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Explain alternative ways of measuring the productivity of inputs and the role of the manager in the production process. Try these problems: 1, 13

Short Answer

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Facilitate cost, time, output rate, and resource consumption planning and control to enable pricing, production scheduling, purchasing, contracting, and delivery schedules, among other things.

Step by step solution

01

Alternative methods for the producing inputs:

Productivity is a measure of a company's ability to make a product or provide a service. Productivity is also defined as an index that compares the production of goods and services to the input of capital, labour, materials, energy, and other factors. As a result, it can be written as:

Productivity = units of output/units of input

There are two basic methods for increasing productivity: increasing output and lowering input. Organizations can use this method to quantify the productivity of inputs such as labour, machine productivity, capital productivity, and energy productivity in a variety of ways. For a single process, a productivity ratio can be determined for a division, a facility, or the entire organisation

02

Role of a manager in the production process:

A productivity metric shows how effectively an organization's resources are being utilised to produce outputs from inputs. Because productivity is a relative metric, it must be compared to something in order to be meaningful or useful. This could be similar firms, other departments within the same firm, or previous productivity data for the same firm or department.

The manager's involvement in the production process is as follows:

To define productivity and direct productivity-related behaviour –monitor performance and give feedback - Productivity analysis, including trend analysis, problem identification, and corrective action. - Facilitate cost, time, output rate, and plan resource consumption and control to enable pricing, production scheduling, purchasing, contracting, and delivery scheduling, among other things. - encourage innovation as a means of achieving ongoing improvement.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

You were recently hired to replace the manager of the Roller Division at a major conveyor-manufacturing firm, despite the manager’s strong external sales record. Roller manufacturing is relatively simple, requiring only labor and a machine that cuts and crimps rollers. As you begin reviewing the company’s production information, you learn that labor is paid \(12 per hour and the last worker hired produced 80 rollers per hour. The company rents roller cutters and crimping machines for \)15 per hour, and the marginal product of capital is 110 rollers per hour. What do you think the previous manager could have done to keep his job?

A firm produces output according to the production function Q=F(K,L)=4K+8L.

a. How much output is produced whenK=2andL=3?

b. If the wage rate is\(60per hour and the rental rate on capital is\)20per hour, what is the cost-minimizing input mix for producing 32 units of output?

c. How does your answer to part b change if the wage rate decreases to\(20per hour but the rental rate on capital remains at\)20per hour?

Conclude whether a multiple-output production process exhibits economies of scope or cost complementarities and explain their significance for managerial decisions.

Try these problems: 7, 21

A manager hires labor and rents capital equipment in a very competitive market. Currently the wage rate is \(12 per hour and capital is rented at \)8 per hour. If the marginal product of labor is 60 units of output per hour and the marginal product of capital is 45 units of output per hour, is the firm using the cost minimizing combination of labor and capital? If not, should the firm increase or decrease the amount of capital used in its production process?

You are a manager for Herman Miller, a major manufacturer of office furniture. You recently hired an economist to work with engineering and operations experts to estimate the production function for a particular line of office chairs. The report from these experts indicates that the relevant production function is

Q=2(K)1/2(L)1/2

where K represents capital equipment and L is labor. Your company has already spent a total of \(8,000 on the 9 units of capital equipment it owns. Due to current economic conditions, the company does not have the flexibility needed to acquire additional equipment. If workers at the firm are paid a competitive wage of \)120 per day and chairs can be sold for $400 each, what is your profit maximizing level of output and labor usage? What is your maximum profit?

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