OUTLINE OF "THE HIDDEN POWER OF PRODUCTIVITY: 30% productivity improvement without layoffs!" APROX. 250 WORDS Andy Case has just been hired in his first position as Production Manager at SportsBall Inc. He believes that he and his team have productivity up by 5%, and he is shocked to learn that his boss believes that productivity has fallen! His boss lays down a challenge: a 30% improvement in productivity in 6 months, or he will look outside for someone else. Andy ?s supervisors propose a solution, which looks as if it could achieve a dramatic 30% breakthrough. But when Andy studies it in depth, he realizes that this solution could bankrupt the company! He realizes that the way his company measures productivity is misleading, and can produce disastrous results, but is unable to figure how to rectify it. Andy meets a productivity expert, Ralph Burton, who shows him where SportsBall and many other companies go wrong with measuring productivity. Once they clear up how to measure productivity correctly, Andy and Ralph turn their attention to how to get productivity improvements. With the active participation of his workforce, Andy implements a powerful system for detecting non-value adding operations consistently and quickly. But realizing that there are many erroneous beliefs and unnecessary fears in the organization, which hold employees back from their true potential, Andy and Ralph design a 3-day workers training workshop, where the workers design productivity improvement projects in specific areas, ranging a 30% reduction in material wastage to a 65% reduction in dispatch time, all without any additional cost for the company. Six weeks later SportsBall Inc, hits the 30% target, 4 months ahead of schedule, without any layoffs!