mgt305a1

Note: The following problem is fictitious but employs names of, and news from, real organizations. The idea is to increase the reality of the situation, and to improve your awareness of various industries and organizations.

You are a supervisor of roof installation crews at Ray St Clair Roofing. Your boss, the director of operations, wants to measure the productivity of the work crews. You’ve gathered the data on square feet of roof installed below. Assume that each individual works a 40 hour week.

This year:

Week	Crew Size	Square Feet Installed
1	4	1820
2	3	1475
3	3	1460
4	2	1050
5	4	1870
6	2	1020

Last year:

Week	Crew Size	Square Feet Installed
1 (52 weeks ago)	3	1380
2	4	1875
3	2	1000
4	4	1850
5	3	1405
6	2	980

Here are some of the questions on his mind.

How is productivity officially defined and calculated? (finding a textbook definition and citing it in you memo would be a feather in your cap)
In your memo, make sure you describe your analytical method. This should include the data that you're using, where you got it (cites), and how you plan to use it in your analysis.
There are different types of productivity measures (i.e., partial factor, multi factor, total factor). Which one are we using here and why?
What is our productivity?
Does productivity depend on crew size? How does sample size affect the confidence of your conclusions?
How does productivity change from week to week? (if you're baffled by how to calculate such a thing, click here)
How does our productivity compare to national averages? (the Bureau of Labor Statistics is the best source for this type of data)
What would an information systems that routinely reports productivity for our organization look like? Is this something we should pursue?
What might be a conservative next step in improving our productivity?

Report your findings to your boss in memo format.