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1. One of the most important factors a company will focus on in order to remain competitive in the market is productivity. No matter where you work at whether it be a fast food chain, a marketing firm, a bank, or a manufacturing facility you will hear about productivity from entry level positions to the CEO.

Productivity is the ratio of outputs (goods and services) divided by the inputs (resources, such as labor and capital) (Heizer et al., 2019, pp. 13).

A lot of business functions are rolled into the productivity category and depending upon how well these processes work will depend on how the bottom line is affected. A business that is focusing on productivity will try to maximize the output value while keeping the input cost under control. The market is ever changing and its important for a business to always be thinking and looking at controls and pricing and quality in order to maintain an advantage. A business that is confident and competitive will always be keeping opportunity cost, labor cost, and the cost of time per product in their sightlines while always keeping option of improvement open. Lines of communication with executives and all levels of employees is also a must in my opinion to ensure the continued success of their business. When these lines of communication are kept open they can easily identify breakdowns in employee morale, financial breakdowns, and process breakdowns to more easily mitigate and fix these issues before they are critical to the business success.

Meagan,

2. Operational hedging is when firms intentionally build extra capacity in different countries and as costs or exchanges rates change they shift production from country to country. The benefits to this is that it allows companies to finesse currency risks and costs as the economic conditions dictate. Operational hedging can be risky however, it allows for greater flexibility in the supply chain, product distribution patterns, and marketing.

Operational hedging can impact the ability for an operation to be competitive in the 21st century because it ensures that a company will have higher exposure and will maintain a competitive position across markets. If a company uses operational hedging they are also reducing availability risk. This would be an important tool to help companies stay in the loop with trends and fads all while getting them at the best price possible and being able to increase their profit margins. However, due to the exposure of COVID-19, the flexibility to transfer production from one country to another has grown increasingly difficult due to all the travel restrictions and borders closing.

Reference

Heizer, J., Render, B., & Munson, C. (2019). Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management (13th ed.). Pearson.

Emily,

3. Productivity refers to the ratio of the outputs and inputs. An organizations productivity is the responsibility of the operation manager and to improve the productivity that improves the efficiency (Heizer, Render & Munson, 2020).

Partial measure which is also known as single-factor productivity is the ratio of units produced and the labor-hours worked. For example, at a toy factory they can produce 3,000 toys in an 8 hour shift, that would result with the productivity for the day. The total measure known as multi factor productivity is the ratio of the output by the input units used.

Both of those measures are used to measure productivity but the total measure gives a broader view since it includes all the costs.

Alondra,

4. According to Heizer, Render, and Munson, productivity is the ratio of outputs (goods and services) divided by one or more inputs, such as labor, capital, or management. Just because an organization produces high volume, does not mean the organization is producing units efficiently. High production means producing many units, while high productivity means producing units efficiently (Heizer, et al., 2019). So, while total productivity (where all factors related to the input are considered) is the primary measure, it also has a number of subcomponents that are also very important to how one measures productivity. Multifactor productivity indicates the ratio of goods and services produced to may or all resources through a bundle of inputs). Partial or single productivity takes into account one input factor, such as labor. These measurements are directly related to production and operations management success due to the fac that the measurements include, technology, efficiency, real cos savings, benchmarking production processes, and living standards (Nezu, 2001). These five elements are present in most operations that require a successful operation and efficient productivity.

References

Heizer, J., Render, B., & Munson, C. (2019). Operations management: Sustainability and supply chain management. (13th Edition). Pearson. Retrieved on September 23, 2020 from https://viewer.gcu.edu/yg2n49

Nezu, R. (2001). Measuring productivity. OECD Manuel. Retrieved on September 25, 2020 from http://www.oecd.org/sdd/productivity-stats/2352458.pdf

Have a great weekend,

Heather,