Quality Insights: Learning, forgetting, and relearning quality: a half-life learning curve modelling approach

Learning curves are used extensively in business, science, technology, engineering, and industry to predict system performance over time. Although most of the early developments and applications were in the area of production engineering, general applications can be found in all areas of applications. Quality engineering and technology, in particular, offer a fertile area for the application of learning curves. This paper applies the concept of half-life of learning curves to quality management. This is useful for predictive measures of quality system performance. Half-life is the amount of time it takes for a quantity to diminish to half of its original size through natural processes. The approach of half-life computation provides additional decision tool for researchers and practitioners in quality engineering and technology. Derivation of the half-life equations of learning curves can reveal more about the properties of the various curves, with respect to the unique life-cycle property of product quality.