Economic Census Factoryless Goods Producers Debriefing Interviews Plan

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the Census Bureau’s plans to conduct additional research under the generic clearance for questionnaire research (OMB number 0607-0725). We plan to conduct debriefing interviews with business respondents to examine the accuracy and availability of a special inquiry item collected on the 2012 Economic Census questionnaires covering Wholesale Trade, Manufacturing, and Management of Companies and Enterprises. This item captures data on the purchase of contract manufacturing.

This item was added to the 2012 Economic Census, in response to the Economic Classification Policy Committee’s recommendation to classify factoryless goods producers (FGPs) in the manufacturing sector of the economy. FGPs are establishments that control the design, production, and sale of products but contract with unaffiliated establishments to perform transformation activities. The items we are investigating are intended to capture whether establishments purchase or produce contract manufacturing services as well as the cost incurred, and receipts from these contract manufacturing services. A sample form with the item of interest has been included for reference (i.e., Question 26 – Special Inquiries).

During April and May 2014, the Response Improvement Research Staff (RIRS) and the subject-matter staff from the Service Sector Statistics Division (SSSD) and Manufacturing and Construction Division (MCD) will conduct one round of debriefing interviews with up to 200 establishment respondents from the Wholesale Trade, Manufacturing, and Management of Companies and Enterprises industries across the United States. The SSSD and MCD staff will select the list of businesses from which the interviews will be recruited. Interviews will take place over the phone and will investigate respondents’ understanding of the inquiries and gather information on how this data is collected at the establishment level. The contract manufacturing items were not applicable to all respondents who answered these surveys so, in order to gather sufficient information about these items, we will be specifically targeting the following NAICS industry groups: semiconductors, apparel, computers, commercial printing, pharmaceuticals, machine shops, plastics, metals, miscellaneous food, and wholesale trade.

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 or special sworn employees involved in the research project. We will not be providing monetary incentives to participants in this study. When possible we will audio-record some of the interviews with the participants’ permission, to aid researchers in accurately reporting findings and recommendations. A draft protocol has been included with this letter.

We estimate that it will be necessary to interview one respondent at each business. We estimate the length of the interviews at a maximum of twenty minutes (200 cases X 20 minutes per case = 66.67 hours). Additionally, to recruit respondents who are willing to participate we expect to make up to 5 phone contacts per completed case. The recruiting calls are expected to last on average two minutes per call (5 attempted phone calls per completed case X 200 cases X 2 minutes = 33.33 hours). Thus, the estimated burden for this project is 100 hours (66.67 hours for interviewing + 33.33 hours for recruiting interviews).

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

Heidi M. St.Onge

Response Improvement Research Staff

Office of Economic Planning and Improvement

U.S. Census Bureau
Washington, D.C. 20233
301-763-3322

Heidi.M.St.Onge@census.gov

Enclosures

cc:
W. Bostic          (DIR) with enclosures

S. Ahmed (DIR)        “           ”
J. Whitaker             (ADEP)     “           ”
D. Willimack              (ADEP)     “           ”
A. Anderson Riemer  (ADEP)      “           ”

T. Smith         (AMSD)    “           ”
N. Orsini (MCD) without enclosures

J. Smith, Jr. (MCD)       “        ”

Robert F Miller (MCD)       “        ”

T. Riddle         (MCD)       “        ”
A. Theodoropoulos (MCD)       “        ”
J. Murphy (SSSD)       “        ”
F. Dorsett (SSSD)       “        ”
J. Moody (SSSD)       “        ”

J. Drago             (SSSD)       “        ” 
L. Pullins (SSSD)       “        ”
R. Nusz        (SSSD)       “        ”