Deck 6: Learning Curves

Question 1

An assumption of learning curves is that the time required to complete a unit will decrease at a decreasing rate as the cumulative number of units completed increases.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

You time someone completing a single task the first time at 120 minutes, and the second time they do the task it takes 108 minutes. You should use a 90 percent learning curve to estimate the length of time this worker will take to complete this task in the future.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A learning curve is a line displaying the relationship between unit production time and the cumulative number of units produced.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The point at which the scale economy curve and the learning curve intersect is called the capacity optimum.

Question 5

You time someone completing a single task the first time at 100 minutes, and the fourth time they do the task it takes 81 minutes. You should use a 90 percent learning curve to estimate the length of time this worker will take to complete this task in the future.

Question 6

Learning curves have a wide range of business applications.

Question 7

You time someone completing a single task the first time at 100 minutes, and the second time they do the task it takes 90 minutes. You should use a 90 percent learning curve to estimate the length of time this worker will take to complete this task in the future.

Question 8

The unit improvement factor is not as useful as arithmetic tabulation of learning curve statistics in adjusting time estimates for learning.

Question 9

A learning curve shows the decrease in time required for each successive unit completed.

Question 10

An assumption of learning curves is that the time required to complete a unit will increase at an increasing rate as the cumulative number of units completed increases.

Question 11

You time someone completing a single task the first time at 100 minutes, and the fourth time they do the task it takes 81 minutes. You should use an 81 percent learning curve to estimate the length of time this worker will take to complete this task in the future.

Question 12

A learning curve shows the increase in time required for each successive unit completed.

Question 13

The unit improvement factor for a 60 percent learning curve at 25 units is 0.0933. The first and second timings of a person doing a job are 10 minutes and 6 minutes, respectively. The learning-adjusted time estimate for the unit number 25 is 0.9330 minute.

Question 14

Economies of scale and the learning curve have opposite effects on capacity.

Question 15

An assumption of learning curves is that the time required to complete a unit will decrease at an increasing rate as the cumulative number of units completed increases.

Question 16

A learning curve is a line displaying the way unit production time decreases as time passes.

Question 17

You time someone completing a single task the first time at 10 minutes, and the second time they do the task it takes 9 minutes. You should use an 80 percent learning curve to estimate the length of time this worker will take to complete this task in the future.

Question 18

The unit improvement factor for a 60 percent learning curve at 25 units is 0.0933. The first and second timings of a person doing a job are 5 minutes and 3 minutes, respectively. The learning-adjusted time estimate for the unit number 25 is 0.0933 minute.

Question 19

On a learning curve plot, the time per unit is usually displayed on the vertical axis.

Question 20

When plotted on a graph, the learning curve can't be expressed as logarithm.

Question 21

You have just timed a person doing a haircut for the first time. It took 50 minutes. What unit improvement factor learning curve would you use if the person took 35 minutes on the second haircut?

A) 35 percent
B) 50 percent
C) 70 percent
D) 75 percent
E) 80 percent

Question 22

If a person performing a task has been achieving an 85 percent learning curve and if it took 1 minute to produce the first unit, the total time to produce 1,000 units will be 437.5 minutes.

Question 23

You have determined that a 75 percent learning curve is appropriate for a task. If the initial timing of the person performing that job was 50 minutes, and if you need the job performed 500 times, how many minutes of work will be required?

A) 25,000 minutes
B) 3,184 minutes
C) 1,895 minutes
D) 1,379 minutes
E) 636.8 minutes

Question 24

If a person performing a task has been achieving a 95 percent learning curve and you know that the task will end after the 100^th unit, the last unit produced will take 71.12 percent as much time as the first unit.

Question 25

If a person performing a task has been achieving a 75 percent learning curve and you know that the task will end after the 80^th unit, the last unit produced will take 17.12 percent as much time as the first unit.

Question 26

Highly automated systems may have a near-zero learning curve.

Question 27

There will be greater improvement in labor hours and costs for existing jobs than for new jobs.

Question 28

The unit improvement factor for a 60 percent learning curve at 25 units is 0.0933. The first and second timings of a person doing a job are 5 minutes and 3 minutes respectively. Which of the following is the learning-adjusted time estimate for unit number 25?

A) 0.4665 minute
B) 0.0933 minute
C) 4.665 minutes
D) 9.33 minutes
E) 3 minutes

Question 29

Which of the following computational methods are used to calculate learning curve statistics?

A) Simple compounding
B) Exponential smoothing
C) Logarithms
D) Calculus
E) Negative recursive multiplication

Question 30

Organizational learning results mainly from practice.

Question 31

You have just timed a person doing a job four times. The first time it took the person 120 minutes, the second time it took 90 minutes, the third time it took 76.1 minutes, and the fourth time it took 67.5 minutes. Which learning curve unit improvement factor should you use?

A) 25 percent
B) 75 percent
C) 80 percent
D) 85 percent
E) 90 percent

Question 32

An assumption of learning curve theory is which of the following?

A) The reduction in unit time will follow a predictable pattern.
B) Unit time will decrease at an increasing rate.
C) The time required to do a task will vary randomly each time the task is repeated.
D) Learning will not be transferred from one worker to the next.
E) Organizational learning is not included in learning theory.

Question 33

You have determined that a 60 percent learning curve is appropriate for a task. If your initial timing of person performing that task was 35 minutes and if you need the task performed 1,000 times, how many minutes of work will be required?

A) 3,500.0 minutes
B) 1,062.5 minutes
C) 705.25 minutes
D) 450.5 minutes
E) 220.3 minutes

Question 34

You have just timed a person doing a job a few times. The first time it took the person 25 minutes, the second time it took 20 minutes, and the third time it took 17.55 minutes. Which learning curve unit improvement factor should you use?

A) 25 percent
B) 75 percent
C) 80 percent
D) 85 percent
E) 90 percent

Question 35

The unit improvement factor for an 80 percent learning curve at 100 units is 0.2271. The first and second timings of a person doing a job are 20 minutes and 16 minutes, respectively. What is the learning-adjusted time estimate for unit number 100?

A) 20 minutes
B) 16 minutes
C) 2.271 minutes
D) 4.542 minutes
E) 0.800 minute

Question 36

The normal form of the learning curve equation is Y_x = nx^k.

Question 37

Learning curves can be applied to individuals and to organizations.

Question 38

An assumption of learning curve theory is which of the following?

A) Unit time will decrease at a decreasing rate.
B) Unit time will increase at a decreasing rate.
C) Unit time will decrease at an increasing rate.
D) Unit time will increase at an increasing rate.
E) Unit time will hold constant.

Question 39

With an 80 percent unit improvement factor learning curve and an initial time of 100 minutes to do a job, at what number of repetitions will the job take less than 50 minutes?

A) 5 repetitions of the job
B) 6 repetitions of the job
C) 7 repetitions of the job
D) 8 repetitions of the job
E) 9 repetitions of the job

Question 40

If a person performing a task has been achieving an 80 percent learning curve and it took 10 minutes to produce the first unit, the total time to produce 100 units will be 326.5 minutes.

Question 41

You are a consultant called in to estimate the costs after the employees learn how to do a job more efficiently by repetition of new product. You find a company can produce a product the first time at a cost of $5,000. If their 90 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each unit, what is the total cost of producing 100 units of the new product?

A) $500,000
B) $390,000
C) $290,700
D) $250,687
E) $250,000

Question 42

With a 70 percent unit improvement factor learning curve and an initial time of 100 minutes to do a job, at what number of repetitions does the job take less than 50 minutes?

A) 2 repetitions of the job
B) 3 repetitions of the job
C) 4 repetitions of the job
D) 5 repetitions of the job
E) 6 repetitions of the job

Question 43

The general guidelines provided in the textbook on improving individual learning based on learning curves do not include which of the following?

A) Proper training
B) Work specialization
C) Early removal of workers who do not improve
D) Motivation
E) Doing one or very few jobs at a time

Question 44

A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $2,000. If their 85 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the total cost of producing 5 lots?

A) $10,000.00
B) $9,376.50
C) $8,062.00
D) $4,031.00
E) $1,191.20

Question 45

Which of the following is not a managerial consideration in using learning curves?

A) Improvement comes from working smarter, not harder.
B) Individual learning and incentives are positively related.
C) The newer the job, the greater will be the learning.
D) Learning curves are not impacted by indirect labor and supervision.
E) Learning curves represent direct labor output.

Question 46

A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $10,000. If their 75 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the total cost of producing 10 lots?

A) $100,000
B) $93,978
C) $65,432
D) $55,890
E) $49,310

Question 47

Which of the following is a reason that there are disparities between a firm's learning curve rate and that of its industry?

A) Companies don't always report sensitive data to outside agencies accurately.
B) Learning curves don't reflect organizational learning.
C) There may be procedural differences in the manner that different firms collect and report data.
D) The starting points for different firms were different.
E) The cumulative number of units produced is different.

Question 48

You are a consultant specializing in estimating the costs after the employees learn how to do a job more efficiently by repetition. Your client can produce a product the first time at a cost of $2,500. If their 65 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each product, what is the total cost of producing 400 units of the new product?

A) $100,000
B) $78,900
C) $58,600
D) $45,765
E) $37,850

Question 49

A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $3,000. If their 65 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the cost of producing the 12^th lot?

A) $14,340
B) $3,000
C) $2,896
D) $640.50
E) $213.50

Question 50

The learning curve percent and the reduction in the time it takes to produce the 1,000^th unit (in general n^th unit) as compared to the time to make the first unit is

A) related in a direct fashion, meaning the higher the learning curve percentthe greater will be the reduction in time to produce the 1,000^th unit.
B) related in an inverse fashion, meaning the higher the learning curve percentthe lower will be the reduction in time to produce the 1,000^th unit.
C) related in a linear direct fashion, meaning the higher the learning curve percentthe proportionately higher will be the reduction in time to produce the 1,000^th unit.
D) not related.
E) related in a linear inverse fashion, meaning the higher the learning curve percentthe proportionately lower will be the reduction in time to produce the 1,000^th unit.

Question 51

The 50^th repetition of a job is timed at 100 minutes. If the learning curve for this job is 90 percent, what is the estimated time for the 200^th repetition of this job?

A) 44.69 minutes
B) 81 minutes
C) 90 minutes
D) 100 minutes
E) 110 minutes

Question 52

A company's production process has an 85 percent learning curve rate. The process has produced 1,000 units to date. A process refinement is estimated to allow a future learning curve rate for the identical product of 75 percent. However, the initial unit made using the new process will take the same amount of time as the very first unit produced using the old process. At what point, using the new process, will the production rate exceed the production rate achieved by the old process?

A) By the 50^th unit
B) By the 80^th unit
C) By the 100^th unit
D) By the 120^th unit
E) By the 250^th unit

Question 53

A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $3,000. If their 65 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the cost of producing the 20^th lot?

A) $60,000
B) $18,585
C) $1,950
D) $466.20
E) $155.40

Question 54

The general guidelines provided in the textbook on improving individual learning based on learning curves include which of the following?

A) Use a cumulative improvement factor.
B) Use a unit improvement factor.
C) Do one or very few jobs at a time.
D) Explain learning logarithm analysis to workers.
E) Avoid feedback until the job is complete.

Question 55

The 50^th repetition of a job is timed at 100 minutes. If the learning curve for this job is 90 percent, what is the estimated time for the 100^th repetition of this job?

A) 49.66 minutes
B) 81 minutes
C) 90 minutes
D) 100 minutes
E) 110 minutes

Question 56

The 10^th repetition of job is timed at 100 minutes. If the learning curve for this job is 80 percent, what is the estimated time for the 100^th repetition of this job?

A) 47.66 minutes
B) 62.50 minutes
C) 80 minutes
D) 92.50 minutes
E) 100 minutes

Question 57

A company's production process has an 80 percent learning curve rate. The process has produced 1,000 units to date. A process refinement is estimated to allow a future learning curve rate for the identical product of 75 percent. However, the initial unit made using the new process will take the same amount of time as the initial unit produced using the old process. At what point, using the new process, will the production rate exceed the production rate achieved by the old process?

A) Before the 50^th unit
B) Before the 80^th unit
C) Before the 100^th unit
D) Before the 120^th unit
E) Before the 250^th unit