1. A company that makes kitchen chairs wants to compare productivity at two of its facilities. At facility #1, six workers produced 240 chairs. At facility #2, four workers produced 210 chairs during the same time period. Which facility was more productive?
2. Aztec Furnishings makes hand-crafted furniture for sale in its retail stores. The furniture maker has recently installed a new assembly process, including a new sander and polisher. With this new system, produc- tion has increased to 90 pieces of furniture per day from the previous 60 pieces of furniture per day. The number of defective items produced has dropped from 10 pieces per day to 1 per day. The production facility operates strictly eight hours per day. Evaluate the change in productivity for Aztec using the new assembly process.
3. Med-Tech labs is a facility that provides medical tests and evaluations for patients, ranging from analyzing blood samples to performing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Average cost to patients is $60 per pa- tient. Labor costs average $15 per patient, materials costs are $20 per patient, and overhead costs are aver- aged at $20 per patient.
a. What is the multifactor productivity ratio for Med- Tech? What does your finding mean?
b. If the average lab worker spends three hours for each patient, what is the labor productivity ratio?