The Variance Learning Curve

Hessam Bavafa () and Jónas Oddur Jónasson ()
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Hessam Bavafa: Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Jónas Oddur Jónasson: MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142

Management Science, 2021, vol. 67, issue 5, 3104-3116

Abstract: The expansive learning curve literature in operations management has established how various facets of prior experience improve average performance. In this paper, we explore how increased cumulative experience affects performance variability or consistency . We use a two-stage estimation method of a heteroskedastic learning curve model to examine the relationship between experience and performance variability among paramedics at the London Ambulance Service. We find that, for paramedics with lower experience, an increase in experience of 500 jobs reduces the variance of task completion time by 8.7%, in addition to improving average completion times by 2.7%. Similar to prior results on the average learning curve, we find a diminishing impact of additional experience on the variance learning curve. We provide an evidence base for how to model the learning benefits of cumulative experience on performance in service systems. Our findings imply that the benefits of learning are substantially underestimated if the consistency effect is ignored. Specifically, our estimates indicate that queue lengths (or wait times) might be overestimated by as much as 4% by ignoring the impact of the variance learning curve in service systems. Furthermore, our results suggest that previously established drivers of productivity should be revisited to examine how they affect consistency, in addition to average performance.

Keywords: learning curves; performance consistency; service time variability; operational performance; service operations; ambulance operations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:67:y:2021:i:5:p:3104-3116

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