What Is Production Rate?

Productivity generally refers to the number of qualified products produced per unit of equipment (such as a machine tool or an automatic production line) or unit capacity of the equipment (such as the volume per cubic meter of a blast furnace) in a unit of time (such as one hour, one day and night). If it refers to the number of qualified products produced by each worker in a unit of time, it is called labor productivity, which is one of the indicators to measure the advanced nature of production technology, the rationality of production organization and the enthusiasm of workers. ^[1]

As the investigated

There are many factors that affect productivity growth and they are complex. There are both human and material factors; there are both macro and micro factors; there are both objective and subjective factors; there are both historical and realistic factors; both

1. Measures to improve productivity

In theory, the following conditions can increase productivity to more than 1, which can be described as

Productivity is an important concept in contemporary economics. Peter F. Drucker, a famous management scientist, pointed out: "Productivity is the source of all economic value." Therefore, it has become all socio-economic organizations, an enterprise, an industry, a region and even a country. One of the indicators pursued. From the perspective of the macroeconomic growth of a country or region, productivity, capital, labor and other production factors all contribute to economic growth; from the perspective of efficiency, productivity is equivalent to the total output of the national economy and the total amount of various resource elements in a certain period of time. The ratio of inputs reflects the allocation of resources, the technical level of production methods, the quality of labor, changes in production targets, the management level of production organizations, the enthusiasm of workers for production and operation activities, and the economic system and various social factors on production activities Degree of influence. In essence, productivity reflects the ability or effort of a country (region) to escape poverty and develop the economy in a certain period of time. It is a comprehensive reflection of the role of technological progress in economic development. In a broad sense, the level of a country's productivity (that is, the ratio of total national output to total input) relates to the entire socio-economic life, and depends on the level of productivity (including science and technology, human resources, material and economic foundations), and the proportion of various industries. Cooperation and coordination are important signs of comprehensive national strength and economic development. It determines the strength of a country, the decline of wealth, and the speed of social development. It is an extremely important economic concept and economic indicator. Studying the relationship between productivity and economic growth has very important theoretical and practical significance. Its importance is shown in the following aspects.

(1) The speed of productivity growth determines the speed of national economic development

Productivity improvement means that in the same time, with the same manpower, material resources and assets, more products or services can be created, and more economic wealth and social benefits can be obtained. The so-called economic growth rate is the growth rate of per capita GDP.

According to Solow's residual value equation: output growth rate = growth rate of labor input × elasticity of labor input + growth rate of capital input × output elasticity of capital input + growth rate of productivity From this formula we can know that the economy The growth rate depends on two ways: one is to increase investment, purchase new machines, increase manpower, and expand and expand reproduction; the second is to rely on technological progress, improve production systems, tap potentials, and use existing resources more effectively to achieve as much as possible More output, that is, increased productivity. Although the former can increase production, sometimes it is a necessary way, but it is limited by human, material and financial resources; the latter is based on improving production technology and management, and it requires less investment and saves resources. Economic Growth. With the current shortage of world resources, it is becoming more and more difficult to expand the reproduction based on the extension of labor and capital. At the same time, relying only on the extension of the extended reproduction without paying attention to the benefits of the input resources will greatly affect the fiscal performance of a country The debt aspect also brought many other problems, such as inflation and trade deficits. Therefore, the western developed countries attach great importance to improving their own productivity. In recent decades, the results of economists in western developed countries measuring the growth rate of their own countries show that the contribution of productivity growth rate to economic growth rate is becoming more and more It has long exceeded the contribution of labor and capital investment and plays a decisive role in the growth rate of the national economy.

(2) Increasing productivity is the basic condition for increasing wages and improving people's lives

We can only enjoy what we produce. Regardless of changes in wages and prices, if more things are not produced, even if wages continue to rise, prices will rise, which will not only improve people's living standards, but may also cause inflation. American economist Tobin proposed this formula: assuming other conditions are unchanged, the rate of price rise is equal to the difference between the growth rate of nominal wages and the growth rate of productivity, which indicates changes in productivity and changes in people's living standards and inflation rates Relationship. When the amount of money issued exceeds the amount of money required for the circulation of goods, it is called inflation, that is, currency depreciation. In this case, if productivity remains unchanged and the people's wages are raised, the inability to produce more goods will inevitably push up the price of unit goods, and price growth will push up wages, forming a spiral of wages and prices. However, each increase in productivity will have a greater inhibitory effect on prices. This is because productivity growth can reduce the value of unit goods, which directly offsets the side effects of rising wages, and alleviates the rise in prices caused by wage growth. Therefore, the next time productivity increases, price increases will be relatively modest. As long as the rate of increase in productivity is greater than the rate of increase in wages, a virtuous circle will form and inflation will be alleviated.

In the case of constant prices, an increase in productivity will inevitably lead to an increase in people's wages. If the people's wages remain unchanged, the value of the unit of goods will decrease due to the increase in the number of goods produced. Changes in both directions indicate that people's actual living standards have improved. In addition, even if the price of resources rises, because energy, materials and funds can be used more efficiently in production, and more goods are produced, companies will not increase the price of unit goods, nor will they pass on the loss of resource price increases. To consumers.

In short, the improvement of people's living standards directly depends on the increase of productivity. Because the level of production can be expressed in terms of per capita consumption of material goods and services, which is consistent with the expression of productivity. It's just that the former is the consumer and the latter is the creator. In addition, shortening working hours and increasing employee benefits also depend on productivity improvements.

(3) Increasing productivity can enhance international market competitiveness and maintain international trade balance

In the international market, when the variety, quality, and performance of products are comparable, price competitiveness in market competition will play an important role, and delivery time (which is an important factor in non-price competitiveness) is also critical. Therefore, a product with high productivity has greater advantages, because it consumes less resources and lower costs, and can obtain stronger price competitiveness and speed competitiveness.

(4) Increased productivity promotes employment and social development

Some people mistakenly believe that productivity increase will affect employment, especially the large population in our country. The increase in productivity may make it possible for a few people to do the work, which can now be done by one person. Therefore, they worry that it will cause excess labor and unemployment. In fact, this kind of worry is unnecessary, because not only will productivity increase not affect employment, but it will also promote changes in social structure and bring about new employment opportunities.

First, the stability and quality of the workforce are the key factors to ensure the survival and development of the enterprise. On the one hand, companies with high productivity and good economic benefits actively develop new varieties or open new industries in order to further expand production and seek development, which requires maintaining or increasing employees; on the other hand, shortening working hours by increasing wages and benefits Improve labor conditions, carry out technical training and advanced studies, improve the quality of employees, ensure that employees' wages and work are secure, have a stable mind, and have confidence in the enterprise, so as to stimulate greater enthusiasm, creativity, and further increase productivity. cycle. On the contrary, those enterprises with low productivity have lost markets due to poor efficiency, and their production has declined, so they have to cut back on staff. There is an example of this in the history of the United States. The industrial sector with productivity rising faster than the national average and the percentage increase in employment is higher than the national average. Japan and Western Europe also have many examples of productivity growth and low unemployment.

Secondly, from the perspective of the whole society, the demand for goods and services has increased due to the increase in productivity, economic development, growth in national income, and general improvement in living standards and quality. This not only provides a larger market for high-productivity enterprises, giving them room to expand production without reducing staff, but also the continuous increase in industrial and agricultural productivity has promoted changes in social structure and the formation and expansion of new industries. Employment opportunities. A prominent feature of modern industrial society is that the population engaged in industry and agriculture is gradually decreasing, while the service industry is becoming larger and larger.

(5) The relationship between productivity and quality is simultaneous development

Quality and productivity are often mistaken for opposition. Some people think that reducing costs and increasing productivity will affect product quality; to ensure quality, productivity cannot be improved. The main reason is that it takes more man-hours and costs to produce high-quality products. In fact, according to the viewpoint of industrial engineering, the two are unified, not opposites, and they usually promote each other and develop simultaneously. We can understand this relationship from the following aspects.

In essence, the goals of industrial engineering itself include reducing costs, improving quality, and improving work efficiency. For example, the output in the definition of productivity must be a product or service with a specific level of quality. In other words, without a certain level of quality, there is no way to increase productivity.

Practice has shown that technological progress has directly improved the quality level while increasing productivity. The application of industrial engineering to improve productivity is to adopt more advanced technical equipment and process technology, and adopt modern management methods and means. In doing so, in fact not only improves efficiency, but also improves quality indicators such as product accuracy and reliability. Because when highly mechanized, factors that cause poor quality and instability can be avoided. In addition, standardization, serialization, generalization, and specialization also help promote mass production, increase productivity, and ensure uniform quality.

At the same time, product quality and longevity are important factors influencing total social productivity. Generally speaking, only the productivity of the industrial sector or enterprise, that is, considering only the man-hours and other resources consumed to produce the product, is not enough. From the perspective of society as a whole, it is also necessary to pursue an increase in total social productivity, that is, to increase the utilization rate of social material resources. Therefore, if a certain product is of good quality and doubles its service life, it is equivalent to doubling productivity for society. ^[1]