Continuous improvement (CI) unceasingly strives to improve the performance of production and service firms. The learning curve (LC) provides1988 Department of Industrial Engineering and a means to observe and track that improvement. At present, however, the concepts of CI are abstract and...

A conceptualization of production learning is proposed, which resolves costs into groups characterized by the rate at which the costs can be reduced. These groups may correspond to learning in process, materials or technology. This approach suggests a new budget methodology, the Learning Rate...