George Kyparisis (using data from Problem 1.5) determines his costs to be as follows:

Show the percent change in productivity for one month last year versus one month this year, on a multifactor basis with dollars as the common denominator.

Problem 1.5

George Kyparisis makes bowling balls in his Miami plant. With recent increases in his costs, he has a newfound interest in efficiency. George is interested in determining the productivity of his organization. He would like to know if his organization is maintaining the manufacturing average of 3% increase in productivity per year? He has the following data representing a month from last year and an equivalent month this year:

Show the productivity percentage change for each category and then determine the improvement for labor-hours, the typical standard for comparison.

Refer to Problems 1.12 and 1.13. If Charles Lackey’s utility costs remain constant at $500 per month, labor at $8 per hour, and cost of ingredients at $0.35 per loaf, but Charles does not purchase the blender suggested in Problem 1.13, what will the productivity of the bakery be? What will be the percent increase or decrease?

Problems 1.13

Refer to Problem 1.12. The pay will be $8 per hour for employees. Charles Lackey can also improve the yield by purchasing a new blender. The new blender will mean an increase in his investment. This added investment has a cost of $100 per month, but he will achieve the same output (an increase to 1,875) as the change in labor-hours. Which is the better decision?

a) Show the productivity change, in loaves per dollar, with an increase in labor cost (from 640 to 800 hours).

b) Show the new productivity, in loaves per dollar, with only an increase in investment ($100 per month more).

c) Show the percent productivity change for labor and investment.

Problem 1.12

Charles Lackey operates a bakery in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Because of its excellent product and excellent location, demand has increased by 25% in the last year. On far too many occasions, customers have not been able to purchase the bread of their choice. Because of the size of the store, no new ovens can be added. At a staff meeting, one employee suggested ways to load the ovens differently so that more loaves of bread can be baked at one time. This new process will require that the ovens be loaded by hand, requiring additional manpower. This is the only thing to be changed. If the bakery makes 1,500 loaves per month with a labor productivity of 2.344 loaves per labor-hour, how many workers will Lackey need to add? (Hint: Each worker works 160 hours per month.)