F.W.Taylor: A Scientist

Scientific Management, also known as Taylorism is propounded by Frederick Winslow Taylor in the first decade of the 20^th century. It is a theory of management that analyses and synthesises workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labour productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management.

However, Taylor was not the originator of the Scientific Management Theory and before him Charles Babbage, Henry R Towne, Fredrick Halsey and Henry Metcalf developed and used some scientific management methods and techniques. Though, the term Scientific Management was first coined by Louis Brandies in 1910. But, it was Taylor who used the term to give a complete and systematic explanation of scientific methods and techniques for promoting the organisational efficiency and economy. Hence, he came to be known as the Father of Scientific Management.

Taylor’s contribution to growth of Scientific Management is contained in his books like:

• A piece Rate System- 1895
• Shop Management- 1903
• Art of Cutting Metals- 1906
• Principles of Scientific Management- 1911

About Frederick W. Taylor:

Frederick W. Taylor

Taylor was born on 20^th March, 1856 in German town of Philadelphia, USA. Taylor's father, Franklin Taylor was a Princeton educated lawyer and his mother, Emily Annette Winslow Taylor was an ardent abolitionist. Early, Taylor was educated by his mother, after that he studied for two years in France and Germany and traveled Europe for 18 months. Taylor wanted to be a lawyer like his father so that, he entered Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire in 1872, with the plan of eventually going to Harvard. In 1874, Taylor passed the Harvard entrance examinations with honors. However, due allegedly to rapidly deteriorating eyesight, Taylor chose quite a different path. But Taylor never demoralized, soon he became an apprentice pattern-maker and machinist in Enterprise Hydraulic Works in Philadelphia. Later on, he left his apprenticeship for six months and represented a group of New England Machine Tool Manufacturers at Philadelphia's centennial exposition and finished his four year apprenticeship here. In 1878, he became a machine shop worker at Midvale Steel Works. At Midvale, he was quickly promoted to time clerk then machinist, then gang boss over the lathe hands, then machine shop foreman, then research director, and finally chief engineer of the works.

Taylor was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Pennsylvania on 19th October, 1906. He eventually became a professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. In 1915, Taylor caught pneumonia and died one day after his 59th birthday on 21^st March, 1915.

Development of Scientific Management:

During apprenticeship in Enterprise Hydraulic Works, Taylor gained shop-floor experience. During working in Midvale, Taylor recognised that workmen were not working their machines or themselves, nearly as hard as they could (which at the time was called Soldiering) and that this resulted in high labour costs for the company. When he became a foreman, he expected more output from the workmen. Instant of determining how much work should properly be expected, he began to study and analyse the productivity of both the men and the machines. His focus on the human component of production Taylor labeled scientific management.

In between 1890 to 1893, Taylor worked as a General Manager and a consulting engineer to management for the Manufacturing Investment Company of Philadelphia, a company that operated large paper mills in Maine and Wisconsin. He spent time as a Plant Manager in Maine. In 1893, Taylor opened an independent consulting practice in Philadelphia. His business card read "Consulting Engineer- Systematising Shop Management and Manufacturing Costs a Specialty". Through these consulting experiences, Taylor perfected his management system.

Taylor joined Bethlehem Steel in order to solve an expensive machine-shop capacity problem in 1898. As a result, he with the assistant of Maunsel White, developed high speed steel which paving the way for greatly increased mass production. After leaving Bethlehem Steel in 1901, Taylor focused the rest of his career on publicly promoting his management and machining methods through lecturing, writing, and consulting.

In 1910, owing to the Eastern Rate Case, Frederick Winslow Taylor and his Scientific Management methodologies become famous worldwide. In 1911, Taylor introduced his The Principles of Scientific Management paper to the American mechanical engineering society, eight years after his Shop Management paper.

Three Assumptions of Taylor’s Scientific Management:

The three assumptions of scientific management are as follows:

1. The organisational functioning can be improved with the application of scientific method.
2. A good worker is one who does not initiate action, but accepts the orders of management.
3. Every worker is an economic man, means he is motivated by monetary factors.

Principles of the Scientific Management:

Taylor elaborated four principles of the Scientific Management, they are:

1.  Develop a science for each element of a man’s work, which replaces the old rule of thumb method. By this one best way of doing a task can be decided and the standard output can be determined.
2.  Scientifically selection and then train, teach and develop workmen.
3.  Management should fully cooperate with workers, so as to ensure that the work is done in accordance with the scientific principles developed for this purpose.
4. There must be equal division of work and responsibility between management and workers. The management should take over all work for which they are better suited.

Taylor summaries the philosophy of the above principles as:

• Science, not Rule of Thumb.
• Harmony, not Discord.
• Cooperation, not Individualism.
• Maximum output, not Restricted output
• The development of each man to his greatest and prosperity.

Methods of Scientific Management:

The methods of scientific management are as follows:

Functional Foremanship:

Functional Foremanship

Taylor advocated the concept of functional foremanship rather than single foremanship. Under functional foremanship the worker is supervised and guided by eight functional foremen. Of eight functional foremen four are responsible for planning and others four are responsible for execution and serve on shop floor (lower level). They are:

Functional foremen for planning:

• Order-of-work and route clerk
•  Instruction card clerk
• Time and cost clerk
• Shop disciplinarian

Functional foremen for execution:

• Gang boss
• Speed boss
• Inspector
• Repair boss

Thus, it will facilitate specialization as well as separation of planning from execution.

Motion Study: It is the method of standardization of work techniques. Motion study is designed to determine a preferable work with consideration to tools and equipments, raw materials, hand and body motion, and so on. In short, it is meant for finding out the One Best Way to do a work.

Time Study: It is used to determine the standard time for completion of work. It facilitates planning of a large daily task and follows the motion study. The use of the Stop Watch is very necessary in this method.

Differential Piece Rate Plan: Taylor said the payment should be inspired by motion and time studies, this pay plan was called as the differential piece rate plan. For example: workers are paid a low piece rate up to a standard, a large bonus at the standard and a higher piece rate above the standard. Taylor further suggested that a worker who is unable or unwilling to produce the standard should be removed.

Exception Principle: This principle is involved in set up a large daily task by the management with reward for achieving targets and penalty for not meeting it. Taylor further suggested that the manager should not be interested in items that are at standard performance but should be concerned mainly with exceptional items that vary from standard performance.

Criticism of the Scientific Management:

Scientific management provides innumerable merits but despite that it has been criticised by different sections of society.

1. It was criticised as a partial theory of organization due to its concentration on the shop floor activities and neglect of organizational processes beyond that level. It did not stress the integration and coordination of higher levels of the organization.
2. It is criticised as a mechanistic theory of organisation as it neglected the human side. In other words, it interpreted the organizational efficiency in mechanistic terms only. It treated workers as a machine and sought to make him as efficient as the machine itself. That is why it was opposed by the workers.
3. It was criticised as it ignores or underestimates the human motivation. It explained human motivation mainly in terms of economic factors and did not emphasise the social and psychological aspects of motivation. This came to be known as the Monistic Theory of Motivation.
4.  March and Simon described it as Physiological Organisation Theory because scientific management concern with only that range of worker’s behaviour which pertained to production.
5. Trade Union also criticised the scientific management because it curtails the involvement of trade union through applying the Mental Revolution. This principle resolves all the disputes between the employers and workers.
6.  Managers also opposed the theory because they would lose their judgment and discretion and their work and responsibilities increases.

As far as in my view, Taylorism is a true science as it rests on clearly fixed laws, rules and principles which have universally applicable in any organisation. It focuses on shop floor of the organisation and aims at studying the relationship between the physical nature of work and the physiological nature of workmen. Scientific Management emphasises on specialization, predictability, technical competence and rationality for improving the organisational efficiency and economy.