Module 2 Critical Thinking Operations Management

Operations Management and Factors Affecting Productivity

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Operations Management and Factors Affecting Productivity

The productivity of each employee determines the total productivity of the entire organization. However, the productivity of employees varies from one employee to another. Therefore, it is vital for an organization to have an effective method of analyzing the productivity of the employees. Data on the performance of the employees may thereafter be used to reward the high-performing employees. Rewarding these employees provides them with an incentive to work harder and improve their output. It also challenges the low-performing employees to improve the levels of their productivity.

Maduro Cleaning, a small firm that specializes in the provision of cleaning services to residential and commercial clients, does not have a method of determining the productivity of its employees. The owner simply assigns crews of two, three, or four employees to jobs every morning. He does not have an effective method of determining the reasonable amount of time required for each job. Therefore, having a suitable method of determining the productivity levels of different crew would help in determining the suitable crew size for specific jobs.

To determine the productivity of each crew, the owner should calculate the number of square meters covered by a team and dividing it with the crew size. This would enable the owner to determine the productivity of each crew. This data can be used in assigning jobs in the future. The formula for calculating the productivity is shown below.

Average square meters cleaned per day (output) / crew size (input)

Below is the data for the productivity of the crew

Crew Size Avg. Productivity per Crew

2 3,765 square meters per day

3 4,915 square meters per day

4 6.309 square meters per day

Table 1: Productivity of the crew sizes

The most suitable method of determining the productivity of Maduro Cleaning involves dividing the output (average productivity of crew) by the input (crew size). Therefore, the productivity of the crew with a crew size of 2 members can be calculated using the formula shown below.

Crew size = 2

Average productivity of the crew = 3,765

Therefore, productivity = 3,765 / 2 = 1,882.5

The productivity of the crew with a crew size of 3 is shown calculated using the formula shown below.

Crew size = 3

Average productivity per crew = 4,915

Therefore, productivity = 4,915 / 3 = 1,638.3

The productivity of the crew with a crew size of 4 is calculated using the formula shown below.

Crew size = 4

Average productivity per crew = 6,309

Therefore, productivity = 6,309 / 4 = 1,577.25

The table below provides a summary of the results of the above calculations.

Crew Size Avg. Productivity per Crew Productivity

2 3,765 square meters per day 1,882.50

3 4,915 square meters per day 1,638.33

4 6.309 square meters per day 1,577.25

Table 2: Productivity levels of each crew

At a glance, having a larger crew size seems to be suitable since the crew would have more people to complete the job, and can therefore, complete the job faster than a crew with less members. However, analysis of the productivity levels of the crews as shown in Table 2 shows that there is an inverse correlation between the crew size and productivity. The crew with 2 members is the most productive with the crew with 3 members being more productive than the crew with 4 members.

One of the reasons as to why the increase in the crew size leads to a decrease in productivity is that the higher the number of people, the more the level of bureaucracy, which reduces productivity. In a small crew size, the crew’s focus is simply on getting things done since bureaucracy has limited interference on task performance (Wilson & Hill, 2013).

As the crew size increases, the links that should be managed to ensure tasks are performed increase at an exponential rate. The increase in the number of links increases the likelihood of the crew running into challenges. A large crew size also makes it difficult to ensure there is effective communication among the members. In addition, the members may not coordinate their work, which makes the work chaotic and of lower quality. As such, large crew sizes are characterized by low output and wastage of time. As the crew size increases, the level of innovation and independence reduces, which impacts productivity negatively (Gupta & Starr, 2014). This is highlighted by the productivity of the crew with 4 members, which is 1,577.25 productivity units, compared to the productivity of the crew with 2 members, which is 1882.50 productivity units. Therefore, the owner of Maduro should use small crews to increase the productivity of the firm.

The owner of Maduro Cleaning can also use of other methods to improve the productivity of crews. For instance, he can pare the employees with other employees they are comfortable with in a crew. This would ensure the employees are fully engaged in their tasks since there are no personal conflicts that interference with the performance of tasks. In addition, working with trustworthy employees reduces the likelihood of certain employees not completing their tasks as they would individually shoulder the burden of the tasks they are assigned (Simons, 2011). This ultimately improves the productivity of the entire crew.

The owner of Maduro Cleaning can also evaluate the productivity of crews by using feedback from clients. The firm should maintain the performance in areas where there are positive customer feedback. It should also address the areas with poor performance according to customer feedback within the shortest time possible to improve customer satisfaction. The firm can also request the customers to provide feedback on areas where productivity should be improved (Stevenson, 2018). This would show the firm’s dedication in meeting customer‘s expectations, which would ultimately improve the productivity of the entire firm.

The commitment of the owner of Maduro Cleaning to develop a productivity measure is an indication of his determination to promote the growth and success of the firm. The owner should develop a performance appraisal system that reward crews that have higher productivity to incentivize them to improve their productivity and provide low performing crews with a target they should aim to improve their productivity. The performance appraisal would show the commitment of the high performing employees and show their willingness to exceed the owner’s expectations (Shields et al., 2020). The performance appraisal may provide either monetary or nonmonetary rewards to high performing employees.

In conclusion, data from the operations of Maduro Cleaning show that the firm should use crews with 2 members as they are more productive than larger crews. Doing so would help in improving the productivity of the firm. This would ultimately have a positive impact on the revenues and profitability of the company.

References

Gupta, S., & Starr, M. (2014). Production and operations management systems. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Shields, J., Rooney, J., Brown, M., & Kaine, S. (2020). Managing Employee Performance and Reward: Systems, Practices and Prospects. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Simons, R, (2011). Operations Management: A Modern Approach. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Stevenson, W. (2018). Operations Management (13th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Wilson, R., & Hill, A. V. (2013). The Operations Management Complete Toolbox (Collection). Upper Saddle River, NJ: FT Press.