Mark's Ceramics spent $$4000$ on a new kiln last year in the belief that it would cut annual energy usage $25\%$ over the old kiln. This kiln is an oven that turns "greenware" into $f$ i nished pottery. Mark is concerned that the new kiln requires extra labor hours for its operation. Mark wants to check the energy savings of the new oven, and also to look over other measures of their productivity to see if the change really was benef i cial. Mark has the following data to work with:

$\backslash$table$[[,$Last Year,This Year$],[$Production $($f i nished units$),4000,4000],[$Greenware $($pounds$),5000,5000],[$Labor $($hrs$),350,375],[$Capital $($$$),15000,19000],[$Energy $($kWh$),3000,2600]]$

Were the modif i cations benef i cial?

Answer: The energy modif i cations did not generate the expected energy savings; also, labor and capital productivity decreased.

$\backslash$table$[[$so$,$Last Year,This Year,Change,$\backslash$table$[[$Pct$.],[$Change$]]],[$b$,,57,-0\mathrm{.}76,-6\mathrm{.}65],[,,,0,-22\mathrm{.}2],[$erg$,\frac{4000}{3000}=1\mathrm{.}33,\frac{4000}{2600}=1\mathrm{.}54,0\mathrm{.}21,15\mathrm{.}79]]$