This section will take you through the concept of learning when an activity is performed continuously for a period of time.
What happens when you are given the responsibility of performing a task for the first time, ever in your life? Definitely this is something strange to you. You will not perform perfectly with 100% efficiency and accuracy from day one. Instead you will do a lot of mistakes but eventually, with time you will learn how to process and become a better performer than before. Is this even possible?? Hell Yes. Anything is possible when you have the willingness to learn.
Now remember, learning concept will only be applicable to human resources. Machines will perform at 100% efficiency from day one unlike humans. Hence, whatever we are going to discuss will only be based on human labour hours and labour cost.
As explained above, generally when you perform something for the first time, you will consume more time but when you get a hang of it, the time consumption for the performance will gradually reduce simply due to learning. Knowing that, if you do not consider the learning concept in calculation of labour cost, your numbers would not be accurate.
Even though I have stated that the time consumption per unit activity will reduce with experience, I have not yet explained how we are going to take this into account. The pattern of learning was first identified by Wright and this was the base for the development of the concept calculation that we see today.
Wright’s law states that as cumulative output doubles, the cumulative average time per unit falls to a fixed percentage (the learning rate) of the previous average time.
This can be better explained using an example. Consider the unit time consumed stated in below table for the production of first four units of a new product ,
Even though it is clear that the time consumption reduces, it is not obvious how it happens. However, a pattern becomes apparent if cumulative average time per unit is considered.
Did you figure out a pattern?? If No, let me explain 😎
When the cumulative output is doubled (from 1 to 2 or from 2 to 4), average time per unit is reduced to 90% of its previous value. This is in line with Wright’s law. Therefore, we can say that the process demonstrates a 90% learning rate.
If you want to continue, 90% of 8.10 would be the Avg. time per unit when cumulative output is eight. In other words, when cumulative output doubles from 4, it comes 8. At this point average time per unit must be 90% of what was at when cumulaive output was 4, according to Wright's Law.
Also, using the avg. time per unit you can calculate the total labour time consumption for eight units.
Total Time for 8 Units = Avg. Time Per Unit * No:of Units
Total Time for 8 Units = 7.29 Hrs per Unit * 8 Units
Total Time for 8 Units = 58.32 Hours
But there is a major pain point in this concept. That is, this can only give figures when cumulative output is doubled but not in any other scenario. For an example, we cannot find the avg. time per unit when cumulative output is 3 or 5 or 6 or 7 or 9 or 10 etc.
This is where a mathematical formula was introduced to address any scenario. Hence, Wright's Law was kept aside and people nowadays use the general/common formula to calculate any scenario where learning is applicable.
Above general formula will calculate the avg. time per unit for any number of outputs but do not forget that "x" refers to the cumulative output (total output).
Enough for the introduction 🤦♂️. I will take you through few calculations in my next article on Learning Curve. Till then sit back and relax.
Special Note: Even though there is always a room for learning, you may reach a point where learning stops and time consumption per unit remains constant. This is the minimum time requirement for manufacturing a unit of product.
Purindu B Jayatilake
MSc Eng (Reading), MBA (UK), BSc (Hons) in Engineering, ACMA (UK), CGMA
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