Profile‐based circumstances for productivity measurement
| Pages | 825-839 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570910968063 |
| Published date | 26 June 2009 |
| Date | 26 June 2009 |
| Author | Kongkiti Phusavat,Pornthep Anussornnitisarn,Supattra Sujitwanit,Pekka Kess |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
Profile-based circumstances
for productivity measurement
Kongkiti Phusavat, Pornthep Anussornnitisarn and
Supattra Sujitwanit
Department of Industrial Engineering, Kasetsart University,
Bangkok, Thailand, and
Pekka Kess
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management,
University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific circumstances which require
productivity information. It aims to help support the promotion of productivity for manufacturing
firms belonging to the Federation of Thai Industries or FTI.
Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on survey data collected from FTI-based
manufacturing firms. There are five profiles: industrial type; size; years operating in business;
ownership; and targeted customer to be studied in a pair-wise circumstance. There are 40 companies
that participated in this study. The statistical analyses include general linear mode with ANOVA.
Altogether, there are a total of 138 circumstances (pair-wise profiles) under study.
Findings – In general, productivity information is important as indicated from most circumstances –
the must-measure and require-to-measure circumstances. The findings also indicate that there is no
specific prediction for particular circumstances (e.g. the larger-size firms with longer years operating
in business need productivity information than the smaller ones).
Practical implications – The results show that there is no need for the FTI to single out specific
groups to focus on productivity-measurement efforts. The study helps gain better understanding into
the issues regarding when-to-measure productivity. It is generally known that there are a few
measurement techniques that are communicated to the FTI firms on a regular basis such as
multi-factor productivity measurement and value-added productivity measurement – what to
measure. In addition, their applications are primarily at the organizational and production levels –
where-to-measure. The process to deploy these measurement techniques is well known and
documented – how-to-measure.
Originality/value – The findings support the use of both financial and non-financial information to
ensure an effective management process (i.e. measurement, analysis, and improvement).
Keywords Productivityrate, Measurement, Thailand, Manufacturing industries
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Nowadays, global competition has influenced a management process within
companies, especially performance measurement (Czarnecki, 1998). Regardless of the
stage in an organizational life-cycles (i.e. start-up, growth, maturity, and
renewal/decline), it is commonly accepted that performance measurement is critical
for successful management and continuous improvement (Anderson et al., 1997; Neely,
2002; Acur et al., 2006). Furthermore, it helps track the progress on organizational
missions, policies, objectives, and targets (Dixon et al., 1990; Kaplan and Norton, 1996;
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Circumstances
for productivity
measurement
825
Received 9 December 2008
Revised 1 February 2009
Accepted 18 February 2009
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 109 No. 6, 2009
pp. 825-839
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570910968063
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