“Need For Increase In Productivity”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29363, 16 November 1960, Page 19

“Need For Increase In Productivity”

“An outstanding need in New Zealand today is increased productivity,” says the president (Mr A. J. Smaill) in his report to be presented at the annual meeting of the Canterbury division of the New Zealand Institute of Management next Tuesday. Productivity, he says, has been broadly defined as “the quantitative relationship between what we produce and the resources we use.” “An important task of the institute will be to foster interest in productivity and understanding of what it can mean,” Mr Smaill says. “New Zealand, has nothing to be proud of in its average of 14 per cent, a year increase in productivity. “A change of outlook from a one-shift capacity and restricted hours of service to the public is inevitable—even if it may be painful. It will only be achieved,” Mr Smaill says, “through education on what an increase in productivity can mean in living standards. As a key word ‘productivity’ would be more acceptable than ‘protection.’ “Every management or every union which limits output or does not make the best use of capital equipment, material, or human resources stands indicted on the charge of sabotaging the future of this country,” Mr Smaill says. “With the increase of managers as a professional class (where the ownership of business of industry has less direct associations) productivity can mean more to all concerned than profit. In fact this is the only way to increase profit without increasing costs to the consumer,” Mr Smaill says. “Every individual manager or supervisor in an organisation should be given the means to measure his pro-

ductivity and profitability,

The challenge is first to make certain he knows what productivity means and how it affects him in his job. The ability to measure is the essential step,” says Mr Smaill. “An increase in productivity is not something that need wait for the future,” says Mr Smaill. “We can do something about it now.” The British Productivity Council put it this way:— “In the short term, experience has shown that a marked advance in productivity can often be made with existing equipment by improvements in methods of control and/or minor changes in layout. This means a fearless and critical examination of present methods of working and of organisation. It requires a willingness on the part of both management and workers to make and accept changes which will serve the common purpose. We wish to stress our belief in the need for this approach and in the benefits to all concerned which would result.”