An empirical analysis of issues and trends in manufacturing productivity through a 30-year literature review

Abstract

This paper analysed the keywords in manufacturing productivity-related studies over the last 30 years to consider the change in the concept of ‘productivity’, a longstanding and important factor in studies about manufacturing. After first identifying 110,269 keywords in related research through 11,237 academic papers, we narrowed them down to 97 in nine categories by applying certain criteria. Most of the previous studies dealt with productivity in the context of corporate data; but this study investigated the change in the concept of manufacturing productivity by analysing the keywords of many studies of this concept. We classified the 30 years from 1980 to 2009 into five eras of productivity, according to their representative characteristics, using the analysed keywords. We expect that this study will serve as a practical guideline for managers in industry, and as an academic foundation for future research into productivity.