Learning Curve Theory

Running head: LEARNING CURVE THEORY

Learning Curve Theory

Name Removed

University of Phoenix

OPS571 - Operations Management

Instructor – William Mahoney

Date: May 31st, 2010

In the "Pizza Store Layout" simulation, it was up to Mario's grandson to assess the business processes based on the available metrics and attempt to determine the optimal conditions for achieving the highest profit. Another term used to describe this desired state of the business is total quality management. Chase, Jacobs, and Aquilano (2006) define total quality management as "managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of products and services that are important to the customer" (p. 320). Based upon metrics collected by Mario, his grandson believed that making improvements to the existing operational processes would result in an improved experience and higher profits. Over the course of the next two months, Mario's grandson added efficiency and increased profitability by applying the learning curve concepts to test an alternative process against the original process. In addition, he examined the initial process data to determine its quality because poor quality of the metrics could lead to bad decisions about process design.

Learning Curve Theory

The idea behind learning curve theory is that as a process is repeated in a business setting we learns ways to add efficiencies that lowers the amount of time or resources needed to create a product. As a company practices a process it learns that changes in administration, equipment, and product design can result in efficiencies. (Chase et al, 2006, Technical Note 4, para. 2) This is called organizational learning. In the simulation, Mario's pizzeria has a problem with long customer wait times and experiences an undesirable number or customers who decide to leave his pizzeria rather than wait for more than 10 minutes for a table. Mario's grandson had a number of options available to him to alter the...