Real life examples

Manufacturing
Learning curve can be used to track the workforce performance in the manufacturing
industry. Instead of analysing performance and number of attempts, the values could
be unit cost or unit labor hours and cumulative production in units. As workers
produce more product, the per-unit cost will often decrease.

 The learning curve can be used to predict potential costs when production
tasks change. For example, when the pricing of a new product is being
determined, labor costs are factored in.

 If a product takes two hours to produce, the product is released to the

market for sale at a cost that reflects the two-hour production period plus
other associated costs and markups.

 But what if that production time was based on the first few attempts?

 What if by the 100th time the product was produced, production time is
reduced to one hour? The product would be on the market at a price that is
much too high, resulting in potentially lower sales. Using the learning curve
can provide additional insight for planning purposes.

Industries like TATA motors, BHEL, SAIL all make use of learning curve analysis as a
part of evaluating their workers’ performances and planning their market costs.

Business

Learning curves is also used to track organizational performance using either the
generalized approach or by conducting a measured analysis using learning curve.

For example~ Learning curve is a great way to measure day to day progress of
employees learning to use a complex software programme. Since it includes
many variables, generalised methods are difficult to use. By applying the
learning curve theory as a framework, organizations can still benefit.

The learning curve as a framework can help organizations to understand in this

scenario what is required to become proficient in the software. If training support and
time to practice are identified as important factors, then it can be seen that employees
who are given support and time to practice with the software will over time have
better performance than employees who are not given support or time to practice.

BELOW MENTIONED IS A CLSSSIC EXAMPLE OF REAL LIFE USAGE

OF LEARNING CURVE IN BUSINESS.

 An article published in busineestoday states that the performance of newly appointed

infosys CEO Vishal Sikka will be evaluated using the learning curve analysis.
Medicine

For surgeons in the operating room, many procedures will involve the same repetitive
tasks.

Learning curve can be evidently used in the medicine industry. Since a surgeon
practices a skill over and over a period of time, learning curve can be applied to
show individual learning and performance over time

This enables not only insight into the improvement that the surgeon is achieving, but
aides instructors with identifying where more resources and assistance can be directed
to improve performance.