For many new products or production processes, some amount of initial production time is required before labor efficiency reaches an acceptable level. During the learning process, the time required for production and the cost of labor are higher than expected for normal production. Management should be able to use the learning curve phenomenon in planning production of new products. What types of data should a manager collect in order to use learning curves in future planning? What types of decisions might require the use of learning curve computations? In general, what information is obtained from a learning curve analy- sis?