Taylor's Scientific Management

F. W. Taylor, an American mechanical engineer, is regarded as the father of Scientific Management — the application of scientific methods (observation, measurement, experimentation) to problems of management, replacing the old "rule of thumb" approach in which managers and workers relied on personal judgement, guesswork, and tradition rather than tested method.

Taylor defined scientific management as "knowing exactly what you want men to do and then seeing that they do it in the best and cheapest way."

Principles of scientific management:

• Science, not rule of thumb — replace guesswork and traditional methods with a scientifically studied "one best way" of doing every job.
• Harmony, not discord — management and workers should share a common interest (a bigger surplus for both) rather than see each other as rivals.
• Cooperation, not individualism — replace individual effort and competition among workers with cooperation between labour and management.
• Development of each and every person to their greatest efficiency and prosperity — train every worker scientifically to reach their maximum potential, benefiting both the worker and the organisation.

Techniques of scientific management:

• Functional foremanship — Taylor proposed splitting the foreman's job into eight specialised functions (four planning-related: route clerk, instruction card clerk, time and cost clerk, disciplinarian; and four execution-related: speed boss, gang boss, repair boss, inspector), so that each worker is supervised by several functional specialists rather than one all-purpose foreman.
• Standardisation and simplification of work — standardising tools, equipment, materials, and work methods to reduce variations and waste.
• Method study — finding the one best way of performing a job, by breaking a job into its component motions and measuring the time and effort each takes.
• Motion study — closely observing and analysing the movements of a worker performing a task to eliminate unnecessary motions and improve the sequence of movements.
• Time study — determining the standard time a qualified worker should take to complete a specified job, used as the basis for fixing a fair day's work. …