Productivity isn’t about production

I’ve just spent a week with an eclectic mix of business people who share a love for skiing.  I feel incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have spent a glorious week in the French Alps where we enjoyed the most amazing weather, snow and scenery.

As with many networking events, I’ve spent the week explaining what I do – “I help manufacturing companies increase their productivity” and whilst for some that’s not particularly interesting for a few it captures their interest.

And when I mention manufacturing companies, they immediately jump to the conclusion that I’m all about improving the number of widgets that come off the production line in any given time.  And whilst that may be the case, it’s so much more than that.

Productivity is a financial metric.  It is not measured in widgets per hour, it is measured in £ of value added per unit of input i.e. per person or per hour.  It is a measure of the productivity of a system, and as such it applies to all types of companies, not just manufacturing companies.

You see, productivity is not solely about production.  We could have the most automated, streamlined and efficient production line and if it is surrounded by a marketing department, sales department, warehouse, logistics or finance department that is not operating to the same level, the productivity of the whole system, (or organization) will not be as good as it could be.

So often business leaders fail to realise the impact that their administration functions can have on overall productivity.  If we want to increase our productivity, we have to look at the system as a whole, rather than one little piece of it.

When I work with organisations, I frequently identify key areas that are having a detrimental impact on productivity, and it is rarely on the production line.