In the last issue, StitchWorld talked about Fredrick W. Taylor, who, in early 1900’s spoke of time study. Taylor was thus named the ‘Father’ of Scientific Management and the ‘Brain’ behind the concept of Methods Time Management (MTM). MTM is a procedure which analyses any manual operation or method into basic motions required to perform it and assigns to each motion a pre-determined time standard which is decided by the nature of the motion and the conditions under which it is made.
Even as Fredrick W. Taylor talked about time study, the Gilbreths made detailed laboratory studies of motions and methods to subdivide elementary movements into elements: These subsequently were known as Therbligs. While the time study group could see nothing practical in the laboratory approach, the motion study group considered their studies unscientific and crude. However, eventually differences were dropped and best of both were adapted into “methods engineering”. In the 1920’s Asa B. Segur, concluded that, within practical limits, the time required for average qualified workers to perform a particular motion element is a constant.
| Code No. | Description of Element | A Accurate | N Normal |
| 1 | Turn material 90° without handwheel – at needle* | 45 | 35 |
| 2 | Turn material 90° without handwheel – up to 10”* | 50 | 40 |
| 3 | Turn material 90° without handwheel – 10” to 24”* | 110 | 95 |
| 4 | Turn material 180° without handwheel – at needle* | 50 | 40 |
| 5 | Turn material 180° without handwheel – up to 10”* | 70 | 60 |
| 6 | Turn material 180° without handwheel – 10” to 24”* | 150 | 140 |
| 7 | Turn corner, hemmed edge, one needle with handwheel | 140 | 130 |
| 8 | Turn corner, hemmed edge, two needles with handwheel | 185 | 165 |
| 9 | Turn handwheel to raise or lower needle | 50 | |
| 10 | Each additional stitch | 30 | |
| The following table (Table 1) gives different examples of turning of material during sewing and corresponding time consumed in TMU. | |||
During the late 1940’s, as a result of work done at Westinghouse, H.B. Maynard, J.L. Schwab and J.G. Stegemerten, who comprised Methods Engineering Council, developed MTM (later renamed as MTM-1) in the US and made it available to the world. MTM-1 has over 350 code values and was quite rightly hailed as “paper stopwatch” and a major step forward in work measurement and methods engineering technique.
| Description ~ Left Hand | No. | LH | TMU | RH | No. | Description ~ Right Hand |
| Lift presser foot | LM | 7.1 | ||||
| Turn material | M3Bm | 3.6 | M3Bm | Turn material | ||
| Release material | RL2 | 0.0 | RL2 | Release material | ||
| Reach to new location | R3B | 5.9 | R3B | Reach to new location | ||
| Grasp part | G5 | 0.0 | G5 | Grasp part | ||
| Position under foot | P1SD | 11.2 | P1SD | Position under foot | ||
| 7.1 | LM | Lower presser foot | ||||
| Total TMU | 34.9 | |||||
| Table 2. METHODS ANALYSIS CHART Operation: Turn 900 without handwheel at needle |
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The MTM-1 system consists of data tables which show the levelled times for the basic motions under specified conditions and the rules governing the sequences in which these motions occur. The unit of 0.00001 hours was adopted and given the name “Time Measurement Unit”, abbreviated as TMU. One TMU is equivalent to 0.00001 hours, 0.0006 minutes or 0.036 seconds. This is the system from which most others have been built and thus is considered to be a “First Level System” and has obtained worldwide acceptance in many organizations. The originators of the MTM-1 system appreciated the problems of analysis time for the original system and evolved a simplified version. MTM-2 developed in 1965 had 39 values and MTM-3 developed during 1970 had only 10 values.
The Method Analysis Chart shows application of MTM data (Table 2) for analysing an operation.
Today, more than ever, the MTM methodology plays an important role in helping businesses to improve their profitability, manage their capital and human resources and compete successfully in the world marketplace. This is true for many business applications that are far removed from the manufacturing process. MTM systems are successfully used to improve clerical, engineering, assembly, retail, banking, electronics, healthcare, clothing and textiles and many other processes. MTM is recognized and used in most industrialized countries in the world today. Since an MTM analysis consists of describing the work method in terms of detailed conversions, a systematic job description is obtained. It can be used as the basis for training and selection of workers. To meet the varied needs of business and industry, MTM provides a dynamic and growing family of systems. MTM is a family of PMT systems, which has been evolved through a progressive programme of research and development directed to practical solutions for application requirements.
Evolution of Apparel Industry Specific Solutions from MTM
Sewing Performance Data
Don Stohlman, one of the originators of Singer-MTM, produced sewing performance data (SPD) by building macros from MTM-1 data code specific to apparel industry.
Needle Trade Time Data (NTTD): 1970
This was one of the earliest systems developed for the specific application to the clothing industry originally by Berenschot of Amsterdam and then bought and developed by Inbucon-AIC of the UK. This is the second level system built from MTM-1 to create elements met only in the clothing industry. It has been applied in many sectors of the industry.
Stamp-System: 1972
The official name of this system is VTC (Visual Time Standards for the clothing industry) and it has been successfully implemented in over 80 % of Dutch clothing companies and in many other countries. The system is designed to assist the communication of the detail of element by illustrating each one pictorially on a set of adhesive stamps. In order to illustrate a motion sequence, the adhesive stamps are selected and stuck to a sheet of paper in the appropriate order. Consequently anyone can glance at the ‘cartoon strip’ and follow the method without having to learn the significance of the coding system.
Garment Manufacturing Data (GMD): 1975
This system was developed from MTM-1 data by Drew, Mcconkey & Associates Ltd. specifically for the clothing industry. It retains the accuracy of MTM-1 whilst being prepared in a form, which makes its use much quicker than both MTM-2 and stopwatch time study. The time standard adopted is in Basic Minutes, thus the time derived for all elements are at Standard Performance. Handing methods and the required number of “bursts” of sewing are precisely defined as a part of the production of the Standard Time.
General Sewing Data (GSD): 1978
Dr. Fred Evans, the Technical Director of the UK MTM Association and Peter Evans of Methods Workshop Limited, jointly evolved MTM core data. Subsequently, Peter Evans was credited for the development of GSD (General Sewing Data). The data is based on the empirical motion frequency distributions. MTM Core Data Analysis (1978) allows a system designer to derive a real average (arithmetic mean) time value from a single analysis. The TMU is the basis for values. On this basis, a single set of 33 items of data in seven categories has been developed and tables for sewing times are also provided. The system is proprietary to Method Workshop Ltd., now GSD (Corporate) Ltd., UK.
