Total Product
Plain definition
Total product is the total quantity of output produced from a given quantity of inputs — for example, the number of loaves baked when 3 workers staff the ovens. It is the headline number of the production function, from which average and marginal product are derived.
In economics
Total product's shape tells the story of production: it rises steeply while marginal product is increasing, keeps rising but more slowly under diminishing marginal returns, and peaks exactly where marginal product hits zero. Dividing it by input gives average product; its slope at any point is marginal product.
Example
With a fixed kitchen, hiring workers one by one yields total products of 50, 120, 170, and 200 meals per day. Total product keeps rising, but the increments (70, 50, 30) shrink — diminishing marginal returns setting in even as total output grows.
Total product is often conflated with marginal or average product. Total product is the level of output; marginal product is the change from one more input; average product is output per input. Crucially, total product can be at its maximum while marginal product is zero and average product is falling — the three describe different things about the same production process.