Health, Education and Productivity

Productivity has become something of a catchphrase in South Africa in recent years, but there is no denying its importance in enhancing the competitiveness of a firm or country. Productivity may be defined, in the widest sense, as representing

the relationship between physical output and the capital, labour, materials and energy required to produce that output. That is, productivity is a physical output per unit of capital, unit of labour, unit of energy and unit of raw materials. Productivity improvement involves the better and more efficient utilisation by management of all production resources to ensure maximum output at minimum cost. (NPI, 1994: 1).