Productivity

The concept

Productivity, reflects that so or the resources are used to create exits to other processes or to generate finished products (outputs). More specifically, this measures the relation between outputs and one or insumos (inputs).

The labor productivity, presents/displays outputs per toiled hours. It is the measurement more commonly used. Nevertheless the labor productivity has been criticized being single to be a measurable part that does not consider the effects of others inputs.

Recently a more comprehensive measurement talks about a total factor of productivity. This measurement includes the contributions of the work, capital, materials and energy.

The Formula

Productivity = insumos products/(within a period of time considering the quality) the formula indicates that the productivity can be improved:

1. Increasing products with such insumos,
2. Diminishing the insumos, but maintaining products such, or
3. Increasing products and diminishing the insumos to change the relation favorably.

The companies use diverse classes of insumos as they are the work, the resources and the capital. The greater opportunity to increase the productivity is specially in the own work of knowledge and in the administration.

Importance Of measuring the Productivity

The measurement of the productivity allows to compare under a same measurement the development of companies, trains and nations.

Why the productivity is important? The answer is that directly it influences in many other essential factors. The high productivity means stop real entrance for the worker, the company high utilities, discharge investment in investigation and development and more attention to the problems of the medio.ambiente.

In industries it nails, this means minors costs and a participation discharge in the international market. And for the nations this means standard stops of life, less inflation better balance of payments and a more hard currency.

Many companies, specially those that try the international competition are very conscious about their slow productivity and highly are interested in improving their efforts. The companies use a great variety of directions to improve the productivity. The three but important directions are:

Technological, which focuses to changes greater in equipment and technological processes; administrative, which is oriented to define the strategic mission more clearly, to change the basic structure, and to apply the techniques of administration of operations, and conductual which focuses the worker, to increase its motivation and participation.

Measurement of the productivity in the administrative employees

The typical form to measure the productivity is the coefficient between in number of production units (cars, refrigerators, computers, etc.) and the number of employees who appear in the list (or worked hours of paid administrative employees). This measures the competitive level of a company or an industry. This coefficient allows us in addition to identify the location of any deficiency in the productivity of the administrative employees and its causes. Since added to the relation between production and total use of office personnel, generally also we can measure the coefficient between the total production and the dowry of administrative employees. This measurement can indicate whichever improvement can be expected and compare an organization with the competition. This measurement indicates to us if a company or an industry is improving the productivity of its administrative force. The coefficient between the production and the use of office personnel, also allows us to compare the past with the present and establishing objectives for the future. In a company that grows quickly, the number of administrative employees generally increases in direct proportion to the production, whereas other things as the technology and the equipment stay equal.

But the office use would have to increase in form slower than the production and the sales, perhaps single half of express. If it increases as fast as the production or the sales, and worse still, if it increases to more express the company runs the risk of becoming noncompetitive.

Other three measurements of the productivity of the office personnel exist that can be compared with the vital signs, first it is the time that takes to remove to a new product or service from the development to its launching to the market. Second it is related to the amount of new products and successful services that have been offered to the consumers in a given time, specially comparing them with the national or international competition.

Thirdly it is the number of support people and specially, of necessary levels of administration for a given production.

Standards of Accomplishment

An important element of the productivity constitutes the accomplishment standards. These serve to regulate the conduct and the form to work, also establishes what it is expected of each position within an organization. They establish the level of productivity accepted by a person or a group. Nevertheless this is not sufficient. Some made studies, indicate that the cohesion of the group determines the form in that they will extend and which of these standards will be applied. In other words, the planning and the organization will be of little utility if they cannot influence so that the groups accept the standards.

The cohesion is defined as the sum of the attraction of all the members towards the group. People can be attracted for many reasons, by estatus of the group, reason why the group does, reason why the members obtain when acceding to other sources of wished resources, by the attraction of each one of their members, by the sense of property or any other reason.

When one compares the time and the resources used in a work with which one takes place, the productivity is being determined. And when the work improves, that is to say, when more amount or better quality takes place such using the same time and resources, an increase in the productivity has been obtained.

The productivity is a measurement that sample that so producing is. It indicates as any thing develops.

Increasing the Productivity

The forms are several in which the productivity can be increased:

To work more intelligently, and intelligence is obtained with money, time and effort to increase the knowledge and to eliminate the ignorance.

To find one better tool to make the work easiest, with smaller effort or to produce more.

Modifying the work technique to facilitate it, to improve the quality or to increase the amount.

Some Techniques To improve the Productivity

Investigation of operations, models that represent of a logical way the reality of a problem, I put and their restrictions to obtain them, variable which they affect the problem, quantifications of to where it is possible to be arrived and probabilities, are oriented to determine the optimal combination of resources to obtain a wished intention.

Planning and control of inventories. With its formula:
Qe = û 2DS/H. Where:
Qe = economic Amount of order
D = annual Demand
S = Costs of ordering
H = Cost of maintaining existence by article per year
û = square Root

Systems of inventories Just on time, other names of this method are inventory zero and production without existence. So that it works certain requirements must be fulfilled:

1. The quality of the pieces must be very high, the quality of the pieces, a defective piece can stop the assembly line,
2. They must exist reliable relations and an ample cooperation with the suppliers,
3. Ideally the suppliers must be located near the company, existing safe transportation.

Improvement of the logistics

Reingenierías and simplifications of the work

Engineering of the Value, consists of analyzing the operation of the product or service, considering the value of each operation and of trying to improve that operation being treated to maintain under the cost of each step or starts off. The specific steps are:

1. To divide to the product in parts and operations,
2. To identify the costs for each part and operation,
3. To identify the value relative of the contribution of each part to the final part,
4. To find a new approach for those games that seem to have a high cost and under value.

Circles of quality, equipment of continuous improvement.

Corolario

Productivity is an evaluation of the efficiency of the process of transformation of the organization to turn the insumos products. A greater productivity comes from three primary sources: Technology, administrative ability, and human effort. A deterioration of anyone of these sources has adverse effects in the productivity.

The definition of goals or standards is not sufficient. It is required to put greater attention in the psycho-social system and to create an atmosphere of greater participation of the employees which can bring important benefits in productivity terms.

In this sense, the Empower understood like creating an atmosphere in which the employees and all the levels feel that they have a real influence on the standards of quality, service, and efficiency of the business within their areas of responsibility, constitutes a fundamental tool. One is not to leave the power or to lose the margin it maneuvers. On the contrary, empowerment, does not divide the piece of the pie in small pieces. This it promotes to cook a pie greater than it feeds each one in its table more rich and healthfully.

ANNEXED

Towards the productivity, a first step, the elimination of the waste...

WASTE OF MATERIAL MOVEMENT

CONCEPT- Any movement of material that does not support directly to a manufacture process.

SYMPTOMS:

• Extra freight elevators
• Multiple warehouses
• Estantes/contenedores extra
• Complex administration of inventories
• Extra space of facilities
• Count incorrrecto of inventories
• Daños/pérdida risk of of space
• Freight elevators, have programs of desbalanceado work
• Barriers of heavy work and protective devices
• Systems of bands and automatically guided vehicles (inflexible and expensive)
• Lines of repair and workstations

WASTE BY OVERPRODUCTION

CONCEPT- To make more of the necessary thing, to make more express of the necessary thing.

SYMPTOMS:

• Accumulation of inventory
• Too voluminous extra equipment or
• Desbalanceado flow of material
• Extra bookcase or containers
• Complex administration of inventories
• Extra manual labor
• Capacity or excessive investment
• Additional space, outer warehouse
• Hidden problems
• Uncertain Medio.ambiente or of high risk
• Obsolescencia
• Great lots
• Production in advance

WASTE BY CORRECTION

CONCEPT- To correct a product or service to totally please the necessities of the client.

SYMPTOMS:

• Spaces, tools extra equipment
• Extra manual labor for inspection, reproceso, repair
• Reserve of inventory for replacements
• Complete flow of the product
• Questionable quality
• Boardings, incomplete deliveries
• Deficient relation client-supplier
• Additional costs by deliveries of replacements or product changes

INSUMOS WASTE

CONCEPT- Any provision or product finished in excess of the requirements of the generating product process or services.

SYMPTOMS:

• Extra space in receipt areas
• Warehouses between processes, insumos in delay
• Inadequate flows
• Double requisitions for a same lot of production
• Inadequate processes
• Necks of bottle that they cause that the process is outside control
• Inadequate suppliers
• Confusion in the requirements or specifications
• Systems of inexact prognoses

WASTE OF PROCESSES

CONCEPT- Work that does not add value to the producto/servicio. Works that cannot be combined with other processes.

SYMPTOMS:

• Excess of control and supervision
• Unnecessary information or reports
• High growth of corporative areas
• Unnecessary approvals
• Elevated document copy file such between different areas
• Duplicities and traslapos

WASTE OF MOVEMENTS

CONCEPT- Any displacement of people, machines or materials and insumos that do not add value to the product or service.

SYMPTOMS:

• Tools nonavailable, or of prevented access
• Thrashing of the operators
• Distant machines, herramientas/insumos
• Unnecessary times of route

WASTE BY LACK OF SYNCHRONY

CONCEPT- dead Times that are generated when two dependent elements are not where requires.

SYMPTOMS:

• Lack of synchronization between operator and machinery. Lack of availability, times of delay for the access, machines awaiting workers.
• Delay of instructions or indications in daily operations
• Workers awaiting completion of automated processes.

WASTE BY OBSOLESCENCIA OF PROCESSES

SYMPTOMS:

• Machines or procedures that stay without change by long periods
• Such problems you return or they appear cyclical
• Extra effort or necessary machines for "doing the one that adjusts"
• Under percentage of received or accepted suggestions
• Inflexibility of the processes

WASTE BY IRREGULARITY

CONCEPT- Variations in the program of work, specifications, procedures or methods.

SYMPTOMS:

• Frequent variation of the quality of the process
• Temporary inventories
• Frequent boardings
• Constants you restrain and startings in the tasks
• Greater necessity of extra time

WASTE BY OVERLOAD

CONCEPT- It happens when the operator and machines are it jeopardize beyond their ordinary limits of work.

SYMPTOMS:

• High levels of tension and disagreeable organizacional climate
• Little trustworthy moral and manual labor low
• Frequent breakdowns
• Greater recurrence of extra times to fulfill the program
• Increase in costs
• Preservative, rigid administration or of high resistance to the change
• Increase in accidents, decrement in security
• High index of complaints
• Disloyalty and distrust towards the company

Administration in the Organizations
Fremont And Kast
James And Rosenzweig

The Borders of the Administration
Peter F. Drucker

Better Change
Price Waterhouse
Change Integration Team

Program COMPETES.
Secretariat of Commerce and Fomento Industrial (SECOFI) of Mexico