Non-Productive Time

Time which is not spent directly in the making of a product or delivery of a service.

This term is often used to help managers determine the efficiency of working practices and workers, however, it should not necessarily be seen as a measure of idle, wasted, lost or similar time. The reason for this is, for example, that thinking time is an important aspect of modern working life and this cannot be readily allocated to the direct time used in producing goods.

In addition, the various other work activities of meetings, briefings, answering emails, assisting and giving guidance to others, responding to requests from others, report writing, approving time-off requests, undertaking activities on behalf of others as part of a line management duty, preparing for and taking part in performance appraisals, attending training courses or toolbox talks, transporting or moving between locations, taking instructions from others, awaiting for instructions, waiting for another activity to be completed by someone else before being able to complete your own task, awaiting delivery of a delayed item, monitoring and assessing work carried out, undertaking a risk assessment prior to starting an activity, completing timesheets, cleaning PPE, cleaning a workstation, office or store, maintaining an inventory of stored materials, and more, are all essential components of an effective workplace, yet it is difficult to accurately assign these activities as productive because they take place within the entire working system rather than for a specific outcome.

Non-productive time should be seen as supporting the activities needed to produce a product and to help keep the ‘organisational cogs to stay well oiled’, rather than taking a totally reductionist approach of considering this time which should be reduced to a minimum because the latter approach can have negative impacts on productivity and quality of outcomes. A certain amount of ‘slack’ is needed to be able to cope with unforeseen events, variation sin staffing hours, or special last-minute requests from managers or customers.

Managing productivity will involve analysis of working practices and work / time measurement and this can improve efficiency, although care needs to be taken to ensure a systems approach is taken to prevent unintended negative consequences impacting on other areas of an organisation if too narrow a focused view is taken on non-productive time.