Cornell: Could you ask him to call me? marathon 21 growth and performance Manufacturing production increased slightly in May after declining in the previous two months, and the rate of manufacturing capacity utilization in May was lower than in the first quarter. Automakers' schedules indicated that the pace of motor vehicle assemblies would hold roughly steady in the coming months, and broader indicators of manufacturing production, such as the readings on new orders from national and regional manufacturing surveys, were generally at subdued levels that pointed to only modest increases in factory output in the near term.