOURCE ↗August 2026 Manufacturing PMI report. Diffusion indexes, not percentage changes.
OPEN SOURCE ↗August 2026 Employment Situation, preliminary establishment survey.
OPEN SOURCE ↗US distillate fuel oil, week ending September 18, 2026. Weekly series.
OPEN SOURCE ↗Requires matched industry and firm distribution data. No concentration percentage is inferred from these aggregate releases.
NOT YET SCOREDAccuracy protocolCompare model interpretations, then resolve disagreements against source definitions, dates and revisions. Agreement between models is not verification.
04 / Build your own
Decode one metric at a time. Then synthesize.
The lower-page pipeline follows the attached concept: atomic metric runs produce reusable records before a cross-category view is assembled.
Choose a metric
Define one question, geography, period and affected readers. Gather the primary source and useful context.
EXAMPLE: manufacturing employment indexGenerate two files
Create an HTML scorecard for human review and a Markdown record with source, value, caveat, reader impact and confidence.
01_employment.html + 01_employment.mdAccumulate evidence
Repeat per metric. Correct errors, preserve source dates, then bundle the Markdown records together.
12 to 20 records, if the issue needs that coverageConverge on readers
Use the bundle to trace tradeoffs across a shared set of affected readers. Flag gaps and conflicts before publishing.
One cross-category, source-linked view05 / Another application
A balanced template for local decisions.
Data centers are one possible topic for a community scorecard. This is a category checklist with no filled values or implied verdict.
Water and power
Requested capacity, expected and peak use, source availability, rate impact, emissions, mitigation and who pays.
Jobs and tax base
Construction versus permanent jobs, local hire, wages, tax receipts, rebates, infrastructure spending and community commitments.
Who gains or bears a cost?
Residents, workers, utilities, local businesses and public agencies may face different tradeoffs. Keep the same sourced facts for all.
What would be fair?
Show the proposed resource exchange and obligations explicitly. Record uncertainty and alternatives rather than forcing one answer.
Template onlyNo water, energy, jobs, wages, tax or impact numbers are supplied here. A real project needs location-specific source reports and dated public filings.
Make the underlying meaning inspectable.
This source-linked scorecard shows one application of the method. JIG—ME's guided service applies the same source-linked method to a product and its dependent pages.
See the service