TAMIYA RACING CAR CORPORATION

The Tamiya Racing Car Corporation is a Japanese firm engaged in the

manufacturing of large variety of motorized toys for recreation and sports
enthusiasts. The company specializes in the production of fractional motors and
electrical devices to augment one of their assembly line engaged to produce the
special toy known as the “Tamiya”.

The company employs approximately 1,000 workers. The Industrial

Engineering Department was responsible for methods improvement, performance
standards, layout, tool design, cost analysis and the general cost reduction program.
Of the seventeen industrial engineers in the department, four men spent full time on
the setting of performance standards.

For the most part, time standards were set by stop watch time study,
although standard data were also used extensively. A recent assignment involved
establishing standards for winding armatures on the model “Race” for the one-
tenth horsepower motor, of which approximately 20,000 were produced annually.

The engineer setting the standard for this operation recorded the observed
time (in hundreds of a minute) as shown in Table 1

The engineer rated the operator’s pace at 94% of the standard. This
operation was considered moderately fatiguing, typical of many bench work
operations in the plant. The operator was required to exercise considerable
attention to the placement of the winding and to the number of turns. There was
no heavy handling involved and working conditions were good.

Questions:

1. Set the standard time for this operation.

2. What bearing does the “learning curve” have in the setting of time
standard?

3. What functions do performance standards serve besides providing a basis

for incentive payment? Should the same serve all the purpose?

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 Table 1
TAMIYA RACING CAR CORPORATION

C Y C L E

ELEMENTS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

1. Place in fixtures 8 9 12 12 7 12 8 8 12 7 9 8

2. Strip wire and position

for winding 12 11 18 9 8 12 15 12 12 14 8 11

3. Wind first coil 25 27 24 26 30 31 28 27 27 29 30 28

4. Wind second coil 27 27 30 42* 32 30 26 29 28 32 30 24

5. Wind third coil 29 32 51** 30 30 28 39 32 62*** 29 29 53

6. Wind fourth coil 27 29 28 32 30 33 29 33 27 29 28 34

7. Wind fifth coil 39 37 36 40 38 88 42 36 35 39 41 40

8. Cut wire and remove
from fixture 13 13 17 13 14 16 14 27 16 20 12 14

9. Inspect and lay aside 9 10 9 18 11 19 14 12 12 9 11 14

* Miswind; wire break

** Re-adjust in fixture
*** Replace coil of wire

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