National Public Radio Has Major Piece On Productivity

Productivity's down:

The Conference Board came out with a report today saying U.S. productivity growth is slipping. Kai Ryssdal talks with the Board's Ken Goldstein about what that might mean for inflation and interest rates.

APS highly recommends this in-depth piece. Real-player audio is required.

Listen to this story and read the transcript

More Efficient Locomotives

Union Pacific Railroad expects to spend
an estimated $1 billion on system companywide

The CBTC also is expected to help increase productivity
by boosting the number of trains that can operate on a track


By Emily Brandler
www.spokanejournal.com

Union Pacific Corp. says it plans to implement an up to $1 billion technological system that will revolutionize the way it operates its locomotives, and has chosen a route that runs between Spokane and Cranbrook, British Columbia, as one of two testing sites for that cutting edge technology.

The big Omaha, Neb.-based railway company will spend about $20 million to implement and test the system, called communication-based train control (CBTC), on the 140-mile route between here and Cranbrook, called the Spokane Sub, and a 193-mile route, called the South Morrill Sub, which runs through parts of Nebraska and Wyoming.


Jeff Young, Union Pacific’s assistant vice president of transportation systems, says the tests on both routes are expected to launch by August and take about two years to complete. For the Spokane Sub test, Union Pacific will train 55 employees and equip 15 locomotives with the CBTC system, while Calgary, Alberta-based Canadian Pacific Railway, which interchanges with Union Pacific along the track at Eastport, Idaho, will install the CBTC on 15 of its locomotives.

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India's Productivity Shooting To The Top

Goldman Sachs says India's economy may overtake US in 2042
and be an economic superpower second only to China

By Finfacts Team
www.finfacts.com
Jan 25, 2007

A leading global investment bank says India could overtake the UK, Italy and France and have the world's fifth largest economy within a decade. The report by Goldman Sachs says if trends continue; India's economy could also surpass the United States before 2050 and be second only to China's.

It says a decade of reforms in India has brought increased competition and efficiency; but poor infrastructure is already struggling to keep up with growth and might hold the country back.

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IT And Productivity

Formula For Efficiency In Low-margin Industries

They Usually Don't Invest Heavily In IT
But Dow does. Its CEO Tells Us Why

CIO Magazine


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In 1996 the Dow Chemical Company, which at $US46 billion in annual revenue sits comfortably in the top half of the Fortune 100, set a series of ambitious environmental, health and safety goals -- ranging from decreasing leaks and emissions to improving overall safety performance -- that it hoped to attain by 2005.

Dow claims that it reached slightly more than half its goals, and it credits a transformation brought about in large part through IT. Over that time, Dow spent about $US700 million on IT per year, leading to a $US2.3 billion increase in productivity.

Recently Dow CEO Andrew Liveris set a new round of goals, which he hopes the company can reach by 2015. The goals include reducing the company's energy consumption by 25 percent and achieving at least three breakthroughs in the areas of clean water, food and housing. Once again, Dow is depending on IT to lead the way.

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