Productivity, theory and probs ..

Productivity = output / input - used for planning workforce requirements, scheduling equipments, financial analysis, comparing competitiveness of organisations, comparing operating costs and so on.

Productivity growth % = (current productivity ratio - earlier productivity ratio) x 100 / earlier productivity ratio

Productivity is tracked with partial measures ( either labour or machine or capital or energy etc..) or multifactor measures ( combination of inputs but not all).

When all the inputs to manufacture an item is used, we call it total productivity measure. Dtermine the multuifactor productivity for the combined input of labour and machine time using foll data.
Total measure = goods or services produced / all inputs used to produce them.

Productivity questions :

1. A company produced 300 standard book cases using 8 workers last week and 240  book cases using 6 workers this week. In which period was productivity higher, explain ?

2. The manager of a crew that installs carpeting has tracked the work of crews sent to different parts of the city over the past few weeks.
Week       Crew size     Yards installed
1                 4                  960
2                 3                  702
3                 4                  968
4                 2                  500
5                 3                  696
6                 2                  500

Compute the labour productivity for each of the weeks. On the basis of your calculations what can you conclude about crew size and productivity ?

3. Determine the multi factor productivity for the combined input of labour and machine time using foll data : output 7040 units
Input : labour $ 1000
materials $ 520
overhead $2000

4. Compute the multifactor productivity measures for each of the weeks shown. What do the productivity figures suggest ? Assume 40 hour weeks and an hourly wage of Rs. 150. Overhead is 1.5 times weekly labour cost. Material cost is Rs. 200/kg. Which week gave max productivity ?

week     output (units)      workers       Material ,kgs.
1            30,000                 6                  450
2            33,600                 7                  470
3            32,200                 7                  460
4            35,400                 8                  480

5. An operation has a 10% scrap rate. As a result 72 pieces of scrap / hr are produced. What is the potential increase in labour productivity that could be achieved by eliminating the scrap?

6. A manager checked the production records and found that a worker produced 160 units while working 40 hours. In the previous week, the same worker produced 138 units while working 36 hours. Did the worker productivity increase, decrease or remain constant. Explain.