From Men and Machines to the Organizational Learning Curve

Organizational learning can be understood as the arousal of recurring patterns of interaction between the members of an organization. Thus, the slope of the learning curve ultimately depends on the structure of information flows between organizational units. In particular, in a production plant organizational learning corresponds to improving the routing and sequencing of semi-manufactured goods between units. This contribution explores the impact of routing problems and sequencing problems on the organizational learning curve by means of numerical simulations and a stylized mathematical model