The terminal productivity misnomer

Being a dyed in the wool pedant, I have long been irritated by the container port industry’s habit of referring to crane moves per hour and berth moves per hour as “productivity”. We hear references to port productivity and terminal productivity in this context all the time. 

But productivity is, as the dictionary says, “a measure of the rate of output per unit of input”. Crane moves per hour and berth moves per hour are measures of performance, not productivity. They reflect service levels, measuring only the output side. It’s like saying that Usain Bolt running the 100 metres in under 10 seconds is a measure of his productivity. 

More importantly, just because the moves per hour at the quayside are lower or slower at one terminal versus another doesn’t necessarily mean that this terminal is less efficient or profitable (……or productive!).

P.S. This mild rant was prompted by a press article in which I was quoted, making the point that moves per hour at automated terminals have generally proven to be lower in practice than those at manual ones. Unfortunately the article used this to infer that an automated terminal was therefore less efficient and profitable – implying a direct causal link.