Article ID: | iaor19911885 |
Country: | United States |
Volume: | 37 |
Issue: | 3 |
Start Page Number: | 267 |
End Page Number: | 281 |
Publication Date: | Mar 1991 |
Journal: | Management Science |
Authors: | Clark Kim B., Adler Paul S. |
Keywords: | production, manufacturing industries, engineering |
This exploratory paper sketches some of the behavioral processes that give rise to the learning curve. Using data from two manufacturing departments in an electronic equipment company, the authors construct a model of productivity improvement as a function of cumulative output and two managerial variables-engineering changes and workforce training. Exploration of this model highlights the complex relationship between first-order and second-order learning.