Knox Electronics, facing price competition from foreign and domestic sources, is attempting to correct out-of-date work standards. New standards are being derived using predetermined elemental data. The production workers are complaining that the new standards are too demanding and too "tight" to maintain their incentive earnings. Conflicting objectives of the industrial engineer and the foreman have generated a crisis for the company. The student must deal with management's desire to reduce costs, the foreman's objective to increase input, the workers' goal to maintain incentive earnings, and the industrial engineer's desire to meet cost-reduction targets.