Labor productivity, factors affecting increases

The overall purification yield of recombinant enzyme is affected by the scale-up and may vary from plant to plant. The profitability at lower yields and at a constant selling price was also determined. A 10% reduction in yield resulted in a 12.9% decrease in the ROI. Conversely, the effect of increasing the plant capacity between 4545 (base case) and 45,450 kg of corn per batch on rGUS production, capital investment, UPC and ROI was estimated. A five-fold increase in capacity resulted in a reduction of 30% in the UPC, and an increase in the ROI from 52 to 91%. Further increase in the capacity did not have a significant effect on the UPC and ROI. With a five-fold increase in the capacity the total capital investment increased by a factor of 3.3, labor, administrative, and overhead expenses doubled, and the rest of the operating costs increased proportionally with the capacity. 

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