32) As the administrative manager in a law office, you have been asked to develop a system for evaluating the productivity of the 15 lawyers in the office. What difficulties are you going to have in doing this, and how are you going to overcome them?
33) Susan has a part-time business producing seasonal plywood yard ornaments for resale at local craft fairs and bazaars. She currently works 8 hours per day to produce 16 ornaments.
a. What is her productivity?
b. She thinks that by redesigning the ornaments and switching from use of a wood glue to a hot-glue gun she can increase her total production to 20 ornaments per day. What is her new productivity?
c. What is her percentage increase in productivity?
34) A firm cleans chemical tank cars in the Bay St. Louis area. With standard equipment, the firm typically cleaned 70 chemical tank cars per month. They utilized 10 gallons of solvent, and two employees worked 20 days per month, 8 hours a day. The company decided to switch to a larger cleaning machine. Last April, they cleaned 60 tank cars in only 15 days. They utilized 12 gallons of solvent, and the two employees worked 6 hours a day.
(a) What was their raw material and their labor productivity with the standard equipment?
(b) What is their raw material and their labor productivity with the larger machine?
(c) What is the change in each productivity measure?
35) The Dulac Box plant produces wooden packing boxes to be used in the local seafood industry. Current operations allow the company to make 500 boxes per day, in two 8-hour shifts (250 boxes per shift). The company has introduced some small changes in equipment, and conducted appropriate job training, so that production levels have risen to 300 boxes per shift. These changes did not require any change in the amount of capital spending or energy use. What is the firm’s new labor productivity?
36) Mark’s Ceramics spent $4000 on a new kiln last year in the belief that it would cut annual energy usage 25% over the old kiln. This kiln is an oven that turns “greenware” into finished pottery. Mark is concerned that the new kiln requires extra labor hours for its operation. Mark wants to check the energy savings of the new oven, and also to look over other measures of their productivity to see if the change really was beneficial. Mark has the following data to work with:
Last Year
This Year
Production (finished units)
4000
4000
Greenware (pounds)
5000
5000
Labor (hrs)
350
375
Capital ($)
15000
19000
Energy (kWh)
3000
2600
Were the modifications beneficial?
37) Martin Manufacturing has implemented several programs to improve its productivity. They have asked you to evaluate the firm’s productivity by comparing this year’s performance with last year’s. The following data are available:
Last Year
This Year
Output
10,500 units
12,100 units
Labor Hours
12,000
13,200
Utilities
$7,600
$8,250
Capital
$83,000
$88,000
Has Martin Manufacturing improved its productivity during the past year?