Defining Factory Benchmarks of Productivity and Employing them outside the Factory Floor
This article discusses the different ways by which factories determine their Benchmarks for productivity. It also discusses areas outside the Factory Floor that these benchmarks can be used.
A few people would say that the factory industry is all but dead or dying in the United States of America and that the few that remain are the big corporations that are able to compete with the prices of imports. The fact is, factories are still very much present in the United States. Those that are currently present may not be like the old car assembly lines propagated by the great Henry Ford (most of those types of factories have moved out of the United States and into Asian or European Countries). No matter what the population of factories in the US today, they still use productivity metrics and benchmarks to determine their progress. It is also important to note that Factory productivity benchmarks are no longer just for the factory floor, but also for other services and jobs that produce output in relation to time spent performing them.
Factory Benchmarks are one of the easiest benchmarks to determine. It is easy because factories work on the output principle and productivity can easily be determined by the amount that a worker churns out in a given amount of time. Factory benchmarks may either be individual benchmarks involving one employee at a time or it may be a benchmark for the company as a whole. Output is not the only kind of productivity benchmark that factories live by; it wholly depends on company goals and objectives.
The Millionth or the Billionth unit produced in a given time span may be considered by a factory as their productivity benchmark or its gauge for success. But, again, this factor solely depends on what a company views as success. Some factories view the period where they remained accident free as their productivity benchmark. While others may consider the percentage of products imported or exported as a sign of success. Still some factories may take the individual output of their workers into consideration when determining success benchmarks. The types may be unending and differ greatly depending on what a company is and what it considers productive.
Factory Productivity Benchmarks are not only limited to the factory floor. It can also be used to determine success in office work. The number of invoices prepared by an individual may be seen as benchmark of productivity. In a lawyer’s case, it may take the form of how many cases he/she handled in the past year. For an ER doctor, it could stand for the number of sutures she had done in a span of 12 hours. Productivity Benchmarks for factories may be used in any other area as long as it is tweaked and adapted to whatever goals are set for that market.
As have been presented, it is now clear that benchmarks used to determine productivity in the Factory floor differ depending on what the company stands for or believes in. It may take the shape of employee output or accident free days. It has also been stated that Productivity Benchmarks found to be effective in Factories can also be relevant in other fields.
