Productivity Science for the Progress of Mankind

Date: 10th-13th December 1973

It was organized by the National Institute of Training in Industrial Engineering and the Indian Institution of Industrial Engineering, Bombay, in association with five other bodies in the field of productivity science. The outstanding success of the congress was marked by a record attendance of over 700 delegates, comprising corporates, professionals, practitioners of productivity and industrial engineering, government representatives, and in particular due to the support extended by the TATA Group of Industries. A very striking feature of the congress was the presence of delegates from the USA, the UK, and Australia besides a number of South-East Asian countries.

Commonwealth Secretariat in London provided travel assistance to Delegates from the U.K. and Australia. The Congress was inaugurated by Dr. C. Subramaniam, Union Minister of Industry, Government of India, and President of the National Productivity Council in India.

The essence of the papers presented and admires delivered by the eminent foreign and natural experts identified seven major areas to lay emphasis upon in the coming decades.

  1. Social aspects of productivity
  2. Productivity and economic growth
  3. Role of technology in productivity
  4. Quality of work life and productivity
  5. Management relation and productivity
  6. Ecology and environment
  7. Governmental initiatives in productivity

For speedy fulfillment of the above objectives each country in its sociopolitical environment needs to take care of the following:

  • Strengthening of economic infrastructure.
  • Urgency in completing the tasks set out as national priority.
  • Importance of social discipline as a factor of economic growth.
  • Efficient utilization and conservation of energy and materials by exercising selective controls with emphasis on cost and quality.
  • Improving capacity utilization through letter techno-management in fronts.
  • Increasing application of technological development and providing mechanism to adopt.

Bombay Declaration

At the closure of the congress in December 1973, a declaration was adopted.
“With the understanding that productivity is a universal concept aimed at providing more of goods and services for more and more people with less and less consumption of real resources productivity science relies upon an inter-disciplinary approach for the effective formulation of objectives, development of plans and application of productivity practices to utilize resources more efficiently, while maintaining high quality.

It involves integrated application of human efforts and skills, capital, technology, management, information, energy and the resources to bring about sustained improvements and betterment of the standards of living for all, through a Total Productivty Concept.

Differs necessarily from nation to nation each having inherent and potential strengths and weaknesses and each with disparate short-term and long-term needs and aspirations, but sharing commonalities of industrial application, as well as those in education, public services, utilities and communications.

Is more than science, technology, management techniques, being also a philosophy and an attitude of mind that rests on the strong motivation of people to constantly strive towards a better quality of life?”