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