Tuesday, 3 February 2015

What is Productivity?

The definition of Productivity is given as “OUTPUT” compared to “INPUT”.
According to Marsh, Brush (2002) in his article Journal of industrial technology, productivity is
a measure of the efficiency and effectiveness to which organizational resources (inputs) are
utilized for the creation of products and/or services (outputs). Productivity measurement is both a
measure of input utilization and an assessment as to whether or not input utilization is growing
faster than output.
In the case of a garment manufacturing factory, “output” can be taken as the number of products
manufactured, whilst “input” is the people, machinery and factory resources required to create
those products within a given time frame. The key to cost effective improvements in output – in
“productivity” – is to ensure that the relationship between input and output is properly balanced.
For example, there is little to be gained from an increase in output if it comes only as a result of a
major increase in input. Indeed, in an ideal situation, “input” should be controlled
and minimized whilst “output” is maximized.
Higher productivity provides more products from the same number of people, in the same time
frame. This in turn improves “overhead recovery” related to factory costs, such as electricity and
fuel, because overheads are fixed within that time frame. So, the more products produced in a
given time frame the less overhead allocation per product, which, in turn, reduces the cost of
each individual item and therefore improves competitive edge.
Dr. Bheda in his book "Managing Productivity in the Apparel Industry" explained the different
ways of measuring productivity. Productivity can be expressed in many ways but mostly
productivity is measured as labour productivity, machine productivity or value productivity.
These three term can be defined as-
 Labour productivity - Output per labour (direct +indirect) in a given time frame (in
pieces)
 Machine productivity - Output per machine in a given time frame (in pieces)
 Value productivity - Total value of output in a given time frame.
33. How to measure labor productivity?
Definition
Most simply, productivity is the ratio between output and inputs.
Within a factory, industrial engineers or factory managers and line supervisors measure the
number of garments produced by a line of sewing machine operators in a specific time frame.
Generally factory works 10 to 12 hours a day. Total production (output pieces) of a line and total
labor involved in producing those pieces is required to calculate labor productivity. See
following example,
Assume that
Total production in day =1200 pieces
Total labor (operator +helpers) = 37
Working time = 600 minutes (10 hours)
So, Labor productivity per 10 hours is =Total pieces produced/ total labor input = (1200/37)
Pieces =32.4 pieces.
Another productivity measure is labor efficiency, which is a comparison of the time spent
working productively to the total time spent at work. These metrics are appropriate for analyzing
and comparing the productivity of a particular production line or factory that turns out specific
apparel products. However, comparing productivity levels across products or operating lines can
be difficult because the benchmarks
differ from one garment to another. Calculation of labor efficiency is shown below. Consider
above data.
SAM (Standard allowed minutes) of the garment = 8.9
Minutes produced by each labor =(32.4 pieces X 8.9) = 288 minutes
Available minutes was 600
So, Labor efficiency = (Produced minutes/available minutes) = (288/600*100)% = 48%
To compare productivity estimates across products, factories, or even industries,
economists define labor productivity as the production value added that each worker generates.
In this case, labor productivity equals the value of production divided by labor input.
The value of production is generally measured as value added, equal to the gross value of sales
minus the value of purchased inputs such as fabric, trim, and energy. Labor input is measured by
total work hours. Labor productivity can thus be estimated at the national, aggregate level and
for specific industries in an economy.

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