Toward a theory of continuous improvement and the learning curve

Article Abstract:

The continuous improvement process was analyzed using the fundamental concept of the learning curve. Continuous improvement is a set of powerful techniques aimed at improving the performance of production and service organizations. The attempts of management to make improvements by implementing various strategies in each period were investigated to better understand the concepts of continuous improvement. Five postulates that underlie certain categories of industrial learning and that provide the basis for a differential equation to describe the learning cycle were utilized. Empirical results showed that the differential equation characterizes continuous improvement and illustrates how learning might occur in a learning cycle. The equation can help management facilitate the improvement of industrial processes.

Management Theory & Techniques, Management, Total quality management, Value added, Learning curves, Experience curves

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From EOQ towards ZI

Article Abstract:

The basic production model of economic order quantity states that set-up costs create inventory and make batch production efficient. Zero inventory (ZI) is another production efficiency model, also known as just-in-time inventory control. ZI proposes reducing inventory to a minimum. The prevailing belief is that by reducing set-up, inventory and costs are reduced, but results of this study suggest the opposite. Reducing set-up costs does not necessarily entail reducing inventory, or total production and inventory costs. Set-up cost reduction in fact does the opposite, producing marginally increasing, not decreasing, returns. By analyzing certain ZI concepts with mathematical models, it is shown that the ZI concept is sometimes valid and sometimes not.

Methods, Production management, Finance, Scheduling (Management), Manufacturing processes, Manufacturing, Production control, Just in time inventory systems, Just in time systems

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