Productivity of labor

Labor productivity is very much dependent on the health and well-being of the workers and also on the availability of laborsaving tools and construction equipment. The frequency of strikes, hohdays, slowdowns, and pohtical unrest will also depress productivity. Closed-shop practices or demarcation disputes will also affect the productivity of labor. The use of standard equipment, parts, and methods tends to improve productivity. 

The productivity of labor can make enough difference in the cost of plants to justify an adjustment for location, even in early estimates. 

The optimum ratio of capital to labor must also be a concern of the costminimizing professional. This occurs for a given q when the marginal productivity of capital equals the marginal productivity of labor ... 

This method is a little labor-intensive because it involves a lot of distilling, but it is so easy to do and the results are absolutely predictable The production of MD-P2P or P2P using this method has been previously described [8,9] except that Strike is going to describe the little things. You know, those little bullshit things that never seem to work their way into official accounts but always cause a lot of stress to the novice chemist. 

This is the least desirable of all three processes [What do you mean by that This is really easy to do And the yield are fine ]. The yields are lower than the two rearrangements, and it requires substantial labor to get a decently pure product. Not "labor" as In difficult but "labor" as in a lot of it. I would suggest this only for those who have a large supply of Formaldehyde available to them (note - N. Coffey found formaldehyde at Home Depot - look for "Mildewcide" and dissolve it in enough water to make a 37% solution to depolymerize the paraformaldehyde). 

Mechanical Pressing. Historically, the first large commercial production of oils from seeds and nuts was carried out using labor-intensive hydraulic presses. These were gradually replaced by more efficient mechanical and screw presses. Solvent extraction was developed for extraction of seeds having low oil content. For seeds and nuts having higher oil content, a combination of a screw press followed by solvent extraction is a common commercial practice (prepress—solvent extraction). 

The key elements of the cost of production of phenol are feedstock cost and capital cost. For phenol produced on the U.S. Gulf Coast in a 200,000 t/yr phenol plant built in 1994, the cumene feedstock cost represents 70% of the net cost of production, after allowance for acetone coproduct value. Depreciation of equipment represents 14% of the net cost and utilities approximately 7.6%. The remaining 8.4% covers all other expenses, including plant labor, maintenance, insurance, adininistration, sales, etc. 

The location of a silicon metal plant is determined by balancing market costs against processing ones. Principal elements in the cost of silicon production, which ate site-dependent, are the deUvered cost of the raw materials, energy cost, and labor. Typical costs for production of silicon are given in Table 1. 

Wood is the raw material of the naval stores iadustry (77). Naval stores, so named because of their importance to the wooden ships of past centuries, consist of rosin (diterpene resin acids), turpentine (monoterpene hydrocarbons), and associated chemicals derived from pine (see Terpenoids). These were obtained by wounding the tree to yield pine gum, but the high labor costs have substantially reduced this production in the United States. Another source of rosin and turpentine is through extraction of old pine stumps, but this is a nonrenewable resource and this iadustry is in decline. The most important source of naval stores is spent sulfate pulpiag Hquors from kraft pulpiag of pine. In 1995, U.S. production of rosin from all sources was estimated at under 300,000 metric tons and of turpentine at 70,000 metric tons. Distillation of tall oil provides, in addition to rosin, nearly 128,000 metric tons of tall oil fatty acids annually (78). 

Table 6 shows the production of abrasive sihcon carbide in the United States and Canada (131). In 1988, four firms were producing cmde sihcon carbide under various trade names at six plants in the United States and Canada, The Exolon-ESK Co. General Abrasive/Dresser Co. Norton Co. and Superior Graphite Co. Most plants are located in areas where electrical power is, or at one time, was available at relatively low rates. Other considerations are availabihty of labor, reasonable air and water pollution standards, future expansion potential, and proximity of raw materials and markets. 

Over time, the market has demanded increasingly sophisticated software. Each successive enhancement in processor speed has been consumed by software that is more complex, even if only in creating a more user-friendly interface. In the past, computer time was expensive relative to labor costs. That situation is now reversed, and spending more for a more user-friendly computer can often be easily justified in order to enhance the productivity of the vasdy more expensive human being. 

Direct labor costs can be estimated usiag the flow sheet, typical labor needs (persons /shift) for each piece of process equipment, and the local labor rate. Company files are the best source for labor needs and rates, although some Hterature data are available (1,2). The hourly cost of labor ia the United States can be estimated from the M.onthly l bor Review of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Production supervision costs can usually be taken as a factor, such as 15% of the direct labor cost. 

Cost of labor per unit of production Standard cost particularized by tbe subscript... 

Productivity of local craft labor also depends on the use and avail-abihty of modern mechanical tools and construction equipment. Normally, the low cost of labor in certain countries tends to cut out the purchase or hire of sophisticated laborsaving equipment and to encourage the employment of large pools of labor, particularly in developing countries such as India, Pakistan, southeast Asian countries, and many African countries. In turn, this usually leads to higher construc tion costs. The use of laborsaving eqiiipment is prevalent in Canada, western Europe, Japan, and, to an increasing extent, the Middle East. 

Fiber drums are also made with a removable fiber top and a fiber bottom that is either removable or permanently fastened to the body. This drrtm has limited reuse, brrt it costs less than the lever-locked metal-top type. Filling equipment consists most commonly of an operator-controlled spout connected to a supply bin resting on a platform scale. Table 21-26 shows the labor productivity of several systems. 

Factors that enter into any economic analysis of handhng-warehousing systems are (1) expected mechanical and economic life of the system (2) annual maintenance cost (3) capital requirements and expected return on investment (4) building-construction cost and land v ue (5) detailed analysis of each work position (to determine trade-offs of labor and equipment expected future costs and availability of labor are important) (6) relation of system control and personnel used in system (trade-offs of people versus mechanical control) (7) type of information system (computerized or manual) and (8) expected changed in product, container, unit pallet loads, and customer preferences during the life of the system. 

The division of labor between operations and maintenance is shown in Figure 21-4. It is the primary responsibility of the production department to establish and regulate basic operating conditions, and it is the primary responsibility of the maintenance department to improve defects in design. The other tasks are shared between the two departments. 

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