TWO PROBLEMS ABOUT
PRODUCTIVITY

1. John Lucy makes wooden boxes in which to ship
motorcycles. John and his three employees invest

40 hours per day making the 120 boxes.

(a) What is their productivity?

(b) John and his employees have discussed redesigning the
process to improve efficiency. If they can increase the rate to 125 per day,
what would be their new productivity?

(c) What would be
their increase in productivity?

a)
Productivity
is a measure of process improvement and it is represented by a ratio between
the output and the input, like her for example Productivity= 120/40 = 3

b)
The
new productivity is 125/40=3.125

c)
Increase
= 3.125/3 = 1.041, so the increase in productivity is 4.1%

2.  Riverside Metal Works produces cast bronze valves on
an assembly line. On a recent day, 160 valves were produced during an 8-hour
shift. Calculate the labor productivity of the line.

Labor Productivity= 160 valves/8 hours = 20 valves/hour