What is productivity? 

Productivity is about the effective and efficient use of all resources. Resources include time, people, knowledge, information, finance, equipment, space, energy, materials.

To manage the resources of a business it is essential that you

• understand exactly what needs to be done to meet customer demand
• establish a plan that clearly identifies the work to be carried out
• define and implement the methodologies that need to be used to complete all activities and tasks efficiently
• establish how long it will actually take to complete each activity and task
• determine what resources you need to meet the plan
• provide the necessary resources and initiate the plan
• constantly monitor what is actually happening against the plan
• identify variances and take the relevant actions to correct them or modify the plan

Productivity is often linked with “time and motion”. The evidence of time and motion studies was used to put pressure on workers to perform faster. Not surprisingly these studies had a bad press as far as workers were concerned. Similarly the image of “time and motion” doesn’t sit well with us as productivity specialists.

The real responsibility for productivity or performance improvement should be largely in the hands of those organising the work rather than the individual worker.

To know more about time and motion, click here.

For a free guide to improving productivity, click here.