Where Yields Are Still High

Via
Wall Street Journal

By BLAKE HURST

It has been a difficult year in rural Missouri, with early floods followed by an extended drought. But this is my 31st harvest, and I'm used to the ups and downs of farming, if not entirely resigned to them. One of the first fields we "combined" this fall was on land that my grandfather began to work in 1931. He picked corn with nothing but a mule, a wagon and a corn hook that fitted into the palm of his hand. I'm driving $300,000 of the latest technology, complete with a Global Positioning Unit that maps our yields and a satellite radio that follows the latest news of the financial crisis. Grandpa ended up on the fields we harvest today because he lost his first farm in the Depression. I hope that America's tools for managing financial crises have advanced as much as our ability to harvest grain.

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Beyond An Open Door Policy

Via
The Santa Clarita Valley, Calif. Signal


No Doors At All, Even For The Bosses

Oscar Torres poked the touch-screen computer that hung in the middle of a factory floor busy with humming machines and diligent workers focused on assembling parts.

From the small screen, Torres, who works as a machine operator at B&B Manufacturing, demonstrated how an employee can access everything from the day’s work schedule to how to request tools and send e-mails.

“It’s easy, quicker,” said Torres, a Palmdale resident who has worked at the industrial company for three years.

The flat screens are all over the five-building campus of B&B’s home in the Valencia Industrial Center and it’s just one way the company increases productivity through efficiency.

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Maternity Leave And Productivity In Australia

Via
The Australian

ONE in six mothers are returning to work before their babies are even three months old, new research shows.

The figures come as a landmark government report today is expected to recommend women get at least 14 weeks paid maternity leave.

A national survey of Australian families conducted for the government has found eight per cent of the nations mothers are back at work before their babies are aged one month old.

A further eight per cent of mothers return to work within two or three months of the birth of their youngest child, the Household Income and Labour Dynamics survey of 13,000 Australians found.

Forty per cent of Australian mothers are now back at work before their baby tuns one year old, up from 32 per cent in 1996.

The report concludes that many women are being forced back to work because they aren't eligible for paid maternity leave and are under financial pressure.

In some cases it is because more fathers are taking time off work to share the child rearing responsibilities.

Just 43 per cent of women are entitled to paid maternity leave and only 34 per cent of dads are eligible for paid paternity leave.

The nations efficiency watchdog the Productivity Commission will today release its draft options paper on a new paid maternity leave scheme that aims to solve this problem.

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The Care And Feeding Of Printers

Via
Express Computer,
India's IT Business Weekly


By Pratap Vikram Singh

Printing is a cost centre that is frequently overlooked by most organizations. They look at printers and copiers purely as CAPEX, ignoring the significant running costs associated with maintaining and running equipment. The fact, however, is that printers and copiers probably represent a significant part of an organization’s operational expenses—typically 1-3% of revenue on average, according to industry experts. MFDs are fast emerging as an answer to growing printing costs.

The truth is that the cost of feeding a printer, copier or MFD over the course of its lifespan is likely to far exceed the cost of buying it in the first place. In fact, it’s likely that the initial purchase cost of a business printer will represent only a fraction, in some cases as little as 10%, of the money you spend on that printer over the course of its life.

The consolidation of multiple devices (printer, copier, scanner, and fax) into one has been an ongoing accelerator for the industry and continues to gain more traction. In an environment where saving costs and energy is becoming a priority, the importance of multi-function devices as powerful and efficient hubs of printing and imaging activity cannot be understated. These devices have emerged as one-stop-shop for all the document printing needs for businesses—SMB or enterprise. There is a clear advantage to an MFD—it saves retail space (as print, copy and fax functions are integrated into a single device) thereby reducing TCO. –AP]

Analyst firm IDC India is quite upbeat about the growth of MFDs in India. According to its report, the inkjet MFD segment is expected to grow by 12.6% to around Rs 357 crores in CY 2008 up from Rs 317 crores in CY 2007.

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Productivity And Pricing: A Perspective From Corporate Farming

Via
The PigSite.com

CME: Is Higher Productivity Always a Good Thing?


So higher productivity is always good, right? Not if costs are rising and output must be reduced in order to drive prices higher ...


If you missed the CME Group’s webinar on mandatory country-of-origin labeling on Wednesday, it will be available on CME Group website Thursday afternoon. Thank you to the 400-plus who logged in to the webinar and those who attended in person at CME Group headquarters.

High input costs bring production and productivity issues to the forefront so we thought it might be a good time to revisit the productivity records of the three major animal protein sectors. The graphs below provide a very comprehensive measurement of industry productivity: output per female or, in the case of hogs, output per breeding animal since we have no direct estimate of the number of females in the U.S. herd. This measure encompasses most of the key productivity factors including breeding efficiency, birth rate and slaughter weight. Implicit in this measure is also rate of gain. If animals grow faster, they will add more total weight each year and thus increase productivity. The charts generally represent the productivity of fixed assets such as land, buildings and equipment as well since those are closely correlated to breeding animal numbers. Feed efficiency is the most critical productivity factor for which these charts do not provide much information.

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Freeing Yourself From A 5,000 Year-Old Technology

Via
The Daily Telegraph Of Australia

Paperless office has its day

PAPER was such a wonderful invention that it has only been improved, not superseded, since the Egyptians created "sheets" of papyrus 5000 years ago.

But it's role in the office was now over, said Planet Ark founder Jon Dee, who was one of three presenters at an Innovation and Sustainability workshop held yesterday as part of Small Business September.

"One of the key things I'm pushing now is how to reduce the use of paper in the office," Mr Dee said.

"Too often when you talk to businesses about saving money, they come back dismissively about saving $5 for a ream of paper, but it's about freeing yourself from a 5000-year-old technology."

Mr Dee said that on a recent visit to the Nova radio station in Perth, he found that the financial manager had made the entire financial operation paperless.

"You had to email a PDF of a bill if you wanted to get it paid and then it was paid electronically," he said.

It was not only more efficient to be electronic, but it saved space as well, he said.

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Guaging Productivity Of Vendors

Via
The Economic Times of India

BPOs rejig business model to earn more

NEW DELHI: Next time, when a client’s transaction is forwarded to a BPO in India, he might actually end up getting more value on the service offered than he ever expected.

The Indian BPO industry is undergoing a shift in its revenue-generation model to spur more efficiency among the service providers.

From the input-based pricing or FTE (full-time equivalent) model based on per person on hourly basis, the sector is embracing outcome (a client pays a vendor based on the output or outcome) and transaction (vendor will be paid on the number of transactions performed) based pricing models.

“Gauging productivity of providers based on the FTE format was becoming quite difficult. In the new output based model, the effort and success is out in the open for everyone to see. It shall have positive impacts in revenue generation,” said Sameer Chopra, president, Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI).

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Finding a Balance Between Workplace Efficiency, Flexibility

Via
IT Business Age

We often hear how employers will need to offer more flexible work schedules to attract cream-of-the-crop workers. While that may be true for high-skill, salaried positions, some companies are adopting work force management systems that impose structure — and lots of it — on their hourly workers, to boost productivity and reduce payroll costs.

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What Drives Your Desire?

THE UN-COMFORT ZONE
with Robert Wilson

It was love at first sight. I was a 15 year old working as a parking lot cashier, when a brand new car pulled up to the booth. I'd never seen anything like it; it was a new model from Toyota called Celica. Approaching the legal driving age, I dreamed of owning a car. Now my dream had a form. For the next two years, I saved all my money and during that time a Celica couldn't come within my peripheral vision without my noticing it. It was the only car I wanted. I went to the showroom dozens of times to sit in it, feel it, smell it. I talked with every owner of one who passed through my parking lot. I was driven.

Unfortunately, a new one was too expensive, so I looked in the newspaper every day for a used one, but I was always more than $1,000 short. At 17 and half years old, borrowing my parents car was painful. The desire and the peer pressure to own a car - any car - was nearly overwhelming, and my dream was wavering. My friends began suggesting cars that I could afford. Then my Dad introduced me to a car wholesaler. When I met with him, I reluctantly gave him a list of cars I thought I could afford. As we talked about them, he seemed to sense my lack of enthusiasm. He pressed me, "Are there any others you're interested in?" "Well... there's the Toyota Celica," I replied, "but I know I can't afford it." He jotted it down and said, "You let me worry about that." My eyes lit up as he asked me about colors and options. Then he drew a big circle around the word Celica. Less than a week later, he phoned me. He found one I could afford. It had a small dent in the fender which I could fix for under $100. Cha-ching Desire satisfied.

When was the last time you were obsessed with something? Desire is a powerful motivator, but unlike Fear it cannot be easily triggered. Oh, sure, I can create a television ad depicting a thick juicy steak sizzling on a grill and make your mouth water. Maybe I can even get you off the couch and into your car to go get one. As a marketer, an employer, or even as a parent, I can plant the seeds of desire, but in order for it to blossom, it must develop from within. Once it takes root, Desire has the amazing ability to drive itself. When it becomes very powerful, we call it Ambition. So few people reach this level that we use the word Hunger to describe it because that is a Desire that everyone can understand.

When you observe the world's most successful people - - in business, sports, or politics - - you see that Desire takes precedence over every other aspect of their lives. As Frank Sinatra sings in I've Got You Under My Skin: "I'd sacrifice anything come what might." Most us have many things we are unwilling to sacrifice. Family and friends are two of the most common. Winners give their Desire complete attention, focus and energy. Michael Jordan is an excellent example; he became one of the greatest basketball players by making 2000 practice shots everyday. Are you that dedicated to your dream?

On the other hand, perhaps you gain more satisfaction from your hobbies than your work. In that case, you probably wish you could spend more time pursuing them instead of your job. That is because pleasure is the force that fans the flames of Desire. Marsha Sinetar in her book Do What You Love the Money Will Follow writes: "When you study people who are successful...it is abundantly clear that their achievements are directly related to the enjoyment they derive from their work." Are you ready to give up everything for your Desire?

Robert Evans Wilson, Jr. is a motivational speaker and humorist. He works with companies that want to be more competitive and with people who want to think like innovators. For more information on Robert's programs please visit www.jumpstartyourmeeting.com.

Mayor’s Report Shows What Works and Doesn’t in New York, by the Numbers

Via
NY Times

By FERNANDA SANTOS

There were more condoms handed out (39,070), more complaints about rats, roaches and other critters (23,000) and more potholes repaired (210,032).

There were fewer homicides (516), fewer cars stolen (12,723) and fewer adults smoking (16.9 percent of the population).

The numbers — from the serious to the quirky and the surprising — were among the more than 1,219 performance indicators included in the Mayor’s Management Report, which assesses how city government responded in all areas during the past fiscal year compared with the previous year.

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California Air Board says there's dollars in green

Via
Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's landmark legislation to cut carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 will help the state's economy in the long run, according to a report by the state agency charged with implementing the cuts.

A macroeconomic analysis of a California Air Resources Board (CARB) proposed plan to implement the emission cuts estimates that in 2020 the state's productivity will be increased $27 billion over what would be realized if the state doesn't cut its polluting ways.

Also, California going green will mean 100,000 more jobs in 12 years than today and an increase in per capita income by $200 a year.

Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the CARB, said the current crisis on Wall Street shouldn't effect California's ambitious plans because energy efficiency and other "green" goals will help most businesses' bottom lines, even if those benefits come years after up-front costs.

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Finland to offer high-speed broadband for all by 2016

HELSINKI (AFP) — The Finnish government said it would offer high-speed broadband connections to nearly all Finns by the end of 2015 in a bid to boost productivity, paying up to a third of the cost.

"I have estimated that building fibreoptic cable networks in areas where they would not be built commercially will cost around 200 million euros, of which the government could pay a maximum of one third, so around 67 million euros (97 million dollars)," Harri Pursiainen, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, told AFP.

He added that telecom operators, regions, municipalities and financial support from the European Union were expected to cover the remaining two-thirds of the price tag.

Communications Minister Suvi Linden said earlier the government was committed to helping finance fibreoptic networks in remote areas but would decide later this year on specific details.

The government hopes to offer a connection speed of at least 100 megabytes per second to all households by 2016, but in a first step it aims to secure broadband of at least one megabyte per second by 2010.

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Milk Packaging Innovation Cited For Results On Several Levels

Via
Business Daily Africa

Innovation that improves efficiency and quality leading to price cuts

Written by Sam Mwangi


September 16, 2008: An innovation is mostly the end result of a deliberate search for excellence. It creates previously unrealised value at all levels, unlocking growth through improvements in efficiency, productivity and quality that lead to better positioning in the market.

In Kenya, there are several interesting innovations in services and manufacturing. One interesting innovation is the use of plastic pouches in the packaging of milk. According to a previous study, the cost of packaging milk eight years ago was a disproportionately large percentage of the total cost of milk.

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Why You Need To Measure Performance

Via
Sydney Morning Herald

You can't manage what you can't measure. This concept has been around for ages - and it makes perfect sense. How do you know if your business is going well if you don't have some performance metrics to consider. How can you figure out if your staff are productive if you can't measure their productivity or output? The trouble is that performance measurement often falls by the wayside in small businesses.

As busy business owners, you are often flat out simply putting out fires and dealing with day-to-day issues. As creative entrepreneurs, you might be able to get motivated by the big picture of your business and push aside what seem like mundane tasks - such as measurement.

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Australia Notes Shortage Of Skilled Workers And Impact On Productivity

Via
Sydney Morning Herald

Jobless fall confirms serious skills shortage


An unexpected fall in the unemployment rate leaves the nation still facing a costly skills crisis that business and governments must respond to, according to a recruitment specialist.

New data showed the unemployment rate fell to a five-month low of 4.1% in August, just shy of the 34-year low of 3.9% set in February.

Clarius Group managing director and chief executive officer Diana Eilert said the data confirmed the nation faced continued serious skills shortages.

"Policy makers across government and key business sectors should increase efforts to encourage highly-skilled expats back in to the Australian workforce,'' she said.

She said the serious skills shortages were costing companies hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity because of the unavailability of home-grown specialist skills compounded by a lack of skilled migrants.

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Manufacturing enterprises' multiple tactics to survive

Via
chinadaily.com


By Xu Shenglan

The producer price index (PPI) for China's industrial products rose 10.0 percent year on year in July, while that of the mining industries surged 34 percent year-on-year, according to China Securities Journal.

The data shows that China’s manufacturing industry is facing the pressure of increasing costs.

Raising the price of new orders is the first choice for many firms, and then improving labor productivity. According to Wanxiang Qianchao Co Ltd, its working efficiency has been raised to one person for four machines instead of one-for-two, and the firm’s gross profit will not decline next year.

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Managing, Literally, By The Numbers

Via
Business Week

By building mathematical models of its own employees,
IBM aims to improve productivity and automate management

by Stephen Baker

BusinessWeek's 2006 Cover Story, "Math Will Rock Your World," announced a new age of numbers. With the rise of new networks, the story argued, all of us were channeling the details of our lives into vast databases. Every credit-card purchase, every cell-phone call, every click on the computer mouse fed these digital troves. Those with the tools and skills to make sense of them could begin to decipher our movements, desires, diseases, and shopping habits—and predict our behavior. This promised to transform business and society. In a book expanding upon this Cover Story, The Numerati, Senior Writer Stephen Baker introduces us to the mathematical wizards who are digging through our data to decode us as patients, shoppers, voters, potential terrorists—even lovers.

One of the most promising laboratories for the Numerati is the workplace, where every keystroke, click, and e-mail can be studied. In a chapter called "The Worker," Baker travels to IBM (IBM), where mathematicians are building predictive models of their own colleagues. An excerpt:

On a late spring morning I drive up into the forests of Westchester County, N.Y., to the headquarters of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center. It sits like a fortress atop a hill, a long, curved wall of glass reflecting the cotton-ball clouds floating above. I have a date there with Samer Takriti, a Syrian-born mathematician. He heads up a team that's piecing together mathematical models of 50,000 of IBM's tech consultants. The idea is to pile up inventories of all of their skills and then to calculate, mathematically, how best to deploy them. I'm here to find out how Takriti and his colleagues go about turning IBM's workers into numbers. If this works, his team plans to apply these models to other companies and to automate much of what we now call management.

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