This section answers the most frequently asked questions about the Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization (QPC). If you do not find answers to all your survey questions, please contact staff through the Respondent Portal.

• About the Survey
• Completing the Survey
• Sample Selection
  

The purpose of the Quarterly Survey of Plant Capacity Utilization (QPC) is to provide quarterly statistics on the rates of capacity utilization for the U.S. manufacturing and publishing sectors. The QPC is the only source for quarterly statistics on U.S. industrial plant capacity for the manufacturing and publishing sectors. 

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Besides our company and contact information sections, there are only 4 portions to our survey.  We collect data on actual production, full production capability, estimated national emergency production capability, and work patterns. Your responses are kept strictly confidential and are not publicly released. 

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The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) and the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) co-sponsor the QPC survey.

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• The Federal Reserve Board uses the data to estimate monthly industrial production and assess change in industrial production and capacity.  They also use the information from the QPC to identify potential industry-level bottlenecks and sources of inflationary pressure.

• The Department of Defense (under the DLA) uses statistics from the QPC to assess the ability of U.S. industries to meet demand for goods under national emergency scenarios.

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Yes, the U.S. Census Bureau is required by Title 13 United States Code, Section 9, to keep your information confidential and can use your responses only to produce statistics. The Census Bureau is not permitted to publicly release your responses in a way that could identify your business, organization, or institution. Per the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015, your data are protected from cybersecurity risks through screening of the systems that transmit your data.

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To verify that someone who has called you is a Census Bureau employee, you can enter their name in the Census Bureau Staff Search, a database that lists name and contact information for all Census Bureau employees.

https://www.census.gov/about/contact-us/staff-finder.html

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Yes, for the QPC survey, the following Publishing Industries are in scope: 51111- Newspaper Publishers, 51112- Periodical Publishers, 51113-Book Publishers, 51114- Directory and Mailing List Publishers, and 51119- Other Publishers (such as Greeting Card, Art print, Yearbooks, etc.).   Examples of Publishing Sectors that are out of scope include: Software Publishers, Motion Picture and Sound Recording Industries, Broadcasting, and Telecommunications.   If you do not conduct printing at your location and outsource the production of your material, please indicate this in your response.  You will respond to our question regarding onsite and offsite printing and then you may provide a remark in our comments section to let us know where your printed resources are physically published. 

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The establishments in the Manufacturing sector are engaged in the transformation of materials into new products. Establishments in the Manufacturing sector are often described as plants, factories, or mills and characteristically use power-driven machines and material handling equipment.

HOWEVER, establishments that transform materials or substances into new products by hand or in the worker's home and sell those products to the general public may also be included in this sector (examples include bakeries, candy stores, fabricating signs, custom tailors, machine shops, etc.).

You were selected based on your NACIS code, which is included in the Manufacturing sector or Publishing industries.  If you have a special scenario where you do not make a product, please contact us to discuss your situation.  You may write us a message in the Respondent Portal or call us at 1-800-201-4647.

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The QPC staff carefully monitor the physical addresses.  We are an establishment based survey and the facility or physical address is a key component of our sample selection process.  Continue to report as usual and make notes to indicate your new address as well as any known information regarding how the new facility impacts your manufacturing process (building size, equipment changes, employee changes, etc.).  Please also write us a message in the Respondent Portal to notify us of the physical address change.  

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If your plant produces more than one product, create an estimate for full and emergency production that is based on your most expensive product and report that value each quarter.  The full production and emergency production values should always be the same or higher than your actual production value. 

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Indicate the month and year when operations ceased at this plant. If the plant was in operation at ANY time during the quarter, complete all items. Report full and national emergency production as if the plant operated the entire quarter. 

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Indicate the month and year this action took place and provide new owner information. If the plant was in operation at ANY time during the quarter, complete all items. Report full and national emergency production as if the plant operated the entire quarter. 

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Title 13, United States Code, Section 8(b); Title 50, United States Code, Section 98, et. seq.; and Title 12, United States Code, Section 244 authorize the U.S. Census Bureau to conduct this collection.

This collection has been approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).  The eight-digit OMB approval number is 0607-0175.  Without this approval, the U.S. Census Bureau could not conduct this survey.

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Yes, after signing into the respondent portal and clicking “report now”, you will be brought to our reporting instrument.  On the Main Menu to the right side of the screen, there is a column titled “View/Print Form as PDF” and there is a pdf icon.  Click on this icon and it will download your file to your computer.  Please note, once our reporting period has closed you will no longer have access to this file.

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To ensure privacy, requests must be submitted online via our Respondent Portal.  Once registered and logged in, use your Authentication Code to populate the survey card to your dashboard.  On the QPC survey card, click on options, and select “send message” to email the Census Bureau.

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Reporting online is the preferred means to provide data for this report. If you are unable to access the Internet, please contact us at 1-800-201-4647 to discuss alternate reporting options.

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You can print a copy of our form for use only as a draft to compile your data.  Please do not submit the paper form.  The printable PDF is located on our Questionnaires page under the Forms & Instructions section.   

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Yes, carefully prepared estimates are acceptable if book figures are not readily available.

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No. The law authorizing this survey (Title 13, U.S. Code) does not authorize funds for payment.

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Your plant was chosen from a scientifically selected sample of businesses. Taking a sample is less costly than contacting every business in the country. 

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We have 93 industry categories and a relatively small sample at roughly 7,500 establishments. Plants selected for the sample represent other similar businesses.  As a result, your responses are very important to our data quality. 

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Taken together, small plants have a real impact on the economy. Your business was chosen from a scientifically selected sample of businesses and represents many other small plants like yours. The information you provide is critical to our data quality.

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