M3 Benchmark Supplement Pretesting Plan

The Census Bureau plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire pretesting research (OMB number 0607-0725). We will be conducting cognitive interviewing for the Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders Benchmark Supplement (MA-3001). This supplement was last collected in 2008 under the title of Manufacturers’ Shipments, Inventories, and Orders to the Department of Defense Supplement: 2006-2007 (M-3DOD). The MA-3001 collects annual shipment, inventory, and order backlog data covering two years for Department of Defense and non-Department of Defense purposes from manufacturing establishments in 13 industry categories that encompass defense manufacturing activities.

There was confusion with the 2008 form on the part of respondents; non-Department of Defense companies thought this form did not apply to them because of the ‘Defense’ reference in the title of the form. As a result, data collected in this version of the form was unreliable, and thus was never published. To address this issue, the questionnaire was redesigned in order to de-emphasize the references to the Department of Defense in the hopes that companies not performing work for the Department of Defense would be more likely to respond. In addition to this, the form now asks for a percentage of Department-of-Defense spending rather than a dollar figure to address issues related to the burden of gathering this information.

We plan to conduct unstructured interviews with approximately 25 manufacturing companies in the 13 applicable industry categories. The 25 companies will be divided between two interviewing rounds. The first round will test the enclosed questionnaire.

The cognitive interviewing will focus on the respondents’ ability to provide the requested data as well as their understanding of the wording and terminology used on the form and the overall layout. The second round of testing will focus on any changes that were made to the form as a result of findings from the first round of testing.

During both rounds of testing we will visit companies that are known to have shipments, inventories, and order backlog for the Department of Defense as well as companies that do not. It is important to ensure that respondents that do not work with the Department of Defense still complete portions of the survey asking for their annual amounts of shipments, inventories, and order backlog.

Interviews will be conducted from late August through October, 2010. Manufacturing companies of varying sizes from the 13 applicable industries will be recruited in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area as well as other major metropolitan areas, to be determined. Interviews will take place at the business site and will be led by staff from the Response Improvement Research Staff within the Census Bureau’s Office of Economic Planning and Innovation.

Subject area specialists from the Census Bureau will accompany the researcher on most, if not all, of the interviews. They will assist with respondent debriefing, especially in cases where additional clarification of the subject matter is required. Interviews will be audio recorded with the participants’ permission, to aid researchers in accurately reporting findings and recommendations.

After businesses are recruited, participants will receive follow-up reminders about their appointments. Participants will be informed that their response is voluntary and that the information they provide is confidential and will be seen only by Census Bureau special sworn employees involved in the research project. We will not be providing monetary incentives to participants in this study.

We estimate that it will be necessary to interview only one respondent at each company. We estimate the length of the interviews will average 1 hour. Thus, the maximum estimated burden for this research is 25 hours.

Enclosed are draft copies of the form, instruction sheet, and NAICS classification code sheet along with the protocol to be used for testing. The form number on some of these materials is listed as M-3SUP and will be change to MA-3001.

The contact person for questions regarding data collection and statistical aspects of the design of this research is:

Amy E. Anderson

Response Improvement Research Staff

7K130F

U.S. Census Bureau

Washington, D.C. 20233

(301) 763-7544

Amy.E.Anderson@census.gov