Frederick Winslow Taylor

Frederick Winslow Taylor 1856-1915

Influences - Family History • Father • Pennsylvania Quaker family • Lawyer • Owned farms and properties • Very Wealthy

Influences - Family History • Mother - Emily Winslow (Delano) • New England Puritan Family • Related to Franklin Delano Roosevelt • Anti-slavery ‘agitator’ • Campaigner for women’s rights • Child rearing philosophy based on ‘work, drill and discipline’. • Believe in ‘definite instructions’ for Fred

Influences • Affluent family • Attended Phillips Exeter Academy • Destined for Harvard

Influences - Early Work • Started as an Apprentice • 1878 - Midvale Steel as a Clerk • Moved down the company ladder - laborer • Role changed almost monthly • Keeper of tools, assistant foreman, foreman, master mechanic, director of research, chief engineer of the plan • 1880-1883 Engineering at Stephens Institute

Influences - Other Than Mother • Adam Smith - Process-driven model of management

Tendencies • Incredibly driven problem solver • Inventor • Taylor-White process for treating tool steel • Spawned over forty patents • Sportsman • Passion for Order and Efficiency • Persistent • Personal Tendencies

Accomplishments & Theories • 1889 - Bethlehem Steel Company • Tried wide ranging changes • Fired in 1901 • Experience laid the basis for theories of Scientific Management

Scientific Management • Workers engaged in “soldiering” • Superiors had no idea how long a job should take • No one thought to examine the nature of people’s work

Scientific Management • Armed with stopwatch, examined exactly what happened and how long it took • Minute examination allows an observer to establish a best means of carrying out the job

Scientific Management • Workers would know what was expected • Managers would know how much should be produced • Reliable piecework rates, bonuses, penalties

Scientific Management • Quality of the work had to be stressed before striving for an increased Quantity of work • Paid for performance, not attendance • Advocated daily feedback • “Seventy five percent science and twenty five percent common sense”

Scientific Management Exercise • Build 20 Pieces as specified: • Two Red 4x2 • Two Black 4x2, crosswise • One White 2x2, on middle

Scientific Management - Results • Watertown Arsenal (Labor Cost Reductions) • Packsaddle from $1.17 to $.54 • 6” Gun from $10,229 to $6,950 • Typically, “Schmidt” increased production 400% while receiving 60% more pay • Often boosted production

Scientific Management - Results • 1910 - Harrington Emerson claimed the railroads could save $1 Million per day • Immediate result was a dramatic cut in the cost of manufactured goods • Potentially allowed for an increase in wages • Also resulted in crude reductions in employee numbers

Frederick Taylor - Contributions • Invented Management as a Science • Established the job of management as measurement • Created middle management • Intended SM to cover the whole organization • First management consultant (“Consultant to Management”)

Frederick Taylor - Recap • Earned approximately $50,000 per year from 1900 to 1911 from consulting • Had three maids, estate superintendent, cook, coachman and yard laborers • Taught in France and Germany • 1910 - refused his share of his father’s $900,000 estate • 1915 - Taylor’s estate worth $700,000 • Died after a lecture tour in Cleveland

Frederick Taylor - Supporters • First International Management Theory • Japanese • Lenin • Henri Le Chatelier • Frank & Lilian Gilbreth • Peter Drucker • Henry Gantt • Henry Ford • Hugo Munsterbuerg • Champy/Hammer

Frederick Taylor - Criticisms • Relied on money to motivate • Efficiency before ethics • Views in accord with socialism • Increased wages until competitions catches up • Built on a lack of trust, a lack of respect for the worth, wit and intelligence of individuals

Frederick Taylor - Criticisms • Eliminated qualified, professional work • Focus on making the task more stupid • Believed people did not need to be told what was happening elsewhere in the organization • Employees had to ‘turn off their minds’ • Denied people their individuality

Frederick Taylor - Criticisms • 1909 - U.S. Steel, 3500 workers revolt • 1911 - Taylor questioned at a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives • Nightmare visions explored in literature

Where Do We Go From Here? • Peter Drucker • Knowledge workers are “abysmally unproductive” • Challenge of the next century is to increase the productivity of knowledge workers • Lucier and Torsilieri • Routine work (80%) needs to be standardized. • Complex decisions should be outsourced

Frederick Winslow Taylor