Efficiency and Effectiveness
- Efficiency is often confused with effectiveness.
- Efficiency is quantitatively determined by the ratio of useful output to total useful input.
- Effectiveness is the ability to achieve a desired result.
- Efficiency can be expressed as a percentage of the ideal result.
- Efficiency can be indirectly quantified with a non-percentage value.
Inefficiency
- Inefficiency is the absence of efficiency.
- Allocative inefficiency refers to a mismatch between resource distribution and consumer preferences.
- Distributive inefficiency refers to the inefficient distribution of income and wealth.
- Economic inefficiency means a better job could be done at a lower cost.
- Keynesian inefficiency is caused by inadequate aggregate demand.
Types of Inefficiency
- Pareto inefficiency occurs when improving one person's situation worsens someone else's.
- Productive inefficiency means the given output could be produced at a lower cost.
- Resource-market inefficiency refers to barriers preventing full adjustment of resource markets.
- X-inefficiency relates to inefficiency in organizing people or production processes.
- Inefficiencies can be analyzed using data envelopment analysis.
Mathematical Expression
- Efficiency is often measured as the ratio of useful output to total input.
- It can be expressed as a mathematical formula.
- Efficiency is limited by the conservation of energy.
- Business efficiency is measured by comparing revenues to expenses.
- The Efficiency Movement advocated for efficiency in various aspects of society.
Efficiency in Other Sciences
- Algorithmic efficiency optimizes the speed and memory requirements of computer programs.
- Efficiency is a non-functional requirement in systems design and architecture.
- Efficiency factor is relevant in data communications.
- Storage efficiency measures the effectiveness of compute.
- Efficiency is a concept applicable in various scientific disciplines.
Efficiency is the often measurable ability to avoid making mistakes or wasting materials, energy, efforts, money, and time while performing a task. In a more general sense, it is the ability to do things well, successfully, and without waste.
In more mathematical or scientific terms, it signifies the level of performance that uses the least amount of inputs to achieve the highest amount of output. It often specifically comprises the capability of a specific application of effort to produce a specific outcome with a minimum amount or quantity of waste, expense, or unnecessary effort. Efficiency refers to very different inputs and outputs in different fields and industries. In 2019, the European Commission said: "Resource efficiency means using the Earth's limited resources in a sustainable manner while minimising impacts on the environment. It allows us to create more with less and to deliver greater value with less input."
Writer Deborah Stone notes that efficiency is "not a goal in itself. It is not something we want for its own sake, but rather because it helps us attain more of the things we value."
From Latin efficientia.
efficiency (countable and uncountable, plural efficiencies)
