The main goal of any commercial enterprise is to improve its own performance parameters. In order to do this, you need to increase employee productivity and reduce unnecessary costs. Frederick Winslow Taylor identified factors that affect labor productivity, and also created the scientific management system. With the help of a series of experiments, he determined the average time norms for completing individual operations and the optimal methods for their execution.
Frederick Taylor: biography
The future founder of scientific management was born in 1856 in the family of a lawyer in Pennsylvania. He studied in France and Germany, and then in New Hampshire, at the Exter Academy. Originally, Frederick Winslow Taylor intended to become a lawyer, like his father. He successfully graduated from Harvard College in 1847 with this specialty, but he had vision problems that prevented him from continuing his education.
Frederick Taylor began his career as a modeling apprentice, for some time as a machinist, but at the age of 35 he was appointed a management consultant after he successfully conducted a series of experiments at a steel mill in Midwell and made valuable suggestions to management based on their results. Here, for six years, he has gone from a simple wage worker to a chief engineer, having simultaneously received an extramural technical education, and for the first time differentiated the size of his employees' salaries depending on their labor productivity.
Professional achievements
In 1890, the future founder of Taylorism ends his engineering career and becomes the CEO of the Philadelphia Manufacturing Investment Company. But after three years, he decided to start his own business and became the first private consultant in the history of management . In parallel, Frederick Taylor popularized the scientific methods of production management through his membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, until he founded an organization dedicated exclusively to this issue.
The theoretical concepts that brought him worldwide popularity, the scientist outlined in three main works:
- "Factory Management";
- "Principles of scientific management";
- "Testimony before a special commission of Congress."
Hands-on experimentation
While working at a steel mill, Taylor was engaged in research of the time spent on the execution of individual production operations. The first experiment was to measure the key points of trimming pig-iron ingots. Frederick Taylor was able to derive average norms of labor productivity, which then began to apply to all workers. As a result, the salary at the enterprise increased 1.6 times due to an increase in labor productivity by almost 4 times and rationalization of the production of ingots.
The essence of the second experiment, conducted by Taylor, consisted in determining the optimal methods for placing workpieces on machines using a ruler, which he himself specially invented, and the correct cutting speeds. Tens of thousands of experiments were carried out at the enterprise, which made it possible to identify 12 factors affecting the final efficiency.
Research theories
Scientific management is a general term for those ideas that Taylor put forward regarding management theories and practices. His method involves short repeating cycles, a detailed sequence of tasks for each employee, monitoring the implementation of goals and motivating employees using a material reward system. The differentiated wage system used today in most organizations and performance bonuses are built specifically on its achievements. According to the main researchers of organizational management, Angers Huchinski and David Buchanan, efficiency, predictability and control over the production process are the main goals that Frederick Taylor attributes to his scientific management method.
The relationship of personal and professional life
Since the demand for labor was reduced as a result of the considered practical developments, embittered workers even tried to kill the scientist. Initially, even large entrepreneurs opposed him, and a special commission was created in the US Congress to study his findings.
Since 1895, Taylor devoted himself entirely to the study of the scientific organization of labor. Over time, he came to the conclusion that the welfare of the enterprise is possible only if there are favorable conditions for each employee. The scientist died at the age of 59 from pneumonia, leaving behind conclusions that inspire researchers and entrepreneurs today.
Frederick Taylor: Management Principles
The scientific management system is based on three “pillars”: standardization of labor processes, systematic selection and advanced training of personnel, monetary motivation as a reward for high productivity. The main reason for Taylor's inefficiency is the imperfection of incentives to reward workers, which is why a modern entrepreneur should pay attention to them.
At the heart of the system of work organization developed by a scientist are 4 principles:
- Close attention to the individual components of the production process to establish laws and formulas for their effective implementation.
- Careful selection of employees, their training and professional development, as well as the dismissal of those who are unable to understand scientific management methods.
- Management feedback with employees and the convergence of production and science.
- Distribution of functions between employees and management: the former are responsible for the quality and quantity of the final product, while others are responsible for developing recommendations for improving the organization of labor.
The above principles of Taylor have proved their correctness, because after a century they underlie the functioning of any enterprise, and the study of building a management system is one of the main areas of research.