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    Situation

    • Are penalties on suppliers for non-performance considered productivity?

    Recommendation

    • Penalties are a cost control or risk management mechanism, designed to enforce contractual obligations (e.g., delivery delays, quality defects).
    • They serve to protect the organization from losses or inefficiencies caused by supplier failures, rather than directly improving operational efficiency or output per input. 
    • While penalties may encourage suppliers to improve performance, the penalty amounts themselves do not represent an increase in productivity - they are more like cost offsets vs AOP.