A production economist focuses on assessment, and will use an aggregate description of technology to answer such questions as: How does the firm compare to its competitors? Has the firm improved its production capabilities? A production engineer focuses on optimizing resources, and will use a detailed description of technology to answer a completely different set of questions: Which operations or plants should produce which products at what time? Should resource capacity be expanded and, if so, which resources should be acquired? Each group could benefit from the other group's perspective. This book offers a unified, integrated point of view that bridges the gap between these two historically distinct perspectives.

Overview

Overview
Microeconomic Foundations
Production Functions
Formal Description of Technology
Nonparametric Models of Technology
Cost Function
Indirect Production Function
Distance Functions
Nonconvex Models of Technology
Efficiency Measurement
Efficiency Analysis
The Two-Dimensional Projection
Multi-Stage Efficiency Analysis
Efficiency Analysis of Warehouse and Distribution Operations
Productivity and Performance Measurement
Index Numbers
Productivity Measurement
Performance Measurement
Economic Analysis
Engineering Models of Technology
Index-Based Dynamic Production Functions
Distribution-Based Dynamic Production Functions
Dynamic Production Function Approximations
A Stochastic Input-Output Model
Multi-Stage, Dynamic Models of Technology
Optimizing Labor Resources Within a Warehouse.