...Course name: Managing Operations Assignment 3 A BRIEF DISCUSSION ON LEARNING CURVE Definition: In General, Learning Curve Theory or Experience Curve Theory is defined as the following: A learning curve is a graphical representation of the changing rate of learning (in the average person) for a given activity or tool. Typically, the increase in retention of information is sharpest after the initial attempts, and then gradually evens out, meaning that less and less new information is retained after each repetition. The learning curve can also represent at a glance the initial difficulty of learning something and, to an extent, how much there is to learn after initial familiarity. For example, the Windows program Notepad is extremely simple to learn, but offers little after this. On the other extreme is the UNIX terminal editor vi, which is difficult to learn, but offers a wide array of features to master after the user has figured out how to work it. It is possible for something to be easy to learn, but difficult to master or hard to learn with little beyond this. The concept of the Learning Curve basically states that there is less and less learning as more repetitive steps are taken. The Boston Consulting Group conducted some empirical studies and below are the conclusions from that study: 1. The time required to perform a task decreases as the task is repeated, 2. The amount of improvement decreases as more units are produced, and 3. The rate of...
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...Assignment 1. Learning Curve A Units Total Labor Hrs Avg Labor per Unit To Produce Learning Rate% 1 6 6 --- --- 2 10.8 5.4 -0.6 -0.8 4 19.2 4.8 -0.6 -0.8 8 35.2 4.4 -0.4 -0.8 16 64 4 -0.4 -0.8 32 115.2 3.6 -0.4 -0.8 64 211.2 3.3 -0.3 -0.8 128 384 3 -0.3 -0.8 -5.6 = -56% AVG IMP. Rate Learning Curve =100-(-56) % =99.44% 3) A Plot of X-Y Chart, as X is Units Produced and Y is Average Labor per Units x (Units Produced) y (AVG Labor Per Unit) 0 6 -0.6 10.8 -0.6 19.2 -0.4 35.2 -0.4 64 -0.4 115.2 -0.3 211.2 -0.3 384 This analysis shows that the Supplier has approximately 99 Percent learning Curve for this item, it also explains that as production doubles, the direct labor should decrease 1 percent on average. The learning rate is -0.8 which is -8percent and less than 1 percent decrease in labor. Conclusively, this indicates that there was no learning at all, in this case note because the learning curve is close to 100 percent. 4)Gains from Learning curve are realized 5) The difference between them is that learning Curve is a micro concept because it deals with the rate of improvement due to learning as per reduction in average direct labor hours to...
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...The yield curve is a graph showing the relationship between bond yields and maturities. This particular U.S. Treasury yield curve is an upward-sloping, or “normal,” yield curve. The shape of the yield curve indicates that short-term interest rates were lower than long-term interest rates. The upward-sloping yield curve is considered the usual situation in the market because short-term securities have less interest rate risk than longer-term securities and, thus, a smaller Maturity Risk Premium (MRP). Therefore, short-term rates are typically lower than long-term rates. There are two primary theories that explain the factors which determine the shape of the yield curve: (1) the pure expectations theory and (2) the liquidity preference theory. The pure expectations theory states that the shape of the yield curve depends on investors’ expectations about future interest rates. According to the pure expectations theory, long-term interest rates are a weighted average of current and expected future short-term interest rates. In addition, investors are indifferent with respect to maturity in the sense that they do not view long-term bonds as being riskier than short-term bonds. Therefore, the Maturity Risk Premium (MRP) is equal to zero under the pure expectations theory. The pure expectations theory would suggest that this particular U.S. Treasury yield curve is upward-sloping because interest rates are expected to increase in the future. This increase could be due to an...
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...The Learning Curve Theory In order to apply the Learning Curve Theory to any specific situation, one must comprehend the concept of a learning curve. According to our text, “ a learning curve is a line displaying the relationship between unit production time and the cumulative number of units produced” (Chase, Jacobs, & Aquilano, 2006). Learning curves can be applied and be beneficial to individuals as well as organizations. To be able to effectively utilize the Learning Curve Theory, three essential assumptions must be recognized: 1.) The amount of time required to complete a given task or unit of a product will be less each time the task is undertaken. 2.) The unit time will decrease at a decreasing rate. 3.) The reduction in time will follow a predictable pattern. In order to be able to meet and/or fall below the upper control limits; factors from the process performance data (metrics) are adjusted. • The number of tables for 2 was adjusted • The wait staff was adjusted • The kitchen staff was adjusted • Utilization was changed • Average wait time was lowered By following my recommendations to the above metrics, Mario will successfully meet his goals. The business will increase its profits, (even though more will have to be paid for staff and utilization) as well as having happy customers who will be more inclined to return to the quality service rendered (shorter wait time). This initial process data is valid and can prove to benefit Mario’s pizza business. The...
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...Monetarists argue that the Long Run AS curve is inelastic and therefore any increase in AD will only lead to inflation in the long run. · However in the short term M. Friedman stated there may be a trade off between unemployment and inflation. · If there is an increase in AD firms will increase wages to encourage more workers to supply their labour. Workers believe they have higher real wages and so are willing to supply more labour. · This increase in the supply of labour leads to an increase in output and therefore there will be a temporary fall in unemployment . Therefore there will be a movement along the SR Phillips curve · However workers later realise inflation has increased therefore they re-adjust their expectations of inflation, and realise the increase in wages is only a nominal increase. Therefore workers don’t supply more labour and output returns to the Long run equilibrium of Yf. · Therefore in the long term output has stated the same but inflation has increased. · Therefore the Long Run Phillips curve is inelastic because higher inflation has not been accompanied by lower unemployment · Any reduction in unemployment due to increased AD would only be temporary · Monetarist argue that Unemployment cannot be altered by AD in the long run. But will remain at its Natural Rate which would be 5% Rational Expectation Monetarists They argue that there will be no trade off even in the short run, because people will readjust their expectations of inflation when...
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...Learning Curve Theory OPS 571 August 22, 2012 Learning Curve Theory In the required simulation, the owner/operator of Mario’s Pizza is considering transferring operations of the pizzeria to a family member. Mario has elected to supervise the business decisions made by the family member with regard to reductions in customer wait times and lost sales. Three scenarios are simulated: adjusting the number of tables allocated for two and four guests as well as adjustments to wait and kitchen staff, choosing to implement new technologies, and a choice between adding seating space or a takeout option. If Mario sees that the decisions made by the family member are sound, then he will hand over operations of the pizzeria at the end of two months. Because measurement in service industries is subjective (Pati & Reis, 2007), progress will be measured in lost sales, lost customers, and daily operating costs. Guests typically enter the restaurant in parties of two to four. The decision was made to set the number of tables designated for parties of two to 8, leaving the remaining 10 tables for parties of four. No change was made to the numbers of wait or kitchen staff. Increasing these numbers would have increased daily operating costs, making any possible losses more difficult to bear financially. Decreasing these numbers may have placed extra burden on the staff members, making efficiency difficult. While some sales were lost (see fig. 1), the losses were kept at a minimum...
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...Yield Curve and Bond Valuation Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Yield Curve and Bond Valuation Question 1 and 2 Based on the information retrieved from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on a 1-month business day, the following information concerning historical dairy interest rates on the U.S treasury was obtained. The rates were picked from the current dates (1st January2012) back to five years a go (1st January 2007). Whereby, if that date was not a business date the preceding date was selected as shown in the table below. |Business Date chosen Five Years Ago |1st January 2007 | |1-month Nominal T-bill Rate on that date |5.02% | |3--month Nominal T-bill Rate on that date |4.79% | |6-month Nominal T-bill Rate on that date |5.11% | |1-year Nominal T-note Rate on that Date |5% | |5-year Nominal T-note Rate on that Date |4.68% | |10-year Nominal T-note Rate on that Date ...
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...Technical Supplement 3 Learning Curves LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this technical supplement, you should be able to: 1. Explain the learning curve concept 2. Identify different uses of learning curves in operations management 3. Calculate the estimated time required to do a task for a given learning curve LEARNING CURVES AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT As people gain experience in doing a task, they usually can do the task more quickly. For example, consider the time it might take someone to wash a car for the first time. Then imagine how that person might be able to wash his car in less time as through repetitions he learns to sequence the tasks more efficiently or perhaps as he uses better tools to do the tasks. The same learning effect occurs in many different operational settings. The learning curve is an analytical tool that can be used to estimate the rate at which cumulative experience allows workers to do tasks faster and with less cost. Operations managers use learning curves to estimate how much the repetitions of a task will enable them to reduce the amount of resources required to accomplish the ask. A learning curve is defined by an equation that contains the rate of improvement (i.e., reduction in costs or reduction in time taken) in performing a task as a function of the cumulative repetitions of the task. As early as 1925, managers began developing learning curve concepts. The commander at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton...
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...History The Kendall Group is a keyless entry fob company who has partnered with global companies to manufacture all of the components necessary to create the keyless fob. The Pakistan, China, and Taiwan suppliers have been maintaining volume and product deadlines, while the Vietnam company who is responsible for the control chip, has had an on time delivery rate of 82%. The keyless entry fobs cannot began the final stages of production until all components have been received by the Kendall Group. Due to the amount of units ordered from each supplier, Kendall Group has been able to meet client demands. However, the Vietnam suppliers threaten to cause a bottleneck should demand increase, as the control chips’ untimely receipt would temporarily halt operations. Systems Controls The Kendall Group applied the efficiency metric to initially determine if the global suppliers had the resources to manufacture and ship the parts in the allotted time. The Vietnam business partner has proven that the efficiency metric failed to consider other factors that could create delays in shipping the control chips. The Kendall Group plans to meet with the Vietnam supplier to understand the factors that contribute to the delay in shipping the product. The company is considering transferring two operations managers to improve the Vietnam suppliers on time shipping statistics. Cultural Business Factors Cultural differences and standards will have a significant influence in international...
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...Learning Curve Theory What is the learning curve theory? According to Waterworth, the learning curve theory is defined as being the relationship between the times a task is completed compared to the amount of times it is done (2000). Another way to look at this theory is looking how the progress of an organization is related to the amount of time taken to do something in the organization. To better understand this theory, here is an example. An organization’s responsibility is to athletic wear. As the organization begins, the organization produces its first set of athletic wear after two weeks. After being teste, the organization is aware that the athletic wear’s coloring comes off after being in contact with water. After a year of producing and improving its athletic wear, the organization has become aware that the athletic wear does not get damaged when coming into contact with water. According to Leslie, the learning curve theory is relevant and important to project management because it enables the project manager to estimate how long the execution of the project will take and how the project will improve if done in the future (2006). This assignment will include why the learning curve theory is important and will provide a scenario in which it is being highlighted. It is important as a project member to understand how the Learning Curve Theory will be applied to a project. If the organization I work for was planning to begin using a new HRCloud to control...
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...During the classroom period, we were asked to form a team of two for each group. The purpose of the team is for each member to perform different tasks relating to the experiment. As I was paired my team mate within a reasonable amount of time, we collected the required materials for the experiment, in this case are four origami paper with different color on front and back sheet and a stapled five pages of instruction. Firstly, we set up our station by clearing everything not related to the experiment and brought in extra tools, such as a smartphone to record the time of each task performed, a pen and a calculator. Before starting the experiment, we went through the given instruction on how to fold a place card within eight steps. As we get familiar with the process, we assigned our self with individual task on who would perform actual folding and who would be keeping track of the time taken of perform every finished place card. According to the text book, this is simply a delay relating to setting up the station and familiarizing the process. Then we began working on our first place card. The first place card took us 2 minutes and 43 seconds to complete, which was also the longest processing time out of four. Then follow the second, third, and fourth with 1 minutes 21 seconds, 1 minutes 16 seconds, and 1 minutes 9 seconds respectively. We inspected our product every time before we moved them to storage. We observed the processing time for each place card became shorter as...
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...Apply the Learning Curve Theory OPS 571 University of Phoenix Apply the Learning Curve Theory In business and academics students, managers, and employees learn tasks at different rates. One employee may grasp a task within the first attempt whereas others may take several tries to achieve efficient production. The average time it takes for a group of people to adjust is the learning curve. This paper will review the learning curve theory as it applies to a simulated pizza store layout. The learning curve Learning curves can be applied to individuals. Learning improves with repetition generating skill or efficiency. Much of academia is based on this “practice makes perfect” (Chase, Jacobs, Aquilano, 2006) idea. The learning curve in manufacturing and service compares the result of the expected product to the length of time to produce it. As more employees learn a new process, time to produce increases. As employees become efficient, time decreases. At the beginning of the curve, fewer products are produced; at the end of the curve more products are produced in less time than the previous process. Organizational learning comes from combined individual learning, also administration, equipment, and product design changes. A new kitchen staff has high service times as the cooks become familiar with the menu recipes and cook times. If the kitchen adds a new microwave, service times increase again, as cooks learn time and temperatures for the microwave...
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...APPLYING THE LEARNING CURVE THEORY Applying the Learning Curve Theory The development of any organization is hinged on components such as technology, structure, documents, procedures and human resources. Viable competitive advantage on any given organization is acquired through organizational learning processes. The processes of attending to clients and preparing orders in Mario¶s pizzeria may be evaluated under the learning curve theory. Mario has the task of improving the service to its clients by reducing the waiting time and queue length while maximizing the benefits of the operation. As a conventional individual, Mario wants to improve the operation while maintaining the business. In the food service industry, the crux of the business is portrayed by customer service, the waiters, the cooks and chefs, the kitchen workers, and the quality food itself. During the first phase of the process modification, only the arrangement of tables was changed, ending with 10 tables for four and 8 tables for two. This modification reduced the waiting time from 9 minutes to 5.87 minutes and the average queue length to 2.54. Profits increased and the loss of sales was reduced. The deployment of the workers was not too high, leaving space for attending more clients. Mario was pleased with this modification since no workers lost their jobs and experience was was further conserved inhouse. After the new arrangement of tables, the equipment and technology used during the attending of clients...
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...Running head: INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES Income Distribution in the United States and the Lorenz Curve 1 Market economies are favored and well-known for generating macroeconomic growth and progress in industrialized nations, such as the United States. Numerous academic studies and economic research have been done not only to measure economic growth, but also to analyze any disparities in income distributions among the general American population. This paper will examine trends and patterns of American wages since the 1970s, focusing on shifts in income distributions to see if these shifts can be interpreted as income inequality across different sectors of our society. Furthermore, this paper will study two important and interlinked methods of measuring income inequality, which are the Lorenz Curve and the Gini Coefficient Index. The Executive Branch of our federal government and the U.S. Congress keep a close eye on income distributions throughout the entire nation. These bodies rely heavily on data collected and analyzed by non-partisan agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and academic institutitions that provide data and statistical analysis to assist in economic and budgetary decisions made by elected officials concerning a wide array of policy issues such as taxes, social insurance programs and other issues that impact the overall economy...
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...Apply the Learning Curve Theory Jeanette Brooks 07/016/2012 When it comes to business every company must identify and find out what are the important ways to improve its operations while reducing cost and increasing revenue. In the case of Mario Pizzeria, we had to determine various ways to improve on his waiting time for his customer. Currently standing Mario Pizzeria queues having customer wait for at least seven to nine minutes during peak hours. At this point customers are frustrated which causes them to the leave without being served. This affects the overall profit of Mario’s Pizzeria. As the manager, we need to look at several aspects to make sure we are operating effectively. First, we have to look at the population during peak and non-peak time. This will allow us to properly adjust and have the correct number of staff members working to support the flow of customers. The second aspect we have to address is the waiting time for the customers. Most customers may be shopping or coming in for their work break. Reducing their wait time to eat allows them to continue with their daily routine. Next is how we staff and service the customers, we have to make sure we are properly staffed and can service any rush that comes along. Finally, we have to understand how to serve our customers in terms of priority. Depending upon the group, this will determine who gets serviced first. Applying the learning curve concept will allow us to focus on improving our performance process...
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