Question 1:- Gibson Products produces cast bronze valves for use in offshore oil platforms. Currently, Gibsonproduces 1600 valves per day. The 20 workers at Gibson work from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m., with 30 minutes off for lunch and a 15-minute break during the morning work session and another at the afternoon work session. Gibson is in a competitive industry and needs to increase productivity to stay competitive. They feel that a 20% increase is needed.

Gibson's management believes that the 20% increase will not be possible without a change in working conditions, so they change work hours. The new schedule calls for workers to work from7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., during which workers can take one hour off at any time of their choosing. Obviously, the number of paid hours is the same as before, but production increases, perhaps because workers are given a bit more control over their workday. After this change, valve production increased to 1800 units per day.

a. Calculate labour productivity for the initial situation.

b. Calculate labour productivity for the hypothetical 20% increase.

c. What is the productivity after the change in work rules?

d. Provide short paragraph analyzing these results.

Question 2:- Susan has a part-time "cottage industry" producing seasonal plywood yard ornaments for resale at local craft fairs and bazaars. She currently works 8 hours per day to produce 16 ornaments.

a. What is her productivity?

b. She thinks that by redesigning the ornaments and switching from the use of wood glue to a hot-glue gun she can increase her total production to 20 ornaments per day. What is her new productivity?

c. What is her percentage increase in productivity?

Question 3:-A firm cleans chemical tank cars in the Edmonton area. With standard equipment, the firm typically cleaned 70 chemical tank cars per month. They utilized 10 gallons of solvent, and two employees worked 20 days per month, 8 hours a day. The company decided to switch to a larger cleaning machine. Last April, they cleaned 60 tank cars in only 15 days. They utilized 12 gallons of solvent, and the two employees worked 6 hours a day.

1. What was their raw material and their labour productivity with the standard equipment?

2. What is their raw material and their labour productivity with the larger machine?

3. What is the change in each productivity measure?