I'll get back to the original topic now. I've never seen a whole lot of value in productivity numbers. I can give you a real life example. I worked for a Fortune 100 company for 7 years. As I stated before they have had a hiring freeze for the last year. I still play in the company golf league so I hear what's going on every week. When people leave or retire their not being replaced so their function is being shifted to other people or they are just not getting done.
I worked in a large manufacturing plant. They had 5 quality engineers and 3 of them have retired in the last year. The 2 that are left cannot keep up with the workload. Because they manufacture electrical equipment they get audited by UL constantly. Guess what? Because of quality problems they have lost their UL certification on a number of products. They have to correct the problems before they can sell those products again because no one will buy them with UL certification.
Yes, they have less workers but are they more "productive". I would say no. Having 3 less employees is costing them far more than it's saving them. We're talking equipment that costs between $30k - $500k a unit that can't be sold and shipped. That's my whole argument for why the number is bogus and really doesn't mean much. All it shows is that companies are downsizing, not that they are becoming more efficient or productive.
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08-07-2003
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