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Supplements Project Ghost Busters (A).

Teams of students receive identical product design specifications, a sample unit of the product, and a series of assignment questions that entail time and motion studies, which they must both understand and perform before class discussion. In class, teams explain how they conducted time studies and sort out differences in procedures. They then make business decisions like hiring and staffing in light of remaining differences in time standards across teams. The class also includes an experiment in which student volunteers actually produce the product to assess the effect of division of labor and brainstorm concrete cost reduction ideas, principally those based on methods improvement.

Prior to the 1980s, automakers purchased individual seat components and built the seats alongside their auto assembly lines. This case describes how Johnson Controls, Automotive Systems Group, blossomed when automakers turned to outsourcing the complete seat set. The case closely examines one plant, in Georgetown, Kentucky, that switched from just-in-time (JIT) delivery of seat sets to JIT assembly to serve a nearby Toyota Camry assembly operation. Exposes the challenge of dealing with growing seat variation and an opportunity of doubling the plant floor space at a separate site. The specific case question is how the plant should use this new space.

On May 1, 1992, Doug Friesen, manager of assembly for Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky, plant, faces a problem with the seats installed in the plant's sole product--Camrys. A growing number of cars are sitting off-line with defective seats or are missing them entirely. This situation is one of several causes of recent overtime, yet neither the reason for the problem nor a solution is readily apparent. As the plant is an exemplar of Toyota's famed production system (TPS), Friesen is determined that, if possible, the situation will be resolved using TPS principles and tools. Students are asked to suggest what action(s) Friesen should take and to analyze whether Georgetown's current handling of the seat problem fits within the TPS philosophy.

Tombow Pencil Co. Ltd., one of Japan's two premier pencil manufacturers, has been using a subcontractor network in order to respond to changing market conditions. The system currently faces a new challenge as Tombow moves to address a volatile business market for promotional pencils: an expanding market demanding novel products, short delivery lead time, and large quantities. To overcome growing stockouts and inventory problems, Yohei Ogawa, the company's new president and grandson of the founder, must evaluate the performance of Tombow's subcontractor-based production system and formulate a plan of action. Introduces students to the subcontractor-based production system, a system prevalent in certain parts of the world outside the United States, and allows them to analyze its performance for simple products with which they are all familiar. The analysis poses profound questions about ways to manage it more effectively and its future potential as an alternative to vertically integrated operations.

Describes the many international sourcing initiatives in a multinational connector manufacturing company from the standpoint of an independent and very successful subsidiary in Japan. Students can explore the conflicts inherent in the situation and thus the more general motives for centralization and decentralization in international manufacturing companies. Japanese purchasing methods and vendor relations are also presented in great detail.