Start Up or Learning Curves–some New Approaches

The traditional start up or learning curve is presented in a somewhat different way to encourage increased application of the start up curve as a useful tool for management planning, control, and decision purposes. It is shown that the parameter estimation problem can be avoided in those situations in which the percent start up or learning is known or can be estimated. Several interesting approaches allowing simplified computations are presented for those common situations in which (a) the point at which the marginal cost per unit stabilizes is known, (b) the cost of the first unit is known, and (c) the percent start up for both (a) and (b) is known. The relationship between breakeven analysis and start up curves is shown, as well as the relationship between marginal cost‐revenue analysis and start up curves.