Gibson Products produces cast bronze valves for use in offshore oil platforms. Currently, Gibson

Question

produces 1600 valves per day. The 20 workers at Gibson work from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m.

, with 30 minutes off for lunch and a 15-minute break during the morning work session and another at the afternoon work session. Gibson is in a competitive industry, and needs to increase productivity to stay competitive. They feel that a 20 percent increase is needed.

Gibson's management believes that the 20 percent increase will not be possible without a change in working conditions, so they change work hours. The new schedule calls on workers to work from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., during which workers can take one hour off at any time of their choosing. Obviously, the number of paid hours is the same as before, but production increases, perhaps because workers are given a bit more control over their workday. After this change, valve production increased to 1800 units per day.

a. Calculate labor productivity for the initial situation
b. Calculate labor productivity for the hypothetical 20 percent increase
c. What is the productivity after the change in work rules?
d. Write a short paragraph analyzing these results.

Answer 1

(a) Workers are active for eight hours per day; labor productivity is 10 valves/hour
(b) If Productivity rises by 20 percent, to 12 valves/hour; output would be 12 × 8 × 20 = 1920
(c) New productivity is 1800 / (20 × 8 ) = 11.25 valves/hour
(d) Gibson did not gain the desired 20 percent increase in productivity, but they did gain over 11 percent, without extra equipment or energy, and without increasing the labor cost.