What are the factors that can affect productivity and some ways that productivity can be improved?NOTE: please based the answer in the given lesson below FACTORS THAT AFFECT PRODUCTIVITYNumerous factors affect productivity. Generally, they are methods, capital, quality, tech-nology, and management.A commonly held misconception is that workers are the main determinant of produc-tivity. According to that theory, the route to productivity gains involves getting employ-ees to work harder. However, the fact is that many productivity gains in the past havecome from technological improvements. Familiar examples include:Fax machinesComputerized billing and inventoriesAutomationCalculatorsComputers, personal computers, laptopsCopying machinesMicrowave ovensThe InternetAnswering machines, voice mail,cellular phonesE-mailSoftwareHowever, technology alone won't guarantee productivity gains; it must be used wiselyand thoughtfully. Without careful planning, technology can actually reduce productivity,especially if it leads to inflexibility, high costs, or mismatched operations. Another cur-rent productivity pitfall wiults from employees' use of computers for non-work-relatedactivities (playing games or checking stock prices or sports scores on the Internet). Be-yond all of these is the dip in productivity that results while employees learn to use newequipment or procedures that will eventually lead to productivity gains after the learningphase ends.Standardizing processes and procedures wherever possible can have a significant im-pact on both productivity and quality.Quality differences may distort productivity measurements. One way this can happenis when comparisons are made over time, such as comparing the productivity of a factorynow with one in the 1970s. Quality is now much higher than it was then, but there is nosimple way to incorporate quality into productivity measurements.Use of the Internet can lower costs of a wide range of transactions, thereby increasingproductivity. It is likely that this effect will continue to increase productivity in the fore-seeable future.Computer viruses can have an immense negative impact on productivity.Searching for lost or misplaced items wastes time, hence negatively affecting produc-tivity.Scrap rates have an adverse effect on productivity, implying inefficient use of re-sources.New workers tend to have lower productivity than seasoned workers. Thus, growingcompanies may experience a productivity lag.Safety should be addressed. Accidents can take a toll on productivity.A shortage of information technology workers and other technical workers hampersthe ability of companies to update computing resources, generate and sustain growth, andtake advantage of new opportunities.Layoffs often affect productivity. The effect can be positive and negative. Initially, pro-ductivity may increase after a layoff, because the workload remains the same but fewer IMPROVINGPRODUCTIVITYA company or a department can take a number of key steps toward improving productivity:1. Develop productivity measures for all operations; measurement is the first step inmanaging and controlling an operation.2. Look at the system as a whole in deciding which operations are most critical; it is over-all productivity that is important. This concept is illustrated in Figure 2-3, whichshows several operations feeding their output into a bottleneck operation. The capac-ity of the bottleneck operation is less than the combined capacities of the operationsthat provide input, so units queue up waiting to be processed; hence the term bottle-neck. Productivity improvements to any nonbottleneck operation will not affect theproductivity of the system. Improvements in the bottleneck operation will lead to in-creased productivity, up to the point where the output rate of the bottleneck equals theoutput rate of the operations feeding it.3. Develop methods for achieving productivity improvements, such as soliciting ideasfrom workers (perhaps organizing teams of workers, engineers, and managers), study-ing how other firms have increased productivity, and reexamining the way work isdone.4. Establish reasonable goals for improvement.5. Make it clear that management supports and encourages productivity improvement.Consider incentives to reward workers for contributions.6. Measure improvements and publicize them.7. Don't confuse productivity with efficiency. Efficiency is a narrower concept that per-tains to getting the most out of afixed set of resources; productivity is a broader con-cept that pertains to effective use of overall resources. For example, an efficiencyperspective on mowing a lawn given a hand mower would focus on the best way to usethe hand mower; a productivity perspective would include the possibility of using apower mower.

Productivity is defined as the ratio of inputs to outputs. It measures total output per input and…

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What are the factors that can affect productivity and some ways that productivity can be improved? NOTE: please based the answer in the given lesson below

Understanding Business

12th Edition

ISBN:9781259929434

Author:William Nickels

Publisher:William Nickels

Chapter1: Taking Risks And Making Profits Within The Dynamic Business Environment

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1CE

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