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The purpose of this paper is to identify the specific circumstances which require productivity information. It aims to help support the promotion of productivity for manufacturing firms belonging to the Federation of Thai Industries or FTI.

The analysis is based on survey data collected from FTI‐based manufacturing firms. There are five profiles: industrial type; size; years operating in business; ownership; and targeted customer to be studied in a pair‐wise circumstance. There are 40 companies that participated in this study. The statistical analyses include general linear mode with ANOVA. Altogether, there are a total of 138 circumstances (pair‐wise profiles) under study.

In general, productivity information is important as indicated from most circumstances – the must‐measure and require‐to‐measure circumstances. The findings also indicate that there is no specific prediction for particular circumstances (e.g. the larger‐size firms with longer years operating in business need productivity information than the smaller ones).

The results show that there is no need for the FTI to single out specific groups to focus on productivity‐measurement efforts. The study helps gain better understanding into the issues regarding when‐to‐measure productivity. It is generally known that there are a few measurement techniques that are communicated to the FTI firms on a regular basis such as multi‐factor productivity measurement and value‐added productivity measurement – what to measure. In addition, their applications are primarily at the organizational and production levels – where‐to‐measure. The process to deploy these measurement techniques is well known and documented – how‐to‐measure.

The findings support the use of both financial and non‐financial information to ensure an effective management process (i.e. measurement, analysis, and improvement).