Productivity improvements in two fabricated metals industries, (EXCERPT), Monthly Labor Review Online, October 1983

Productivity improvements
in two fabricated metals industries

Horst Brand and Clyde Huffstutler

Labor productivity trends vary widely in two industries in the fabricated metals group—valves and pipe fittings and fabricated pipe and fittings—in part, because the technologies applied in the manufacture of their products differ.¹ Furthermore, although valves and pipe fittings are classified as a single industry, their products are fundamentally unlike in the ways in which they are manufactured, and in the extent of scale economies and industry support required in servicing them after they have been installed. Products of both industries are used to control and transmit liquid and gaseous fluids.

In the valves and pipe findings industry, productivity, as measured by output per employee hour, rose at an average annual rate of 1.3 percent between 1954 and 1981, as output increased 3.0 percent and employee hours, 1.7 percent. In fabricated pipe and fittings, productivity advanced 0.3 percent a year between 1958 and 1981, as a 4.3-percent gain in output was offset by a 4.1-percent increase in employee hours. Productivity in all manufacturing industries averaged 2.5 percent during the 1954-81 period, as output increased 3.3 percent and employee hours, 0.8 percent.

This excerpt is from an article published in the October 1983 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.

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Footnotes

1 The valves and pipe fittings manufacturing industry is designated as SIC 3494, and the fabricated pipe and fabricated pipe fittings industry as sic 3498 in the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Manual of the Office of Management and Budget (1972 ed.). Valves and pipe fittings are used to control the flow of liquids or gases in pipes and mains, and in machinery; plumbers' brass goods are not included. Establishments in the fabricated pipe and pipe fittings industry cut, bend, thread, and otherwise work purchased pipe.

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