producer goods or capital goods or intermediate goods
Goods manufactured and used in further manufacturing, processing, or resale. Intermediate goods either become part of the final product or lose their distinct identity in the manufacturing stream, while capital goods are the plant, equipment, and inventories used to produce final products. The contribution of intermediate goods to a country’s gross domestic product may be determined through the value-added method, which calculates the amount of value added to the final consumer good at each stage of pro¬ duction. This series of values is summed to estimate the total value of the final product.
product rule Rule for finding the derivative of a product of two func¬ tions. If both/and g are differentiable, then (fg)' =fg' +f'g-
production function Equation that expresses the relationship between the quantities of productive factors (such as labour and capital) used and the amount of product obtained. It states the amount of product that can be obtained from every combination of factors, assuming that the most efficient available methods of production are used. The production func¬ tion can thus measure the marginal productivity of a particular factor of production and determine the cheapest combination of productive factors that can be used to produce a given output.
production management or operations management Plan¬ ning, implementation, and control of industrial production processes to ensure smooth and efficient operation. Production management techniques are used in both manufacturing and service industries. Production man¬ agement responsibilities include the traditional “five M’s”: men and women, machines, methods, materials, and money. Managers are expected to maintain an efficient production process with a workforce that can readily adapt to new equipment and schedules. They may use indus¬ trial engineering methods, such as time-and-motion studies, to design effi¬ cient work methods. They are responsible for managing both physical (raw) materials and information materials (paperwork or electronic docu¬ mentation). Of their duties involving money, inventory control is the most important. This involves tracking all component parts, work in process, finished goods, packaging materials, and general supplies. The produc¬ tion cycle requires that sales, financial, engineering, and planning depart¬ ments exchange information—such as sales forecasts, inventory levels, and budgets—until detailed production orders are dispatched by a production-control division. Managers must also monitor operations to ensure that planned output levels, cost levels, and quality objectives are met. See also productivity.
productivity In economics, a measure of productive efficiency calcu¬ lated as the ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Any of the traditional factors of production— land, labour, or capital —can be used as the denominator of the ratio, though productivity calculations are actually seldom made for land or capital since their capacity is dif¬ ficult to measure. Labour is in most cases easily quantified—for example, by counting workers engaged on a particular product. In industrialized nations, the effects of increasing productivity are most apparent in the use of labour. Productivity can be seen not only as a measure of efficiency but also as an indicator of economic development. Productivity increases as a primitive extractive economy develops into a technologically sophisti¬ cated one. The pattern of increase typically exhibits long-term stability
interrupted by sudden leaps that represent major technological advances. Productivity in Europe and the U.S. made great strides following the development of such technologies as steam power, the railroad, and the gasoline motor. Later in the 20th century, advances in productivity stemmed from a number of innovations, including assembly lines and auto¬ mation, COMPUTER-INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING, DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS, just-in-time manufacturing, and just-in-time inventory management. Increases in productivity have tended to lead to long-term increases in real wages.
proenzyme See zymogen
profiler Machine tool for cutting complex, irregular shapes, invented by Frederick W. Howe. A rapidly rotating cutter is guided by a finger that traces around the outline of a pattern. The profiler was an important com¬ ponent of the American System of manufacture that made mass production possible.
profit In business usage, the excess of total revenue over total cost dur¬ ing a specific period of time. In economics, profit is the excess over the returns to capital, land, and labour. Since these resources are measured by their opportunity costs, economic profit can be negative. There are vari¬ ous sources of profit: an innovator who introduces a new production tech¬ nique can earn entrepreneurial profits; changes in consumer tastes may bring some firms windfall profits; or a firm may restrict output to prevent prices from falling to the level of costs (monopoly profit).
profit sharing System by which employees are paid a share of the profits of the business enterprise in which they are employed, in keeping with a plan outlined in advance. These payments, which may vary accord¬ ing to salary or wage, are in addition to regular earnings. Profit-sharing plans were probably first developed in France in the early 19th century as worker incentives. Today such plans are used by businesses in West¬ ern Europe, the U.S., and parts of Latin America. Profit shares may be distributed on a current or deferred basis or through some combination of the two. Under current distribution, profits are paid out to employees immediately in the form of cash or company stock. In deferred-payment plans, profit shares may be paid into a trust fund from which employees can draw annuities in later years.
progeria \pro-'jir-e-3\ Disorder with characteristics of premature aging. Affected persons have thin skin, go bald or gray early, and develop dis¬ eases of aging decades earlier than normal individuals. Not all systems are affected; there is no senility, no aging in the central nervous system. There are two major types. In the extremely rare Hutchinson-Gilford syn¬ drome, children look 60 years old by age 10 and die at an average age of 13. The unrelated Werner syndrome is a recessive hereditary disease that begins in young adulthood and makes patients look 30 years older than they are; their average life span is 47 years.
progesterone \pro-'jes-t9-,ron\ Steroid hormone secreted by the female reproductive system that functions mainly to regulate the condition of the endometrium (see uterus), preparing it to accept a fertilized egg. If the egg is not fertilized, the level of progesterone drops, the uterine lining breaks down, and menstruation ensues. If the egg is fertilized (see pregnancy), the placenta produces progesterone, whose effects include preparing the mam¬ mary glands for lactation. Many forms of oral contraception use a syn¬ thetic progesterone.
program, computer Set of ordered instructions that enable a com¬ puter to carry out a specific task. A program is prepared by first formu¬ lating the task and then expressing it in an appropriate programming language. Programmers may work in machine language or in assembly lan¬ guages. But most applications programmers use one of the high-level lan¬ guages (such as BASIC or C++) or fourth-generation languages that more closely resemble human communication. Other programs then translate the instructions into machine language for the computer to use. Programs are stored on permanent media (such as a hard disk), and loaded into RAM to be executed by the computer’s processor, which executes each instruc¬ tion in the program, one at a time. Programs are often divided into appli¬ cations and system programs. Applications perform tasks such as word processing, database functions, or accessing the Internet. System programs control the functioning of the computer itself; an operating system is a very large program that controls the operations of the computer, the transfer of files, and the processing of other programs.