Exam 25: Learning Curves

The first unit of a product took 80 work days. The learning curve is estimated to be 90%. The time for the fourth unit will be about __________ work days and the time for the first four units will be about __________ work days.

The learning curve may not be permanent; it can be disrupted by changes in process, personnel, or product.

"By tradition, learning rates are defined in terms of the complements of their improvement rates." Explain.

Your company is making experimental turbochargers for a new design of high-powered farm tractors. The production schedule for these new components is contained in the table below. Month Turbochargers 1 4 2 6 3 7 4 8 5 5 The first turbocharger, a trial unit, took 900 hours to produce. Based on your experience with similar products, the learning factor is 85%. You have 20 employees, and each employee works 160 hours per month. How many hours will be required in each month? In which month(s) will overtime be required to meet the production schedule?

The logarithmic approach to learning curve calculations allows us to determine the hours required for any unit.

A defense contractor has just started producing engines for a new government contract. The first engine took 800 hours to produce. If the learning curve is 80%, how long will it take to produce the first 20 engines?

Identify one advantage and one disadvantage of the arithmetic approach over the logarithmic approach to learning curve calculations.

In the Learning-Curve Coefficients table for 70 percent learning, the sixth unit has a unit time value of 0.398. Verify that table entry by use of the logarithmic formula. Use five decimals in your work.

To use the table of learning curve coefficients, you must specify __________ and __________.

Reevaluation of learning curves is inappropriate.

The first unit took 10 hours and the third unit took 5.7 hours. What is the improvement rate?