Concepts of wealth also vary across time. Modern labor-saving inventions and the development of the
sciences have enabled the poorest sectors of today's society to enjoy a standard of living equivalent
if not superior to the wealthy of the not-too-distant past. This comparative wealth across time is also
applicable to the future; given this trend of human advancement, it is likely that the standard of living
that the wealthiest enjoy today will be considered impoverished by future generations.
The art and science of productivity improvement is simply about producing more from less. It is
calculated by dividing the value of your enterprise’s outputs by its inputs. A ratio of more than one
means that you are in profitable territory and everyone’s happy – or are they? The answer is maybe
they are – for now.
Remember that your business environment, customer needs, technology and competitors are always
changing and you need to adjust constantly and invest to keep ahead.
That adjustment is made by reducing the value of inputs and increasing the value of outputs thereby
increasing productivity. Your investors, staff, the market, the government and the environment will love
you for it, if you do it well and sustainably.
Remember that productivity improvement activities always cost time, money and resources. You must
spend money to make money! So the question is where do you apply your productivity improvement
efforts and get your best return on investment?
The main approach is - to focus on the efficiency of processes. Necessary resources are often found
from operational budgets to drive innovative programmes like Total Quality Management, Theory of
Constraints and LEAN production that focus on processes, attitudes and behavior development.
Continuously improving your processes enables you to make many small gains, which can be
considerable when added together over time.
