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Learn Curve for Precast Component Productivity in Construction

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Abstract

The study objective is to establish the learning curve model for precast component productivity in construction, verified using cross-validation empirical data for over 90% of these facilities’ precast component production activities over the past 5 years, with a total of 373,077 datasets across 14 production activities, sorted among a total of 4352 workers. By applying the learning curve theory to the analysis, the results show that relative to the straight-line model, the learning curve was established using exponential models. The exponential model can effectively mitigate the unreasonable fluctuations present in the cubic model’s representations of learning curves during initial training periods. This study therefore suggests the adoption of the Exponential model to model the learning curves for production workers learning to make precast components. The model has a satisfactory degree of fit (R2 > 0.88), and the post-cross-validation results also show that the model has a highly accurate prediction capability (MAPE value < 10%). The finding can serve as an important reference for the creation of production personnel allocation plans, personnel reserve plans, and training plans at precast factories in the construction industry.

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All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the submitted article.

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Acknowledgements

This research is partly supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan, for promoting academic excellent of universities under Grant numbers of MOST 109-2622-E-008-018-CC2 and MOST 108-2221-E-008-002-MY3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, 255000, China

    Hsing-Wei Tai

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Research Center of Smart Construction, National Central University, Jhongli, Taoyuan, 32001, Taiwan

    Jieh-Haur Chen

  3. Research Center of Smart Construction, National Central University, Jhongli, 32001, Taoyuan, Taiwan

    Jiun-Yao Cheng

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Shu-Chien Hsu

  5. Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Hsi-Hsien Wei

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  1. Hsing-Wei Tai
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Correspondence to Jieh-Haur Chen.

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Tai, HW., Chen, JH., Cheng, JY. et al. Learn Curve for Precast Component Productivity in Construction. Int J Civ Eng 19, 1179–1194 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-021-00621-z

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