OPM Disscussion Board: Productivity

Productivity
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Measuring the level of productivity is tied to the level of inputs compared to the outputs at any one given time. As such productivity is taken to be the ration of inputs to the level of outputs with close reference to time.
Given that the firm has a specific number of employees working on a specific line within a stipulated time span, productivity can be extrapolated from these values. This means that the level of productivity can be assessed from the number of good that have been produced by the stipulated number of employees that are assigned to a given line. Ideally, the employees work for ten hours every day. By dividing the number of the goods that the employees of a given line produce within the ten hours gap, it is possible to extrapolate the productivity level. As such, if the number of employees is 200 and within the ten hours they have produced 2000 products, this means that the productivity level of this particular line is ten products per employee in ten hours (Markovitz, 2011).
It is also possible to calculate the productivity level of the same line with reference to the efficiency in labor. Ideally, this is total time that the employees spend at work compared to the total time that they are productive. However, this has to be done with reference to a specific line of production as the work load and complexity differs across the production lines. If one considers the employees in the previous example. Assuming that the total allowed time per product is half an hour, this means that the time spent productively is 300 minutes (Markovitz, 2011). However, the amount of time the staffs spend at work is 600 minutes. This is an indication that they are working at half the efficiency levels required.
One of the ways that the factory can increase the level of productivity is by standardizing the operations. This means that there are specific procedures to be followed in the assembly lines. These have to be followed strictly. Specialization can also be used, where specific staffs attend to a certain stage of production, making production lines run faster. This would justify the esse...