Jake's Copy Center hires a new employee. Jake knows he has to be patient with the employee until the employee gains enough experience to meet production standards

Jake is unsure of the learning curve in his operation, but he knows the first job by a new employee averages 50 minutes and the second job averages 40 minutes. Assume all jobs to be equal in size.

Required:
a. What is the learning-curve percentage, assuming the cumulative average-time method?
b. What is the time for a new employee to do 32 jobs with this learning curve using the cumulative average-time method? You may use an index of ?0.1520.

Answer:
a. Job Minutes Cumulative Cumulative Average
1 50 50 50
2 40 90 45
Learning percentage = 45/50 = 0.90
b. Y = p × q
= 50 × 16−.1520
= 29.525 minutes
or 1 unit = 50
2 units = 50 × 0.9 = 45
4 units = 45 × 0.9 = 40.5
8 units = 40.5 × 0.9 = 36.45
16 units = 36.45 × 0.9 = 32.805
32 units = 32.805 × 0.9 = 29.525 minutes
32 × 29.525 = 944.784 minutes = Approximately 15 hours and 45 minutes