You have been toying with the idea of purchasing a ‘House in a box’. This is the

Question

You have been toying with the idea of purchasing a ‘House in a box’. This is the first time you ever attempted to put something like this, together. Because this is the first time it may take you longer than planned. After completing your first project build, your wife’s mother decided she wants you to do the same for her so she can live in a house in your backyard – lucky you. As it pertains to the learning curve philosophy, discuss how doing it again for your mother in law should take less time and the job should be easier to do.

Explanation / Answer

According to the learning curve philosophy, the activities show improvement when repeated and the time required to perform a task decreases with increasing repetitions. If the task is short and routine, there is chance for only modest amount of improvement in the first few repetitions. But there are chances of improvement over large number of repetitions, if the activity is new or complex. The idea of purchasing ‘House in a box’ is a new one and it is not a routine task. Moreover it took longer than planned in the first case. Hence while repeating the same for my mother in law it would show significant improvement as it is a new or complex one with longer duration. Apart from actual worker learning, the improvement may occur in terms of preproduction factors like the house design, selection of tools and equipment, amount of effort taken in planning and other activities prior to the beginning of the work and method analysis. Hence I would be able to show much improvement while designing the same house for my mother in law.

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