Question

The Mechanical Engineering department has a student team that is designing a formula car for national competition. The time required for the team to assemble the first car is 100 hours. Their improvement (or learning rate) is 0.80 , which means that as output is doubled, their time to assemble a car is reduced by 20 %. Use this information to determine: a) The time it will take the team to assemble the 10th car b) The total time required to assemble the first 10 cars c) The estimated cumulative average assembly time for the first 10 cars Solve by hand and by spreadsheet.

Answer 1

Time required to assemble 12th car = 100(12)^{log0.8 / log2}      (where, log0.8 / log2 = learning curve exponent)

                                                   = 100(12^)-0.32

                                                                    = 100 / 12^0.32

                                                   = 100 / 2.21 = 45.25 hours

Answer:- Total time required to produce x units

Tx=?Zx=?k(u^x)

T10=100?(u^-0.332)= 100(1^-0.332+2^-0.332+…………+10^-0.332)=631 hour

Answer:- The cumulative average time for x units   Cx

Cx=Tx/X =T10/10=631/10=63.1 hour

Spreadsheet solution is as below:-