Productivity Measurement A Short History The year 1970 saw the publication of two books, Kuznets Economic Growth of Nations and Solow s Economic Growth in 1971. Unwittingly, it marked the start of a rare professional consensus on economic growth. In his book, Kuznets summarized his decades of empirical research. The first outcome was totally unexpected. While there was some lost productivity because of fewer working hours and also because of the negative working environment that it created, many businesses discovered that productivity during working hours was actually higher than before the cuts were implemented. The workers followed the old routine of bringing in the materials in the first floor, doing the sub-assembly at the second floor and the final assembly at the top floor. Over the years, the machines assembled got bigger and bigger and they were difficult to bring down from the top floor. Somebody finally suggested reversing everything: bring the materials to the top floor, do the sub-assembly at the second floor and the final assembly in the first floor. ) Multifactor productivity measures show the utilization of multiple inputs (e.g., units of output per the sum of labor, capital, and energy or units of output per the sum of labor and materials). A total measure of productivity expresses the ratio of all outputs produced to all resources used. Motivation productivity This is related to how motivated a person is to perform a task (or activity). ) Total factor productivity tries to construct a productivity measure that will encompass an aggregation of factors. How it means is still under hypotheses, and therefore, not yet assured in a general framework. Indicators To date, it had been determined by current technology that the maximum physical quantity of output can be reached together with the number and quality of inputs needed. ) Productivity concepts Most of these concepts relate to productivity as a relationship between output and input to the studied systems. It contains variables and other inter-relationships within the precise group it belongs to (office, manufacturing plant, machinery systems, etc). It is also regarded as a stimulus-response model that an input causes an output.