Compute the following:-

1. A manager at a carpeting company tracked his labours’ output over the past weeks. He
obtained these data:

Week No. of labourers Yards installed

1 4 960
2 3 702
3 4 968
4 2 500
5 3 696
6 2 500

Calculate the labour productivity for each of the weeks. What do you think about the labour size
and productivity?

Ans: The labour productivity for each of the weeks is calculated using the formula:

Labour productivity = Yards of carpets installed

No. of labourers and is illustrated in the following table:-

Week No. of labourers Yards installed Labour productivity

1 4 960 240
2 3 702 234
3 4 968 242
4 2 500 250
5 3 696 232
6 2 500 250

As per the above calculations, even-sized labourers are better than odd-sized labourers and
a a group of labourers of 2 seems to work best amongst the others.

2. Calculate the multifactor productivity for each of the weeks as mentioned below.
Presume 40 hour weeks and an hourly wage of Rs. 840. Overhead is 1.5 times weekly
labour cost. Material cost is Rs. 420 per pound. Standard price is Rs. 9800 per unit.

Week Output (Units) Workers Material (Ibs)

1 300 6 45
2 338 7 46
3 322 7 46
4 354 8 48

Ans:

Wor Output Worker cost Overhead cost Material cost Total Multifactor
k (Units) 840×40×workers×overhea materials×worker cost productivity
840×40×workers
s output÷total
d
cost
1 300 201600 302400 270 50427 0.0005949
0
2 338 235200 352800 322 58832 0.0005745
2
3 322 235200 352800 322 58832 0.0005473
2
4 354 268800 403200 384 67238 0.0005265
4

As per the above calculations, the multifactor productivity dropped steadily from
0.0005949 unit per rupee input to 0.0005265 unit per rupee input.
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Richardson S. Nongsiej