Enter the information age. Information is the raw material for many of the business activities shaping this new era, (1)_____ iron and steel were the basic commodities in the dawning of the industrial age. The world's knowledge is said to be doubling (2)_____ eight years. This knowledge explosion is (3)_____ economic progress. The need to collect, analyze, and communicate (4)_____ quantities of information is Spawning new products and services, creating jobs, and widening career opportunities. The information age is (5)_____ considered to be a phenomenon of the service sector of the economy, (6)_____ a product of heavy industry. Certainly, burgeoning information technologies are creating new capabilities (7)_____ knowledge-based service spheres. But changes just as dramatic are (8)_____ industry, giving people the opportunity to do challenging work in exciting new ways. Manufacturing is a full participant in the information age. From design (9)_____ production, the manufacturing process has long been in formation-intensive. It always has required exacting communication to describe (10)_____ goes into products and how to make them, Now, computer technology is giving factory managers new capability to gather all of this information and (11)_____ it to control production. Telecommunications are producing error-free communication between the design office (12)_____ the factory, computer-aided design is enabling engineers to evaluate product performance and manufacturing process (13)_____ video displays, before resources are committed to build and test prototypes. Techniques like these are bringing (14)_____ new advances in manufacturing productivity. Just as coal fueled the transformation to an industrial society, (15)_____ microelectronics is powering the rise of the information age. Microelectronic information-management tools are strengthening U.S. industrial capability, (16)_____ remains vital to America's economic well being and national security. More and more manufacturing companies are (17)_____ that the wise of information can give them a competitive edge. As companies emphasize (18)_____ information management, talented people will continue to find (19)_____ to make factories and milks sing with increased productivity. In manufacturing as well as in services, information technology is a tool to (20)_____ human creativity into productivity.