Productivity Example Questions

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I. List some of factors that can affect the productivity and some ways that productivity can be improved?

To determine what factors affect productivity it is first necessary to define productivity from a few different perspectives. There are several different definitions of productivity stemming from the related industries but all things considered, productivity can be summarized with a simple mathematical formula which states that it is the ratio of outputs to inputs: Total Productivity = Output Quantity / Input Quantity. This simplistic formula only takes into consideration the most basic units of business consideration and therefore can be a bit misleading. Aspects such as the technical, social, psychological and cultural dimensions of business tasks and jobs, which are extremely difficult to quantify, are not taken into consideration and this omission can have detrimental affects on efforts to improve productivity.

Keeping to the basic equation of productivity; if the goal is to increase the productive level of business, focus must be turned toward producing more output with the same level of input or producing the same output with fewer inputs. There is a persistent problem with measuring productivity; a decision of what inputs and outputs are to be measured and how they will be measured must be made. If the measure of an individual's productivity is the issue, it is a relatively easy process to determine however, when the decision is based upon an entire company with several disparate units, this can present quite a challenge. Each unit must be considered for its unique inputs and outputs, whether there is a capital consideration involved with the units input or output and if any intangible considerations must be identified and quantified.

So how can productivity be improved? Although there is no "catch all" process that will guarantee a "productivity boom" across all industry sectors, there are a few activities and processes that have been proven to generally improve productivity in areas common to most businesses. Some of the most obvious ways to improve productivity involve employing automation and computerized processes that ...