Productivity

Productivity is a concept from engineering. It is the amount of work (in terms of goods produced or services rendered) produced during a period of time (usually per hour). Productivity analyses technical processes and engineering relationships such as, how much of an output that can be produced in a specified period of time.

It is related to the concept of efficiency from economics, which is the amount of output produced relative to the amount of resources (time and money) that go into the production.

It benefits a business to improve productivity, which over time lowers cost and (hopefully) improves ability to compete and make profit. Increases in productivity also influence society more broadly, by improving living standards, creating income, and generating economic growth.

Many economists attribute the economic expansion of the 1990s to the massive increase in worker productivity that occurred during that period.

See also

• Production, costs, and pricing
• Production theory basics
• Production possibility frontier
• Production function
• Computer aided manufacturing
• List of production topics
• List of economics topics