NIST competitiveness vs. productivity misunderstanding

Tom's review-committee visit to NIST (Gaithersburg) at which he publicly challenged their use of "competitiveness." Anchors the distinction between productivity (efficiency of production) and competitiveness (foreign-exchange-rate-driven externalities).

Who can tell me, to finish up our economics lectures, the difference between productivity and competitiveness? If you don't know, it's okay — I went to a review committee about two or three years ago at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which is in Gaithersburg Maryland. NIST is the Department of Commerce's laboratory. It's one of the best federal laboratories in the United States — we have over 700 federal laboratories and I consider NIST to be one of the top two or three. We were reviewing their manufacturing programs and they got up the first morning and told us that they are the laboratory for competitiveness in U.S. industry. After the talk I said, "do you mean competitiveness, or do you mean productivity?" "Oh no, we mean competitiveness." I said, "then I don't believe you," in front of all these people. That's typical me.

Tom's visiting committee anecdote: NIST staff claimed to be "the National Laboratory for competitiveness" and couldn't distinguish productivity (labor hours/ton, internal) from competitiveness (exchange rates, regulations, external). Tom got kicked off the committee in part for asking. Used to develop the externalities-of-productivity framing.

Here's a little cartoon: "all nineteen layers of management agree that we have to cut some of the fat from the first-line employees if we're to stay competitive." So I'll ask you this question, which I asked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology when I was on their visiting committee about ten years ago — and I got kicked off, in part for asking the question. What's the difference between productivity and competitiveness? They didn't know, by the way, so if you don't know, it's okay. This is the National Laboratory that's responsible for productivity. They got up and said, "we're the National Laboratory for competitiveness." This guy gives us an introductory little talk, and at the end I said, well, you mean you're the National Laboratory for productivity, right? "No, we're for competitiveness." I said, do you know the difference? And the answer is, he didn't.

I was on the review committee for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in their manufacturing area. The first guy in the morning gets up and says NIST is the Department of Commerce's competitiveness laboratory. At the end I ask, don't you mean you're their productivity laboratory? Oh no, we're the competitiveness laboratory. I said, so you're dealing with exchange rates? Well, no. Competitiveness is — do you have slave labor? There are lots of places in the world where we still have slave labor, whether we call them slaves or whether they're just treated like slaves. That's all part of competitiveness. Productivity has to do with how efficient your manufacturing facility is.