Question

Our examples in the chapter have focused on manufacturing, where the output is units of product and the inputs are manufacturing activities or costs. The concept of productivity can be applied in a variety of settings, wherever there are inputs and outputs. For example, consider LandscapeCity, a landscape design company that specializes in small landscape projects for people living in cities. Amanda Caldwell, the assistant manager, is in the process of trying to determine if productivity has been improving since she was hired 6 months ago. Because it is a design firm, labor is the only significant expense, but Amanda is unsure if the number of projects or the dollar of sales volume should be used when computing productivity. She has collected these data for sales and labor expenses for the past 6 months:

Month	Labor Expense			Number of Projects			Sales Dollars
1	$	21,310			44		$	21,090
2		28,800			60			22,900
3		20,392			60			29,780
4		14,194			15			19,560
5		14,926			20			22,680
6		21,592			60			22,520

Required:

1. Calculate the productivity for each month and the change in productivity from month to month using number of projects as the measure of output.

2. Calculate the productivity for each month and the change in productivity from month to month using sales dollars as the measure of output.

Calculate the productivity for each month and the change in productivity from month to month using number of projects as the measure of output. (Round your answers to 4 decimal places. Negative amounts should be indicated by a minus sign.)

1.
	Month Labor Expense Number of Projects Productivity Monthly Change 1 $21,310 44 2 $28,800 60 3 $20,392 60 4 $14,194 15 5 $14,926 20 6 $21,592 60

Calculate the productivity for each month and the change in productivity from month to month using sales dollars as the measure of output. (Round your answers to 4 decimal places. Negative amounts should be indicated by a minus sign.)

2.
	Month Labor Expense Sales Dollars Productivity Monthly Change 1 $21,310 $21,090 2 $28,800 $22,900 3 $20,392 $29,780 4 $14,194 $19,560 5 $14,926 $22,680 6 $21,592 $22,520

Answer 1

Answer 1:-
Month	Labour Expense(u)	Number of Projects(v)	Prodcutivity(w) = (v)/(u)	Monthly Change	Monthly Change(FORMULA)
1	21,310	44	0.0021	0.00000	0
2	28,800	60	0.0021	0.00000	=(G5/G4)-1
3	20,392	60	0.0029	0.41232	=(G6/G5)-1
4	14,194	15	0.0011	-0.64083	=(G7/G6)-1
5	14,926	20	0.0013	0.26794	=(G8/G7)-1
6	21,592	60	0.0028	1.07382	=(G9/G8)-1
Answer 2:-
Month	Labour Expense(u)	Sales Dollars(v)	Prodcutivity(w) = (v)/(u)	Monthly Change	Monthly Change(FORMULA)
1	21,310	21,090	0.9897	0.0000	0
2	28,800	22,900	0.7951	-0.1966	=(G15/G14)-1
3	20,392	29,780	1.4604	0.8366	=(G16/G15)-1
4	14,194	19,560	1.3780	-0.0564	=(G17/G16)-1
5	14,926	22,680	1.5195	0.1026	=(G18/G17)-1
6	21,592	22,520	1.0430	-0.3136	=(G19/G18)-1