Productivity - SpeedyLook encyclopedia

Economic approach

Measure

The productivity is a Ratio obtained by dividing the Production by one of the factors of production employed to obtain it. One can thus calculate the productivity of the work, the productivity of the Capital, the Investissement S, the raw materials, etc the term productivity employed only generally implies “labor productivity”.

There exists also a concept of total Productivité of the factors (PGF), which aims has to synthesize the overall productivity of the production process. This variable measures the Technological advance roughly.

One can also measure the productivity per quantity of energy used or the productivity of a Production unit or a Line production.

Labor productivity

The productivity of the work is defined like the production (in term of quantity of goods or produced services) obtained for each unit of the Factor of production “work” used.

For example, if work is measured of many hours worked, the productivity will be equal to the Ratio between the quantity produced over one temporal period (one day, one week, one year) and the full number of hours worked by the employees for this period.

Productivity gain

A productivity gain is, for a quantity of work and/or work tools identical, an improvement of the production of an production unit, or a Entreprise

The productivity gain is measured like the difference between two productivities on two dates given. This profit can be evaluated in absolute value (absolute profit by worker) or in relative value (rate of variation expressed as a percentage). The productivity gain is a surplus which can be distributed to paid (rise of the wages, precedes, promotion, lowers duration of the work…), with the company (increase in equities, financing of the investments), with the shareholders (rise of the dividends) or with the consumers (prices drop). The rise of the productivity is due to several factors: the organization of work, the motivation, the performance of the material, environment of the company, social climate, the experiment and the qualification, the responsibility and confidence… For the economists, the " term; technologie" is often used, in a broad direction, to include all that determines the productivity.

Traditionally, it is considered that the possible productivity gains are not also important according to the sectors. In particular they are weak in certain services. What Adam Smith had already noted by giving the example of the hairdressers, and that the economist William Baumol generalized, under name “disease of Baumol”. Certain services are however likely to know important productivity gains in particular because of computerization.

It is considered that the productivity is a concept which applies well to the products standardized to constant quality (corn, steel, container) and less goods with the products where the innovation is constant (data processing). The productivity applies better to agriculture and industry that to the services and this for two reasons. The rendered service is not comparable to a number of acts (many medical visits, courses given) and the physical productivity is difficult to evaluate. The cost of the services is function of the salary costs and any increase in the salary costs transmitted in the prices seems an increase in the productivity in value.

The productivity has a key role in the comprehension of the economic growth. This idea, whose the theses of Adam Smith are emblematic on " richness of the nations" (in the particular form of the social division of work), has a tautological aspect, since the income per head and the level of productivity in an economy are, has little things meadows, two manners of writing the same thing (fraction between the production and the number of inhabitants). This tautological aspect should not induce in error, it shows with simply that the productivity is immanente with the growth.

Many debates called into question the perverse effects of the productivity gains, in particular in terms of employment. To the XIX éme century these positions gave place to protest movements active until destruction of machines (ludic behavior). However the effect of the productivity gains on employment is more complex to evaluate. To realize it is enough to consider that the productivity in France was multiplied by a factor equal to 20 during the XXème century: if the productivity gains had negative effects on employment, the employment picture at the end of the 20th century would have been deteriorated much than that actually noted. Moreover the correlation between periods of productivity gains and employment picture rather support the thesis of a beneficial effect of the productivity gains.

Approaches at the individual level

At the individual level, the productivity results from two types of considerations

On the Rendement, relative with the question of energy ( how did I work )
About the Efficience, relative with the question of the intelligence (which I made?)

Managerial approach

The concepts of DPO and ProMES were developed.

The Motivation of the employees is important to increase their productivity.

Bottleneck

The improvement of the productivity, certainly related to the technological advance, also depends on the process of production of the system considered, and the proceeded of Fabrication.

Reduction in the productivity - the improvement of the output apart from the critical path of a production process decreases the productivity.
Paradox of the productivity - the preceding paradox is explained by the reduction in the associated economic ratio (with equal production, the improvement of the output involves a reduction in the volume of carried out work).
Augmentation in the productivity - the improvement of the output increases the productivity only if the improvement considered applies to the bottleneck of the system of production considered.

Efficiency, performance

See too

Toyotisme (Toyota System of production)
Kaizen

See too

External bonds

“the productivity: secrecy of the economic success”, Centers study of standard of living, Rapport for the economic Agency of promotion of Atlantic Canada, 1998

Random links:

Elm | Oligoneuriella | Albert Ladenburg | Sidney Urchin | Djellal