Parts plants outnumber assembly plants about 12 to 1.
1,320 motor vehicle parts plants have 100 or more staff, against 110 assembly plants. Your home page names tier 1 and 2 suppliers alongside OEMs.
Enquirer Consulting Group
Buyer Map: US Warehouses and Plants, ForwardX Robotics
Prepared for Jonathan VanDorn | ForwardX Robotics | October 2026
As of Oct 1, 2026, from public federal files
Your site names warehouses and manufacturing as its main markets for mobile robots and autonomous forklifts, from automotive to food and beverage, plus hospitals under public sector. This page counts the US sites in each industry your site names, how many have 100 or more staff, and where they are. Every number comes from public federal files.
Warehouses with 100 or more staff
2,790
Out of 21,500 warehousing and storage sites with paid staff in the US.
Manufacturing plants with 100 or more staff
26,000
Out of 284,000 manufacturing sites, all industries.
Forklift and industrial truck operators
806,000
Jobs on a payroll, across nonfarm industries. Your fleet includes autonomous forklifts.
Industrial production managers
232,000
Plus 213,000 transportation, storage and distribution managers and 350,000 industrial engineers.
The industries your site names
Sites are physical locations with paid staff. A company with five plants counts five times. One row sits inside another (semiconductors inside electronics), so the rows are not meant to add up.
| Industry | Where your site lists it | Roles to look for (our reading, not counted) | All US sites | 100 or more staff |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warehousing and storage | 3PL, retail, ecommerce and grocery fulfillment | Warehouse or DC operations leader, VP supply chain | 21,500 | 2,790 |
| Food manufacturing | Food and beverage | Plant manager, operations director | 31,100 | 3,620 |
| Beverage manufacturing | Food and beverage | Plant manager, operations director | 12,500 | 500 |
| Motor vehicle parts | Tier 1 and 2 suppliers | Plant manager, manufacturing engineering lead | 4,660 | 1,320 |
| Motor vehicle assembly | Automotive OEM | Plant logistics or material flow lead | 330 | 110 |
| Tires | Tier 1 and 2 suppliers (tires) | Plant manager, manufacturing engineering lead | 130 | 56 |
| Computer and electronic products | Electronics | Operations director, industrial engineering lead | 11,300 | 1,580 |
| Semiconductors and electronic components | Semiconductors | Fab or plant operations leader | 3,690 | 580 |
| Pumps and pumping equipment | Pumps | Plant manager, manufacturing engineering lead | 700 | 130 |
| Cement and concrete products | Construction (a cement plant case) | Plant manager, operations director | 9,130 | 310 |
| Hospitals | Public sector (hospital) | Facilities or supply chain director | 7,520 | 5,830 |
Where the larger sites are: eight states hold about 45% of them
Warehouses and manufacturing plants with 100 or more staff, the eight states with the most, largest first.
| State | Warehouses, 100+ staff | Plants, 100+ staff | Together |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | 320 | 2,220 | 2,540 |
| Texas | 280 | 1,740 | 2,030 |
| Ohio | 140 | 1,550 | 1,690 |
| Pennsylvania | 170 | 1,290 | 1,460 |
| Illinois | 170 | 1,230 | 1,410 |
| Michigan | 66 | 1,300 | 1,370 |
| Wisconsin | 49 | 1,220 | 1,270 |
| Indiana | 120 | 1,110 | 1,220 |
Where the openings are
Food and beverage is the largest manufacturing lane.
4,120 food and beverage plants have 100 or more staff, more than any other manufacturing industry in the table. Your site lists food and beverage under both warehouses and manufacturing.
Five of the top eight states are in the Midwest.
Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana hold 6,960 warehouses and plants with 100 or more staff between them.
Denominators, definitions and sources
- Sites are establishments in the federal annual count of business establishments by industry, 2023, all legal forms. An establishment is one physical location with paid employees at some point in the year. Staff is paid employees at the location in the mid-March 2023 pay period. The industry rows use the national file; the state rows use the state file for the 50 states and DC.
- Industry codes: warehousing and storage 493; food 311; beverage 3121 (excludes tobacco); motor vehicle parts 3363; motor vehicle assembly 3361; tires 326211 (excludes retreading); computer and electronic products 334; semiconductors and other electronic components 3344; cement and concrete products 3273; hospitals 622; all manufacturing 31 to 33. Pumps and pumping equipment combines 333914 and 333996, and 333914 also includes measuring and dispensing pumps. Most cement and concrete sites are ready-mix plants. Distribution centers run by wholesalers sit under wholesale trade and are not in the warehousing count, so it is a floor. Federal hospitals are outside this file.
- 100 or more staff is all sites minus the published counts under 100 staff, so it is exact even where the file withholds the count for one or more of its largest size bands (cement, pumps). In the state file some states and DC withhold warehouse size counts, so the total across the states sits between 2,778 and 2,810 warehouses; the eight state rows withhold nothing.
- Forklift and industrial truck operators, industrial production managers, transportation, storage and distribution managers, and industrial engineers are jobs on a payroll in the federal occupational employment survey, May 2024, summed across the state file. The survey leaves out the self-employed. Maryland and DC each publish no figure for one of these jobs (Maryland for production managers, DC for forklift operators), so those two totals are slight floors.
- Industries are as listed on forwardx.com on Oct 1, 2026. Figures over 100 are rounded on purpose.
The named version of this page, the actual sites inside a row, is built one row at a time. Reply on the thread, or write to my colleague Matthew, who is your point of contact from here: matthew@enquirerai.com.
Enquirer Consulting Group | enquirerconsulting.com