Behind the Learning Curve: Linking Learning Activities to Waste Reduction
这篇探索性研究打开了一家工厂十年全面质量管理中学习曲线的黑箱，发现只有同时获得“知因”和“知法”的质量改进项目才能加速废品率下降，而其他项目则无效甚至阻碍。
This exploratory research on a decade of Total Quality Management in one factory opens up the black box of the learning curve. Based on the organizational learning literature, we derive a quality learning curve that links different types of learning in quality improvement projects to the evolution of the factory's waste rate. Only 25% of the quality improvement projects—which acquired both know-why and know-how—accelerated waste reduction. The other 75% of the projects either impeded or did not affect waste reduction. In complex and dynamic production environments, locally acquired knowledge is difficult to disseminate. The combination of know-why and know-how facilitates its dissemination.