7s-1

McGraw-Hill/IrwinOperations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. StevensonCopyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Curves

Chapter 7 Supplement

Learning Curves

7s-2

McGraw-Hill/IrwinOperations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. StevensonCopyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Curves

• Learning curves: the time required to perform a task decreases with increasing repetitions

Learning Curves

7s-3

McGraw-Hill/IrwinOperations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. StevensonCopyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Curves

Learning EffectTi

me

per r

epet

ition

Number of repetitions

Figure 7S-1

7s-4

McGraw-Hill/IrwinOperations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. StevensonCopyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Curves

Learning with ImprovementsTi

me

per u

nit

Time

Average Improvements may create ascallop effect in the curve.

Figure 7S-2

7s-5

McGraw-Hill/IrwinOperations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. StevensonCopyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Curves

Applications of Learning Curves

• Manpower planning and scheduling

• Negotiated purchasing

• Pricing new products

• Budgeting, purchasing, and inventory planning

• Capacity Planning

7s-6

McGraw-Hill/IrwinOperations Management, Seventh Edition, by William J. StevensonCopyright © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Curves

Worker Learning Curves

A (underqualified)

B (average)

C (overqualified)

Tim

e/cy

cles

One week

Standard time

Training time

Figure 7S-4