Introduction:
This paper is a response to the assignment for a paper and short speech concerning a person with relevant contributions to the world of management. Frederick Taylor is affectionately referred to as the “Father of Scientific Management.” The modern systems of manufacturing and management would not be the examples of efficiency that they are today without Taylor’s work.
Frederick Taylor was instrumental in bringing industry out of the dark ages by beginning to revolutionize the way work was approached. Taylor was able to increase wages, productivity, and reduce per-piece costs at the same time. Taylor’s work was eventually adopted in a wide array of applications. Taylor’s ideas had a significant influence on the industrial life of all modernized countries.
Even Lenin went as far as to publish an article in Pravda, “Raising the Productivity of Labour,” based on the writings of Taylor. Thus, Taylor changed the way the world conducted business. Taylor’s work was an extension of technology. It was a marriage of human work and technology. His Principles of Scientific Management were conceived to be free of value judgment.
The Younger Years:
Frederick W. Taylor was born into a well-to-do family in Philadelphia in 1856. His family was not wealthy, but they were well exposed to the high culture of the local society. Growing up, it was expected that Taylor would study to become an attorney. Taylor attended Phillips-Exeter Academy.
He was a devout student, doing very well with his studies. To achieve good grades, Taylor studied many long hours. It was quite unfortunate that Taylor was to miss Harvard Law School due to bad eyes that doctors attributed to studying in the poor light of a kerosene lamp. In later years, it was realized that his eye problem was actually caused by stress, as it improved after he left Phillips. Taylor moved back home after graduating from Phillips. He realized that he should take up a trade and got a job as an apprentice machinist and pattern maker.
Having spent four years learning his trade, Taylor got a job as a yard laborer at Midvale Steel Company. Taylor realized that at this point he needed to continue his education. He convinced the people at Stevens Institute of Technology to allow him to attend classes long distance. He would study in his spare time in Philadelphia and go to the school in New Jersey to take his exams. In June of 1883, Taylor graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He subsequently joined the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
Midvale Steel Company was part of the post-Civil War expansion of industrialized Philadelphia. They made steel railroad ties. Due to poor management, Midvale failed in 1873. Fortunately for Taylor, the company was sold and prospered under the direction of the new owners. There were two reasons for the success of the company.
The first was that the company was able to improve their scientific processes. The second reason was that they were able to receive contracts to manufacture Naval gun forgings. By the 1890s, Midvale was one of the country’s largest defense contractors. The company was in a period of rapid growth. Taylor advanced quickly at Midvale. In eight years, he would be promoted from an ordinary laborer through the ranks of timekeeper, machinist, gang boss, foreman, assistant engineer to chief engineer of the plant.
Taylor was promoted to gang boss due to the business turnaround and the subsequent influx of orders. As gang boss, Taylor was well aware that the workers could be producing at much higher levels than they were. As Taylor tried to increase production, he met a lot of resistance from the workers. This fight to increase production gave Frederick Taylor his first look at the unsystematized managerial methods commonplace in industry. Typically, the “fly by the seat of the pants” approach was used to manage manufacturing facilities. Taylor realized that there was a scientific approach to technical problems.
Yet, the current approach to…
