A study of productivity measures for improving benefit-cost ratios of operating organizations

Abstract

This paper is based on a critical analysis of 27 published case-studies on productivity improvement efforts. First, the paper emphasizes why productivity is important for individual companies, for organizations as well as for nations, and outlines the most commonly used definitions and measures of productivity. Next, the paper attempts to identify all the productivity-related factors mentioned in the case-studies, and puts them under various groups of factors in such a way that each group falls under the general responsibility of one of the traditional functional managers. Further, the paper gives a critical review of commonly used, specialized productivity measures as they exist in the various U.S. industry groups, such as manufacturing, government, service industry, and others. An additional two sections are devoted to the critical assessment of the major contributors to productivity, and to the uncontrollable situations (statesof nature) that can damage productivity efforts. These two sections are foll...