ACTIVITIES UNIT 8 – INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY

MARIJA ARSIKJ ID: 127871

Productivity is commonly defined as a ratio

between the output volume and the volume of
inputs. In other words, it measures how efficiently
production inputs, such as labour and capital, are
being used in an economy to produce a given level
of output.
Performance is defined as the accomplishment of a
given task measured against preset known
standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and
speed.

* The verb assess has the general meaning of

determining the importance or value of something.
I think that librarian and teacher are the easiest jobs
to assess productivity and performance in, because
that is a work of an individual person and it is easier
counting the number of librarian’s success in
and faster to ‘measure’ their productivity and
borrowed/bought books by month daily task completing
counting the number of seeing if the worker is
performance.
products made in one day delaying the line of or not Also, I think that you can assess productivity and
comparing the number of performance in the other jobs easier by using the
counting the number of products new clients earned in 2 right methods in the right time, because that are jobs
sold in one month months that are connected with decisions and work of other
seeing how good the seeing the completion of the
people too.
grades of the students are tasks (ex. teaching a material)
ACTIVITIES UNIT 8 – INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY
MARIJA ARSIKJ ID: 127871

1. The second factory, because it has lower labour costs and

produces twice more pairs per day than the first one (it is in a
better competitive position.
2. They can sell the products at a lower price or keep the price
as it was and enjoy a higher profit margin.

3. The investment never proved as efficient as intended. Also,

the customer habits switched to smaller cars and the machines
proved much less flexible than humans.
4. It may prove more efficient to run the machines for longer,
spend more on careful maintenance to prevent breakdowns
and discuss how to improve working practices.

5. A skilled and well-trained workforce should: produce more,

make fewer mistakes, completing tasks more quickly without as
much supervision or advice, they should be able to solve their
own work-related problems and may be in a better position to
contribute ideas on how to increase producitivity further.
6. Training involves higher costs in the short run (which the
business may not be able to afford), the actual training period
may cause disruptions to the normal flow of work and maybe
the training will not provide sufficient gains to justify the initial
investment.

7. Herzberg felt that the key to success was to create the

circumstances in which people wanted to give all they could to
the job.
8. There is no doubt that motivation matters. The first case is
that a motivated salesforce may achieve twice the sales levels
of an unmotivated one. The second case is that a motivated
technician may correct twice the computer faults of an
unmotivated one. In both cases, overall business performance
will be affected.

9. Managers can improve the productivity of a firm through

well-organised work, an effective management of people and
the coordination of resources.
10. The aim of Komatsu was to make a 10% productivity
increase every year, until the world-leading American producer
Caterpillar had been overhauled.