TABLE OF CONTENTS Learning curves are used in aircraft production to estimate, budget, and control levels of resource and to assess contract performance. Learning is an empirical relationship, and as such the engineer or analyst must learn to recognize and deal with the practical problems of data analysis and modeling, including the exploitation of basic learning curve properties. This chapter will discuss the use of alternative forms of the learning relationship, principally the unit and cumulative average learning curves, and illustrate how these can be used to good effect within a manufacturing company. This chapter also demonstrates how it is possible to segment learning curves into discrete elements to model the effects of variations in specific cost drivers. Examples and techniques are discussed.
The precise nature and cause of the learning phenomenon is not fully understood. As a consequence there are differences of opinion and interpretation across the industries that experience it. This case study illustrates an approach adopted by BAE SYSTEMS, and offers a route by which to quantify the issues propounded by Richard Engwall in Chap. 17.5. There are other approaches that are equally valid.
Learning can be defined [1] as "the process by which an individual acquires skill and proficiency at a task, which in turn has the effect of permitting increased productivity in his or her performance of that task."
The cumulative effect within an organization of several individuals' learning could...
