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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed
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To: pater tenebrarum who wrote (30848)10/24/2000 5:03:51 PM
From: Don Lloyd  Read Replies (3) of 436258
 
hb -

As an aside to the productivity issue, not involving either technology or individual output per hour, there is what I call Vertical Disintegration.

Assume that the widget industry consists of three companies, each of which produces a new widget model every quarter. Every new widget model needs to be accompanied with a new user's manual specific to the new model. Each company employs a technical writer who can create a new user's manual in 30 days. So in each company, the technical writer spends one out of every three months writing and the other two months visiting the water cooler and degrading the productivity of the secretaries and receptionists.

One of the technical writers decides to go into business for himself, forming Manuals 'R Me. Working at home, he contracts to work for all three companies, producing one manual per month and allowing all three companies to eliminate the in-house technical writing position.

With no improvement in individual output per hour, the overall productivity measurement is increased due to the elimination of two entire jobs without loss of output.

This is a form of structural change, vertical disintegration, where an entire job category is outsourced and an inherent condition of slack labor capacity is eliminated.

Regards, Don
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