Business
Productivity is accomplishing something in terms of a goal, so it cannot be measured until the goal is named. Quality, efficiency, technology and sales are means; for a manufacturing business the goal itself is to make money.
A system's output is set by its single tightest constraint, so improvement means finding that constraint and raising it. Once it is raised, a different step becomes the limit, and the work starts again.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, a well-run system needs extra capacity at its non-critical steps. That slack is what keeps the constrained resource running without interruption.
Local efficiency measures can lie: keeping every machine and person busy does not mean the organization is making money. The real question is not whether people are working, but whether their work moves the whole system toward its goal.
A goal should not be defined in absolute terms but as a direction that sets you on a path of ongoing improvement. Pursuing it requires many breakthroughs, not one, and finding them depends on deeply understanding the underlying rules of your environment.
When the most critical resource is damaged or loses the one person who knows it, the whole operation suffers out of all proportion. Protecting the constraint matters more than protecting any other part of the system.
People who grasp a way of thinking can apply it without the software built to deliver it. Many successful improvements were carried out using only the explanation, not the tool.
Traditional cost and productivity accounting can push managers toward the wrong choices. Judging decisions by their effect on the whole system's goal, instead, can turn a failing operation into a top performer.