Production is a process whereby some goods and services, called inputs are transformed into other goods and services called output.
The production function refers to the relationship between the input of factor services and the output of the resultant product.
The production function is based on the idea that the amount of output in a production process depends upon the amount of inputs used in the process.
Output depends upon an input or a set of inputs in such a way that there is one unique amount of output resulting from each set of inputs.
This unique relationship between output and inputs is termed as production function.
A production function may be expressed in three forms:
(a) It can be expressed in the form of an arithmetic table where first few columns show the input of the factors and the last column shows total output of the product.
(b) The production function can also be illustrated geometrically by means of a simple graph as shown in given figure . Input level is measured along the horizontal axis and the total output upon he vertical axis.
(c) The production function may be shown through an algebraic expression in which output is a dependent variable and input, the independent variable.
In algebraic form, it can be expressed as:
Y =f(x),
where Y represents the output, x, the input and ‘f’ means is a function of, or ‘depends upon, or is determined by’.
