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The Rise of Populism and Protectionism The election of President Trump represents the cusp of the current wave of protectionism and populism that emerged in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. As the Brexit vote and the emergence of populist leaders such as Vladimir Putin in Russia showed, the disaffection and dissatisfaction […]
The Two Conflicting Theories of Recession
The “R” word is back in town. Economists and analysts all over the world are now wary about the fact that a major recession may be just around the corner. They have different facts that make them believe that a recession may be about to happen. However, their conclusions are pretty much the same. For […]
Importance of Project Management for Organizations
Project management is the art of managing the project and its deliverables with a view to produce finished products or service. There are many ways in which a project can be carried out and the way in which it is executed is project management. Project management includes: identifying requirements, establishing clear and achievable objectives, balancing […]
The Rise of India as a Manufacturing Hub
A couple of decades ago, India was considered to be a third world country with limited economic potential. When the idea of outsourcing first came up, most executives in the United States thought that Central American nations or Ireland would prove to be a better fit. However, two decades later, India is the ultimate destination […]
The Problem of Piracy and Intellectual Property Rights
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In any environment if a person is assigned to do the same task, then after a period of time, there is an improvement in his performance. If data points are collected over a period of time, the curve constructed on the graph will show a decrease in effort per unit for repetitive operations. This curve is very important in cost analysis, cost estimation and efficiency studies. This curve is called the learning curve. The learning curve shows that if a task is performed over and over than less time will be required at each iteration. Historically, it has been reported that whenever there has been instanced of double production, the required labor time has decreased by 10 or 15 percent or more.
Learning curves are also known as experience curve, cost curves, efficiency curves and productivity curves. These curves help demonstrate the cost per unit of output decreases over time with the increase in experience of the workforce. Learning curves and experience curves is extensively used by organization in production planning, cost forecasting and setting delivery schedules.
Learning curve demonstrates that over a period time, there is an increase in productivity but with diminishing rate as production increases. Therefore, if the rate of reduction is 20% than the learning curve is referred as 80% learning curve. Research has shown that as production quantities double over a period of time, the average time decreases by 20% for immediate production unit.
Learning curve is relevant in taking following decision:
The data for effort put into production of a single unit is available than that data can be used to plot three useful curves; the unit curve, the cumulative total and cumulative average curve.
Unit curve is a curve which is plotted using a set of data available for the effort behind production of a single unit. This curve is generally plotted on log-log paper and then best line can be drawn.
Cumulative total curve is a curve which is plotted using cumulative effort total. This produces curve with positive slope.
Cumulative average curve is a curve which is plotted using the cumulative effort average for each unit.
As the name suggests an assistance score is the number of help, hint, wrong attempts recorded for a given opportunity at the given task. From detailed research and analysis, it has been observed that for the 1st opportunity at an average error of 1.3 times is made.
Error learning curve depicts the percentage of assistance asked by the respondents on the 1st opportunity.
Predicted learning curve is derived from learning factor analysis, which has the capability in measuring student proficiency, knowledge component difficulty and knowledge component learning rates. This analysis helps in quantifying the learning process.
It has been observed that experience curve should not be viewed in isolation. Learning and experience curve has a strong dependency on individuals under observation. If the attitude of the individual is positive, the resulting curve will resemble learning curve but if the attitude of the individual is negative, the resulting curve will not hold good.
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