7s-1 Learning Curves

Chapter 7 Supplement

Learning Curves

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
7s-2 Learning Curves

Learning Curves

• Learning curves: the time required to

perform a task decreases with
increasing repetitions

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
7s-3 Learning Curves

Learning Effect

Figure 7S-1
Time per repetition

Number of repetitions

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 7s-4 Learning Curves

Learning with Improvements

Figure 7S-2
Time per unit

Average Improvements may create a

scallop effect in the curve.

Time

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
7s-5 Learning Curves

Applications of Learning Curves

• Manpower planning and scheduling

• Negotiated purchasing
• Pricing new products
• Budgeting, purchasing, and inventory planning
• Capacity Planning

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
7s-6 Learning Curves

Worker Learning Curves

Figure 7S-4
Time/cycles

A (underqualified)

B (average)
Standard time
C (overqualified)

One week Training time

Operations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. Stevenson

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.