Running Head: TIME-AND-MOTION REGAINED CASE STUDY 1

Time-and-Motion Regained Case Study

Kristen Ray

McDaniel College
TIME-AND-MOTION REGAINED CASE STUDY 2

Abstract

Organizations are rarely presented with an opportunity to recreate a department or an entity of itself with

a completely different culture with as much success as GM was able to do in their Fremont, California

plant in the mid-1980’s. GM and Toyota management teams were able to enter a partnership with

mutually agreeable outcomes and used methods that conventional wisdom suggested were out of date and

irrelevant. They adapted Taylor’s “time-and-motion” studies within a bureaucratic system which resulted

in buy-in from motivated workers, who previously contributed to a unproductive work environment.

Socialization and workplace learning were a large part of this turn-around in productivity, job satisfaction

and pride in work. Employees were empowered to become involved, to post suggestions and to play a

part in making the system more effective. In this way, New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., NUMMI

was clearly successful in their goals to bring production of Japanese automobiles to the United States and

to introduce the Japanese work system to the American automobile industry. The organization was able to

respond to the needs of the employees in a way that led to sustained growth, productivity and employee

satisfaction.
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Time-and-Motion Regained Case Study

Introduction

The NUMMI organization represents the best case scenario for incorporating Taylor’s “time-and-

motion” studies in a modern company. Critical decisions to enter the partnership, rehire employees

formerly working at the same physical plant, train and develop workers on a particular, seemingly

unpopular system and enter relationship with the union were all risks that GM and Toyota were willing to

take on. The gamble paid off as the GM-Fremont plant moved from one of the least productive

automobile manufactures to one of the best producers in the United States.

Selection and Socialization

In order for the joint venture between GM and Toyota to be successful at the NUMMI facility,

business as usual compared to the old GM-Fremont culture needed to change dramatically. There were

some overall decisions about employee selection and socialization processes that were important steps in

this process of new culture creation. It was an interesting decision for the business partners to reintroduce

former GM-Fremont employees to the new joint venture and in many ways made sense. On one hand, it

could be smart to hire a fresh, inexperienced staff and to initiate them into the Toyota methods and

culture. The training process would have to be more comprehensive since there would be no reference

point for knowledge and the workforce may lack maturity that may be helpful in starting a new plant from

scratch. On the other hand, the GM-Fremont employees were skilled, experienced workers. Although

major performance issues pervaded the old GM-Fremont plant, they did understand the basic concepts

associated with assembly line production. The performance-related issues seemed to be an outgrowth of

the culture that was embedded in the old organization. If a new culture could be introduced and

developed, the performance related issues may also be resolved. Since the employees had been in an

unemployment status for several years they may be thankful for the opportunity to have work and happy

to respond with a new, intrinsic motivation for team and organizational success. The national

unemployment rate ranged from 8.0 percent in January 1984 down to 6.6 percent in December 1986

according to the Employment Development Department in California, and the rates were slightly higher
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at 8.3 percent in January 1984, trending down to 6.8 percent in December 1986 (EDD, n.d.) in California.

As fewer people were available for work, it would behoove the NUMMI leadership to draw from a skilled

workforce and start fresh with training and socialization to redefine the new culture. For these reasons,

one believes it was a good idea to look to the former GM-Fremont employees as a starting point for

recruitment.

In his article, “Time-and-Motion Regained,” Paul Adler led the reader to believe the issues of the

union and the decision to bring back the old union hierarchy were inevitable (1993, p.5). The benefits to

having the union and old hierarchy at NUMMI were that it was a system with which people were familiar

and working within that system would avoid conflict and controversy. One of the driving motivations for

Toyota to partner in this NUMMI venture was to ease the cultural tensions within the United States by

manufacturing their product on American soil. To disengage the union, a significant part of the cultural

landscape of automotive manufacturing could be a political mistake that may not be overcome. Working

within the union system would also afford the Toyota management the opportunity to figure out how the

union system operates in the United States. Because GM-Fremont had been shut down for several years

and since NUMMI would be a fresh start, the benefit for the joint NUMMI management in engaging the

union was that they could negotiate and determine how that relationship would best be recreated. Toyota

and GM leaders could engage UAW leaders to talk about the overall goals of the operation to figure out

how the union could help facilitate rather than combat those successes.

Selecting and socializing the new employees individually was also important in the creation of a

new culture. The NUMMI management engaged in an extensive multi-day interview process to ensure

the old GM-Fremont employees would understand this was a new company. Because the length of the

process spanned more than a few hours of a simple test and interview there would be an opportunity for

candidates to self select out of the process. At the same time, it gave the management an opportunity to

introduce the candidates to the new culture. The extensive training program would also give employees

an understanding of what the new system was and the opportunity to buy into the culture. It was

especially important for a core group of people to go to Japan to learn the system first hand. This step
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was significant because those employees could feel a strong sense of leadership and obligation and then

take ownership to pass along their knowledge to the other employees. An investment had been made in

the employees and in their development so that they could understand and feel part of the system at large.

Taylor’s Time-and-Motion Studies

The implementation of Taylor’s “time-and-motion” studies were done with “intelligent

interpretation and application” (Adler, 1992). This means that the Taylor principles were adapted to

engage employees with the design and evaluation process. The workers were tasked with watching one

another go through the motions of their work with a timer to learn whether there may be a better way of

completing the task. Employees had the opportunity to make suggestions and then present ideas that

could be considered by management. Evaluation and feedback were provided to and from employees so

that they felt valued. Their input into the process created a sense of ownership and control over their

work and therefore a sense of motivation to work more efficiently. It seems that these methods of

completing work in a manufacturing environment would be transferrable and equally successful in

another plant. While one believes that the concept could be implemented in other places, it is important

to note that GM did eventually leave the partnership and was not able to establish this kind of system in

any other place in the United States. The best practices and the most efficient way of doing business are

always topics of concern for business leaders whether in a manufacturing company in or any other kind of

organization. Capitalizing on Taylor’s studies and creating a learning culture where employees are

empowered to participate in the process seem like reasonable strategies for a positive outcome.

Workplace Learning

Workplace learning was also a major contributor towards the success of Taylor’s standardization

process in the manufacturing of automobiles. Employees were involved in all aspects of developing the

testing and feedback to engineers for product development. The workers were even involved with

establishing standards that would be used in production. When people are involved in the process and

understand that they have an impact on what happens, it increases the task significance for what they do

at work. Communication, feedback, and involvement were all built into the bureaucratic organizational
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structure. The standardization of how information would be communicated and how decisions would be

made fed into the bureaucratic system. Since there were defined processes for the implementation of

changes, the final decision-making and the refinement of processes, they could be considered part of the

“essential precondition for learning” (Adler, 1992). Workers understood how things operated so that they

could go about introducing suggestions for improvement.

Power Relationships

The management team at NUMMI engaged in a strategic move to share power between the union

and the front line workers. The difference between management under the GM-Fremont and NUMMI

organizations can best be compared to McGregor’s Theory X and Y. According to this theory, GM-

Fremont expected that employees disliked their work and would be uninterested in working hard

(Robbins & Judge, 2012). Managers at NUMMI understood the workers would desire responsibility and

seek ways to be effective. According to McClelland’s Theory of Needs, employees are interested in

accomplishment, influence and inclusion (Robbins & Judge, 2012). The NUMMI establishment allowed

for the workers to get to these goals in many ways. Examples include encouraging teamwork on the floor

and offering resolution to issues that were identified. By “giving up” certain kinds of power, like coercive

power over the workforce, management actually gained in productivity, profit and buy-in from the

employees. The idea of empowering employees so that they feel intrinsically motivated allows them to

be productive and encourages them to bring their best to work which affirmed the views of one.

Conclusion

The NUMMI partnership allowed GM-Fremont employees the opportunity to become gainfully

employed and to contribute in a positive way to the production of American-made automobiles. The

implementation of many difficult decisions contributed towards the success of the organization. Former

employees were hired into the NUMMI company, a new culture was introduced which included learning

within a bureaucratic structure and power was shared among workers, management and the union.
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References

Adler, P. S., (1992). Time-and-motion regained. Reprint Number 93101. Boston, MA: Harvard

Business School Publishing.

Adler, P.S., (1992). The ‘learning bureaucracy’: New united motor manufacturing, inc. Retrieved

September 26 2011, from https://msbfile03.usc.edu/digitalmeasures/padler/intellcont/

NUMMI(ROB)-1.pdf

Employment Development Department, State of California. Retrieved September 23, 2011, from

www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov/?PageID=4&SubID=164

Robbins, S.P. & Judge, T.A., (2012). Essentials of Organizational Behavior; tenth edition. Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.