F5知识点：学习曲线效应(The learning curve effect)

　　学习曲线效应指的是越是经常地执行一项任务，每次所需的时间就越少。

　　学习曲线将学习效果数量化绘制于坐标纸上，横轴代表练习次数(或产量)，纵轴代表学习的效果(单位产品所耗时间)，这样绘制出的一条曲线，就是学习曲线。

　　学习曲线有广义和狭义之分。狭义的学习曲线又称为人员学习曲线，它是指直接作业人员个人的学习曲线。广义的学习曲线也称为生产进步函数，是指工业某一行业或某一产品在其产品寿命周期的学习曲线，是融合技术进步、管理水平提高等许多人努力的学习曲线。

　　学习效果受许多因素的影响，主要有：

　　.操作者的动作熟练程度。这是影响学习曲线的最基本因素

　　.管理技术的改善，正确的培训、指导，充分的生产准备与周到的服务，工资奖励及惩罚等管理政策的运用

　　.产品设计的改善

　　.生产设备与工具的质量

　　.各种材料的 连续供应和 质量

　　.信息反馈的及时性

　　.专业化分工程度

　　THE IMPORTANCE OF THE LEARNING CURVE EFFECT

　　Learning curve models enable users to predict how long it will take to complete a future task. Management accountants must therefore be sure to take into account any learning rate when they are carrying out planning, control and decision-making. If they fail to do this, serious consequences will result. As regards its importance in decision-making, let us look at the example of a company that is introducing a new product onto the market. The company wants to make its price as attractive as possible to customers but still wants to make a profit, so it prices it based on the full absorption cost plus a small 5% mark-up for profit. The first unit of that product may take one hour to make. If the labour cost is $15 per hour, then the price of the product will be based on the inclusion of that cost of $15 per hour. Other costs may total $45. The product is therefore released onto the market at a price of $63. Subsequently, it becomes apparent that the learning effect has been ignored and the correct labour time per unit should is actually 0.5 hours. Without crunching through the numbers again, it is obvious that the product will have been launched onto the market at a price which is far too high. This may mean that initial sales are much lower than they otherwise would have been and the product launch may fail. Worse still, the company may have decided not to launch it in the first place as it believed it could not offer a competitive price.

　　Let us now consider its importance in planning and control. If standard costing is to be used, it is important that standard costs provide an accurate basis for the calculation of variances. If standard costs have been calculated without taking into account the learning effect, then all the labour usage variances will be favourable because the standard labour hours that they are based on will be too high. This will make their use for control purposes pointless.

　　Finally, it is worth noting that the use of learning curve is not restricted to the assembly industries it is traditionally associated with. It is also used in other less traditional sectors such as professional practice, financial services, publishing and travel. In fact, research has shown that just under half of users are in the service sector.