As of year 10, worker productivity averaged 4,000 pairs annually at the plant in North America and 2,500
pairs annually at the Asia-Pacific plant. There is reason to believe that over the next several years worker
productivity can be improved considerably at both plants if managers aggressively pursue productivity
gains. Worker productivity is important because it determines the size of the workforce needed to staff
plant operations. For instance, if your company elects to produce 2 million pairs of shoes at its North
American plant and the annual productivity of North American workers averages 4,000 pairs annually, then
it will take a workforce of 500 people to produce the 2 million pairs. But if worker productivity should later
rise to an average of 5,000 pairs, then only 400 workers would be needed to produce 2 million pairs.