Write a 2 – page response (APA 7, double-space) to scientific management. (~600 words)
Introduction
THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
by Frederick W. Taylor
Introduction
Chapter 1:
Fundamentals of
Scientific Management
Chapter 2:
The Principles of
Scientific Management
Introduction
President Roosevelt in his address to the Governors at the
White House, prophetically remarked that “The conservation
of our national resources is only preliminary to the larger
question of national efficiency.”
The whole country at once recognized the importance of
conserving our material resources and a large movement
has been started which will be effective in accomplishing
this object. As yet, however, we have but vaguely
appreciated the importance of “the larger question of
increasing our national efficiency.”
We can see our forests vanishing, our water-powers going
to waste, our soil being carried by floods into the sea; and
the end of our coal and our iron is in sight. But our larger
wastes of human effort, which go on every day through
such of our acts as are blundering, ill-directed, or inefficient,
and which Mr. Roosevelt refers to as a, lack of “national
efficiency,” are less visible, less tangible, and are but
vaguely appreciated.
We can see and feel the waste of material things. Awkward,
inefficient, or ill-directed movements of men, however,
leave nothing visible or tangible behind them. Their
appreciation calls for an act of memory, an effort of the
imagination. And for this reason, even though our daily loss
from this source is greater than from our waste of material
things, the one has stirred us deeply, while the other has
moved us but little.
As yet there has been no public agitation for “greater
national efficiency,” no meetings have been called to
consider how this is to be brought about. And still there are
signs that the need for greater efficiency is widely felt.
The search for better, for more competent men, from the
presidents of our great companies down to our household
servants, was never more vigorous than it is now. And more
than ever before is the demand for competent men in
excess of the supply.
What we are all looking for, however, is the readymade,
competent man; the man whom some one else has trained.
It is only when we fully realize that our duty, as well as our
opportunity, lies in systematically cooperating to train and
to make this competent man, instead of in hunting for a
man whom some one else has trained, that we shall be on
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Introduction
the road to national efficiency.
In the past the prevailing idea has been well expressed in
the saying that “Captains of industry are born, not made”;
and the theory has been that if one could get the right man,
methods could be safely left to him. In the future it will be
appreciated that our leaders must be trained right as well as
born right, and that no great man can (with the old system
of personal management) hope to compete with a number
of ordinary men who have been properly organized so as
efficiently to cooperate.
In the past the man has been first; in the future the system
must be first. This in no sense, however, implies that great
men are not needed. On the contrary, the first object of any
good system must be that of developing first-class men;
and under systematic management the best man rises to
the top more certainly and more rapidly than ever before.
This paper has been written:
First. To point out, through a series of simple illustrations,
the great loss which the whole country is suffering through
inefficiency in almost all of our daily acts.
Second. To try to convince the reader that the remedy for
this inefficiency lies in systematic management, rather than
in searching for some unusual or extraordinary man.
Third. To prove that the best management is a true science,
resting upon clearly defined laws, rules, and principles, as a
foundation. And further to show that the fundamental
principles of scientific management are applicable to all
kinds of human activities, from our simplest individual acts
to the work of our great corporations, which call for the
most elaborate cooperation. And, briefly, through a series of
illustrations, to convince the reader that whenever these
principles are correctly applied, results must follow which
are truly astounding.
This paper was originally prepared for presentation to the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The illustrations
chosen are such as, it is believed, will especially appeal to
engineers and to managers of industrial and manufacturing
establishments, and also quite as much to all of the men
who are working in these establishments. It is hoped,
however, that it will be clear to other readers that the same
principles can be applied with equal force to all social
activities: to the management of our homes; the
management of our farms; the management of the business
of our tradesmen, large and small; of our churches, our
philanthropic institutions our universities, and our
governmental departments.
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Introduction
Go to: Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2
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Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Scientific Management
THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
by Frederick W. Taylor
Introduction
Chapter 1:
Fundamentals of
Scientific Management
Chapter 2:
The Principles of
Scientific Management
Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Scientific Management
The principal object of management should be to secure the
maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the
maximum prosperity for each employee.
The words “maximum prosperity” are used, in their broad
sense, to mean not only large dividends for the company or
owner, but the development of every branch of the business
to its highest state of excellence, so that the prosperity may
be permanent. In the same way maximum prosperity for
each employee means not only higher wages than are
usually received by men of his class, but, of more
importance still, it also means the development of each man
to his state of maximum efficiency, so that he may be able
to do, generally speaking, the highest grade of work for
which his natural abilities fit him, and it further means
giving him, when possible, this class of work to do.
It would seem to be so self-evident that maximum
prosperity for the employer, coupled with maximum
prosperity for the employee, ought to be the two leading
objects of management, that even to state this fact should
be unnecessary. And yet there is no question that,
throughout the industrial world, a large part of the
organization of employers, as well as employees, is for war
rather than for peace, and that perhaps the majority on
either side do not believe that it is possible so to arrange
their mutual relations that their interests become identical.
The majority of these men believe that the fundamental
interests of employees and employers are necessarily
antagonistic. Scientific management, on the contrary, has
for its very foundation the firm conviction that the true
interests of the two are one and the same; that prosperity
for the employer cannot exist through a long term of years
unless it is accompanied by prosperity for the employee,
and vice versa; and that it is possible to give the workman
what he most wants–high wages–and the employer what
he wants–a low labor cost–for his manufactures.
It is hoped that some at least of those who do not
sympathize with each of these objects may be led to modify
their views; that some employers, whose attitude toward
their workmen has been that of trying to get the largest
amount of work out of them for the smallest possible
wages, may be led to see that a more liberal policy toward
their men will pay them better; and that some of those
workmen who begrudge a fair and even a large profit to
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Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Scientific Management
their employers, and who feel that all of the fruits of their
labor should belong to them, and that those for whom they
work and the capital invested in the business are entitled to
little or nothing, may be led to modify these views.
No one can be found who will deny that in the case of any
single individual the greatest prosperity can exist only when
that individual has reached his highest state of efficiency;
that is, when he is turning out his largest daily output.
The truth of this fact is also perfectly clear in the case of
two men working together. To illustrate: if you and your
workman have become so skilful that you and he together
are making two pairs of, shoes in a day, while your
competitor and his workman are making only one pair, it is
clear that after selling your two pairs of shoes you can pay
your workman much higher wages than your competitor
who produces only one pair of shoes is able to pay his man,
and that there will still be enough money left over for you to
have a larger profit than your competitor.
In the case of a more complicated manufacturing
establishment, it should also be perfectly clear that the
greatest permanent prosperity for the workman, coupled
with the greatest prosperity for the employer, can be
brought about only when the work of the establishment is
done with the smallest combined expenditure of human
effort, plus nature’s resources, plus the cost for the use of
capital in the shape of machines, buildings, etc. Or, to state
the same thing in a different way: that the greatest
prosperity can exist only as the result of the greatest
possible productivity of the men and machines of the
establishment–that is, when each man and each machine
are turning out the largest possible output; because unless
your men and your machines are daily turning out more
work than others around you, it is clear that competition will
prevent your paying higher wages to your workmen than
are paid to those of your competitor. And what is true as to
the possibility of paying high wages in the case of two
companies competing close beside one another is also true
as to whole districts of the country and even as to nations
which are in competition. In a word, that maximum
prosperity can exist only as the result of maximum
productivity. Later in this paper illustrations will be given of
several companies which are earning large dividends and at
the same time paying from 30 per cent to 100 per cent
higher wages to their men than are paid to similar men
immediately around them, and with whose employers they
are in competition. These illustrations will cover different
types of work, from the most elementary to the most
complicated.
If the above reasoning is correct, it follows that the most
important object of both the workmen and the management
should be the training and development of each individual in
the establishment, so that he can do (at his fastest pace
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and with the maximum of efficiency) the highest class of
work for which his natural abilities fit him.
These principles appear to be so self-evident that many
men may think it almost childish to state them. Let us,
however, turn to the facts, as they actually exist in this
country and in England. The English and American peoples
are the greatest sportsmen in the world. Whenever an
American workman plays baseball, or an English workman
plays cricket, it is safe to say that he strains every nerve to
secure victory for his side. He does his very best to make
the largest possible number of runs. The universal
sentiment is so strong that any man who fails to give out all
there is in him in sport is branded as a “quitter,” and
treated with contempt by those who are around him.
When the same workman returns to work on the following
day, instead of using every effort to turn out the largest
possible amount of work, in a majority of the cases this
man deliberately plans to do as little as he safely can to
turn out far less work than he is well able to do in many
instances to do not more than one-third to one-half of a
proper day’s work. And in fact if he were to do his best to
turn out his largest possible day’s work, he would be abused
by his fellow-workers for so doing, even more than if he had
proved himself a “quitter” in sport. Under working, that is,
deliberately working slowly so as to avoid doing a full day’s
work, “soldiering,” as it is called in this country, “hanging it
out,” as it is called in England, “ca canae,” as it is called in
Scotland, is almost universal in industrial establishments,
and prevails also to a large extent in the building trades;
and the writer asserts without fear of contradiction that this
constitutes the greatest evil with which the working-people
of both England and America are now afflicted.
It will be shown later in this paper that doing away with
slow working and “soldiering” in all its forms and so
arranging the relations between employer and employs that
each workman will work to his very best advantage and at
his best speed, accompanied by the intimate cooperation
with the management and the help (which the workman
should receive) from the management, would result on the
average in nearly doubling the output of each man and each
machine. What other reforms, among those which are being
discussed by these two nations, could do as much toward
promoting prosperity, toward the diminution of poverty, and
the alleviation of suffering? America and England have been
recently agitated over such subjects as the tariff, the control
of the large corporations on the one hand, and of hereditary
power on the other hand, and over various more or less
socialistic proposals for taxation, etc. On these subjects
both peoples have been profoundly stirred, and yet hardly a
voice has been raised to call attention to this vastly greater
and more important subject of “soldiering,” which directly
and powerfully affects the wages, the prosperity, and the
life of almost every working-man, and also quite as much
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the prosperity of every industrial, establishment in the
nation.
The elimination of “soldiering” and of the several causes of
slow working would so lower the cost of production that
both our home and foreign markets would be greatly
enlarged, and we could compete on more than even terms
with our rivals. It would remove one of the fundamental
causes for dull times, for lack of employment, and for
poverty, and therefore would have a more permanent and
far-reaching effect upon these misfortunes than any of the
curative remedies that are now being used to soften their
consequences. It would insure higher wages and make
shorter working hours and better working and home
conditions possible.
Why is it, then, in the face of the self-evident fact that
maximum prosperity can exist only as the result of the
determined effort of each workman to turn out each day his
largest possible day’s work, that the great majority of our
men are deliberately doing just the opposite, and that even
when the men have the best of intentions their work is in
most cases far from efficient?
There are three causes for this condition, which may be
briefly summarized as:
First. The fallacy, which has from time immemorial been
almost universal among workmen, that a material increase
in the output of each man or each machine in the trade
would result in the end in throwing a large number of men
out of work.
Second. The defective systems of management which are in
common use, and which make it necessary for each
workman to soldier, or work slowly, in order that he may
protect his own best interests.
Third. The inefficient rule-of-thumb methods, which are still
almost universal in all trades, and in practicing which our
workmen waste a large part of their effort.
This paper will attempt to show the enormous gains which
would result from the substitution by our workmen of
scientific for rule-of-thumb methods.
To explain a little more fully these three causes:
First. The great majority of workmen still believe that if they
were to work at their best speed they would be doing a
great injustice to the whole trade by throwing a lot of men
out of work, and yet the history of the development of each
trade shows that each improvement, whether it be the
invention of a new machine or the introduction of a better
method, which results in increasing the productive capacity
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of the men in the trade and cheapening the costs, instead of
throwing men out of work make in the end work for more
men.
The cheapening of any article in common use almost
immediately results in a largely increased demand for that
article. Take the case of shoes, for instance. The
introduction of machinery for doing every element of the
work which was formerly done by hand has resulted in
making shoes at a fraction of their former labor cost, and in
selling them so cheap that now almost every man, woman,
and child in the working-classes buys one or two pairs of
shoes per year, and wears shoes all the time, whereas
formerly each workman bought perhaps one pair of shoes
every five years, and went barefoot most of the time,
wearing shoes only as a luxury or as a matter of the
sternest necessity. In spite of the enormously increased
output of shoes per workman, which has come with shoe
machinery, the demand for shoes has so increased that
there are relatively more men working in the shoe industry
now than ever before.
The workmen in almost every trade have before them an
object lesson of this kind, and yet, because they are
ignorant of the history of their own trade even, they still
firmly believe, as their fathers did before them, that it is
against their best interests for each man to turn out each
day as much work as possible.
Under this fallacious idea a large proportion of the workmen
of both countries each day deliberately work slowly so as to
curtail the output. Almost every labor union has made, or is
contemplating making, rules which have for their object ‘
curtailing the output of their members, and those men who
have the greatest influence with the working-people, the
labor leaders as well as many people with philanthropic
feelings who are helping them, are daily spreading this
fallacy and at the same time telling them that they are
overworked.
A great deal has been and is being constantly said about
“sweat-shop” work and conditions. The writer has great
sympathy with those who are overworked, but on the whole
a greater sympathy for those who are under paid. For every
individual, however, who is overworked, there are a
hundred who intentionally under work–greatly under work–
every day of their lives, and who for this reason deliberately
aid in establishing those conditions which in the end
inevitably result in low wages. And yet hardly a single voice
is being raised in an endeavor to correct this evil.
As engineers and managers, we are more intimately
acquainted with these facts than any other class in the
community, and are therefore best fitted to lead in a
movement to combat this fallacious idea by educating not
only the workmen but the whole of the country as to the
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true facts. And yet we are practically doing nothing in this
direction, and are leaving this field entirely in the hands of
the labor agitators (many of whom are misinformed and
misguided), and of sentimentalists who are ignorant as to
actual working conditions.
Second. As to the second cause for soldiering–the relations
which exist between employers and employees under
almost all of the systems of management which are in
common use–it is impossible in a few words to make it
clear to one not familiar with this problem why it is that the
ignorance of employers as to the proper time in which work
of various kinds should be done makes it for the interest of
the workman to “soldier.”
The writer therefore quotes herewith from a paper read
before The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, in
June, 1903, entitled “Shop Management,” which it is hoped
will explain fully this cause for soldiering:
“This loafing or soldiering proceeds from two causes. First,
from the natural instinct and tendency of men to take it
easy, which may be called natural soldiering. Second, from
more intricate second thought and reasoning caused by
their relations with other men, which may be called
systematic soldiering.”
“There is no question that the tendency of the average man
(in all walks of life) is toward working at a slow, easy gait,
and that it is only after a good deal of thought and
observation on his part or as a result of example,
conscience, or external pressure that he takes a more rapid
pace.”
“There are, of course, men of unusual energy, vitality, and
ambition who naturally choose the fastest gait, who set up
their own standards, and who work hard, even though it
may be against their best interests. But these few
uncommon men only serve by forming a contrast to
emphasize the tendency of the average.”
“This common tendency to ‘take it easy’ is greatly increased
by bringing a number of men together on similar work and
at a uniform standard rate of pay by the day.”
“Under this plan the better men gradually but surely slow
down their gait to that of the poorest and least efficient.
When a naturally energetic man works for a few days beside
a lazy one, the logic of the situation is unanswerable.”
“Why should I work hard when that lazy fellow gets the
same pay that I do and does only half as much work?”
“A careful time study of men working under these conditions
will disclose facts which are ludicrous as well as pitiable.”
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“To illustrate: The writer has timed a naturally energetic
workman who, while going and coming from work, would
walk at a speed of from three to four miles per hour, and
not infrequently trot home after a day’s work. On arriving at
his work he would immediately slow down to a speed of
about one mile an hour. When, for example, wheeling a
loaded wheelbarrow, he would go at a good fast pace even
up hill in order to be as short a time as possible under load,
and immediately on the return walk slow down to a mile an
hour, improving every opportunity for delay short of
actually sitting down. In order to be sure not to do more
than his lazy neighbor, he would actually tire himself in his
effort to go slow.”
“These men were working under a foreman of good
reputation and highly thought of by his employer, who,
when his attention was called to this state of things,
answered: ‘Well, I can keep them from sitting down, but the
devil can’t make them get a move on while they are at
work.'”
“The natural laziness of men is serious, but by far the
greatest evil from which both workmen and employers are
suffering is the systematic soldiering which is almost
universal under all of the ordinary schemes of management
and which results from a careful study on the part of the
workmen of what will promote their best interests.”
“The writer was much interested recently in hearing one
small but experienced golf caddy boy of twelve explaining to
a green caddy, who had shown special energy and interest,
the necessity of going slow and lagging behind his man
when he came up to the ball, showing him that since they
were paid by the hour, the faster they went the less money
they got, and finally telling him that if he went too fast the
other boys would give him a licking.”
“This represents a type of systematic soldiering which is
not, however, very serious, since it is done with the
knowledge of the employer, who can quite easily break it up
if he wishes.”
“The greater part of the systematic soldiering, however, is
done by the men with the deliberate object of keeping their
employers ignorant of how fast work can be done.”
“So universal is soldiering for this purpose that hardly a
competent workman can be found in a large establishment,
whether he works by the day or on piece work, contract
work, or under any of the ordinary systems, who does not
devote a considerable part of his time to studying just how
slow he can work and still convince his employer that he is
going at a good pace.”
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“The causes for this are, briefly, that practically all
employers determine upon a maximum sum which they feel
it is right for each of their classes of employees to earn per
day, whether their men work by the day or piece.”
“Each workman soon finds out about what this figure is for
his particular case, and he also realizes that when his
employer is convinced that a man is capable of doing more
work than he has done, he will find sooner or later some
way of compelling him to do it with little or no increase of
pay.”
“Employers derive their knowledge of how much of a given
class of work can be done in a day from either their own
experience, which has frequently grown hazy with age, from
casual and unsystematic observation of their men, or at
best from records which are kept, showing the quickest time
in which each job has been done. In many cases the
employer will feel almost certain that a given job can be
done faster than it has been, but he rarely cares to take the
drastic measures necessary to force men to do it in the
quickest time, unless he has an actual record proving
conclusively how fast the work can be done.”
“It evidently becomes for each man’s interest, then, to see
that no job is done faster than it has been in the past. The
younger and less experienced men are taught this by their
elders, and all possible persuasion and social pressure is
brought to bear upon the greedy and selfish men to keep
them from making new records which result in temporarily
increasing their wages, while all those who come after them
are made to work harder for the same old pay.”
“Under the best day work of the ordinary type, when
accurate records are kept of the amount of work done by
each man and of his efficiency, and when each man’s wages
are raised as he improves, and those who fail to rise to a
certain standard are discharged and a fresh supply of
carefully selected men are given work in their places, both
the natural loafing and systematic soldiering can be largely
broken up. This can only be done, however, when the men
are thoroughly convinced that there is no intention of
establishing piece work even in the remote future, and it is
next to impossible to make men believe this when the work
is of such a nature that they believe piece work to be
practicable. In most cases their fear of making a record
which will be used as a basis for piece work will cause them
to soldier as much as they dare.”
“It is, however, under piece work that the art of systematic
soldiering is thoroughly developed; after a workman has
had the price per piece of the work he is doing lowered two
or three times as a result of his having worked harder and
increased his output, he is likely entirely to lose sight of his
employer’s side of the case and become imbued with a grim
determination to have no more cuts if soldiering can
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prevent it. Unfortunately for the character of the workman,
soldiering involves a deliberate attempt to mislead and
deceive his employer, and thus upright and straightforward
workmen are compelled to become more or less
hypocritical. The employer is soon looked upon as an
antagonist, if not an enemy, and the mutual confidence
which should exist between a leader and his men, the
enthusiasm, the feeling that they are all working for the
same end and will share in the results is entirely lacking.
“The feeling of antagonism under the ordinary piece-work
system becomes in many cases so marked on the part of
the men that any proposition made by their employers,
however reasonable, is looked upon with suspicion, and
soldiering becomes such a fixed habit that men will
frequently take pains to restrict the product of machines
which they are running when even a large increase in
output would involve no more work on their part.”
Third. As to the third cause for slow work, considerable
space will later in this paper be devoted to illustrating the
great gain, both to employers and employees, which results
from the substitution of scientific for rule-of-thumb methods
in even the smallest details of the work of every trade. The
enormous saving of time and therefore increase in the
output which it is possible to effect through eliminating
unnecessary motions and substituting fast for slow and
inefficient motions for the men working in any of our trades
can be fully realized only after one has personally seen the
improvement which results from a thorough motion and
time study, made by a competent man.
To explain briefly: owing to the fact that the workmen in all
of our trades have been taught the details of their work by
observation of those immediately around them, there are
many different ways in common use for doing the same
thing, perhaps forty, fifty, or a hundred ways of doing each
act in each trade, and for the same reason there is a great
variety in the implements used for each class of work. Now,
among the various methods and implements used in each
element of each trade there is always one method and one
implement which is quicker and better than any of the rest.
And this one best method and best implement can only be
discovered or developed through a scientific study and
analysis of all of the methods and implements in use,
together with accurate, minute, motion and time study. This
involves the gradual substitution of science for rule of
thumb throughout the mechanic arts.
This paper will show that the underlying philosophy of all of
the old systems of management in common use makes it
imperative that each workman shall be left with the final
responsibility for doing his job practically as he thinks best,
with comparatively little help and advice from the
management. And it will also show that because of this
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isolation of workmen, it is in most cases impossible for the
men working under these systems to do their work in
accordance with the rules and laws of a science or art, even
where one exists.
The writer asserts as a general principle (and he proposes
to give illustrations tending to prove the fact later in this
paper) that in almost all of the mechanic arts the science
which underlies each act of each workman is so great and
amounts to so much that the workman who is best suited to
actually doing the work is incapable of fully understanding
this science, without the guidance and help of those who
are working with him or over him, either through lack of
education or through insufficient mental capacity. In order
that the work may be done in accordance with scientific
laws, it is necessary that there shall be a far more equal
division of the responsibility between the management and
the workmen than exists under any of the ordinary types of
management. Those in the management whose duty it is to
develop this science should also guide and help the
workman in working under it, and should assume a much
larger share of the responsibility for results than under
usual conditions is assumed by the management.
The body of this paper will make it clear that, to work
according to scientific laws, the management must take
over and perform much of the work which is now left to the
men; almost every act of the workman should be preceded
by one or more preparatory acts of the management which
enable him to do his work better and quicker than he
otherwise could. And each man should daily be taught by
and receive the most friendly help from those who are over
him, instead of being, at the one extreme, driven or coerced
by his bosses, and at the other left to his own unaided
devices.
This close, intimate, personal cooperation between the
management and the men is of the essence of modern
scientific or task management.
It will be shown by a series of practical illustrations that,
through this friendly cooperation, namely, through sharing
equally in every day’s burden, all of the great obstacles
(above described) to obtaining the maximum output for
each man and each machine in the establishment are swept
away. The\ 30 per cent to 100 per cent increase in wages
which the workmen are able to earn beyond what they
receive under the old type of management, coupled with the
daily intimate shoulder to shoulder contact with the
management, entirely removes all cause for soldiering. And
in a few years, under this system, the workmen have before
them the object lesson of seeing that a great increase in the
output per man results in giving employment to more men,
instead of throwing men out of work, thus completely
eradicating the fallacy that a larger output for each man will
throw other men out of work.
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Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Scientific Management
It is the writer’s judgment, then, that while much can be
done and should be done by writing and talking toward
educating not only workmen, but all classes in the
community, as to the importance of obtaining the maximum
output of each man and each machine, it is only through
the adoption of modern scientific management that this
great problem can be finally solved. Probably most of the
readers of this paper will say that all of this is mere theory.
On the contrary, the theory, or philosophy, of scientific
management is just beginning to be understood, whereas
the management itself has been a gradual evolution,
extending over a period of nearly thirty years. And during
this time the employees of one company after another,
including a large range and diversity of industries, have
gradually changed from the ordinary to the scientific type of
management. At least 50,000 workmen in the United States
are now employed under this system; and they are
receiving from 30 per cent to 100 per cent higher wages
daily than are paid to men of similar caliber with whom they
are surrounded, while the companies employing them are
more prosperous than ever before. In these companies the
output, per man and per machine, has on an average been
doubled. During all these years there has never been a
single strike among the men working under this system. In
place of the suspicious watchfulness and the more or less
open warfare which characterizes the ordinary types of
management, there is universally friendly cooperation
between the management and the men.
Several papers have been written, describing the expedients
which have been adopted and the details which have been
developed under scientific management and the steps to be
taken in changing from the ordinary to the scientific type.
But unfortunately most of the readers of these papers have
mistaken the mechanism for the true essence. Scientific
management fundamentally consists of certain broad
general principles, a certain philosophy, which can be
applied in many ways, and a description of what any one
man or men may believe to be the best mechanism for
applying these general principles should in no way be
confused with the principles themselves.
It is not here claimed that any single panacea exists for all
of the troubles of the working-people or of employers. As
long as some people are born lazy or inefficient, and others
are born greedy and brutal, as long as vice and crime are
with us, just so long will a certain amount of poverty,
misery, and unhappiness be with us Also. No system of
management, no single expedient–within the control of any
man or any set of men can insure continuous prosperity to
either workmen or employers. Prosperity depends upon so
many factors entirely beyond the control of any one set of
men, any state, or even any one country, that certain
periods will inevitably come when both sides must suffer,
more or less. It is claimed, however, that under scientific
management the intermediate periods will be far more
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prosperous, far happier, and more free from discord and
dissension. And also, that the periods will be fewer, shorter
and the suffering less. And this will be particularly true in
any one town, any one section of the country, or any one
state which first substitutes the principles of scientific
management for the rule of thumb.
That these principles are certain to come into general use
practically throughout the civilized world, sooner or later,
the writer is profoundly convinced, and the sooner they
come the better for all the people.
Go to: Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2
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Chapter 2: The Principles of Scientific Management
THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
by Frederick W. Taylor
Introduction
Chapter 1:
Fundamentals of
Scientific Management
Chapter 2:
The Principles of
Scientific Management
Chapter 2: The Principles of Scientific Management
The writer has found that there are three questions
uppermost in the minds of men when they become
interested in scientific management.
First. Wherein do the principles of scientific management
differ essentially from those of ordinary management?
Second. Why are better results attained under scientific
management than under the other types?
Third. Is not the most important problem that of getting the
right man at the head of the company? And if you have the
right man cannot the choice of the type of management be
safely left to him?
One of the principal objects of the following pages will be to
give a satisfactory answer to these questions.
THE FINEST TYPE OF ORDINARY MANAGEMENT
Before starting to illustrate the principles of scientific
management, or “task management” as it is briefly called, it
seems desirable to outline what the writer believes will be
recognized as the best type of management which is in
common use. This is done So that the great difference
between the best of the ordinary management and scientific
management may be fully appreciated.
In an industrial establishment which employs say from 500
to 1000 workmen, there will be found in many cases at
least twenty to thirty different trades. The workmen in each
of these trades have had their knowledge handed down to
them by word of mouth, through the many years in which
their trade has been developed from the primitive condition,
in which our far-distant ancestors each one practiced the
rudiments of many different trades, to the present state of
great and growing subdivision of labor, in which each man
specializes upon some comparatively small class of work.
The ingenuity of each generation has developed quicker and
better methods for doing every element of the work in
every trade. Thus the methods which are now in use may in
a broad sense be said to be an evolution representing the
survival of the fittest and best of the ideas which have been
developed since the starting of each trade. However, while
this is true in a broad sense, only those who are intimately
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Chapter 2: The Principles of Scientific Management
acquainted with each of these trades are fully aware of the
fact that in hardly any element of any trade is there
uniformity in the methods which are used. Instead of having
only one way which is generally accepted as a standard,
there are in daily use, say, fifty or a hundred different ways
of doing each element of the work. And a little thought will
make it clear that this must inevitably be the case, since our
methods have been handed down from man to man by word
of mouth, or have, in most cases, been almost
unconsciously learned through personal observation.
Practically in no instances have they been codified or
systematically analyzed or described. The ingenuity and
experience of each generation–of each decade, even, have
without doubt handed over better methods to the next. This
mass of rule-of-thumb or traditional knowledge may be said
to be the principal asset or possession of every tradesman.
Now, in the best of the ordinary types of management, the
managers recognize frankly the fact that the 500 or 1000
workmen, included in the twenty to thirty trades, who are
under them, possess this mass of traditional knowledge, a
large part of which is not in the possession of the
management. The management, of course, includes
foremen and superintendents, who themselves have been in
most cases first-class workers at their trades. And yet these
foremen and superintendents know, better than any one
else, that their own knowledge and personal skill falls far
short of the combined knowledge and dexterity of all the
workmen under them. The most experienced managers
therefore frankly place before their workmen the problem of
doing the work in the best and most economical way. They
recognize the task before them as that of inducing each
workman to use his best endeavors, his hardest work, all
his traditional knowledge, his skill, his ingenuity, and his
good-will–in a word, his “initiative,” so as to yield the
largest possible return to his employer. The problem before
the management, then, may be briefly said to be that of
obtaining the best initiative of every workman. And the
writer uses the word “initiative” in its broadest sense, to
cover all of the good qualities sought for from the men.
On the other hand, no intelligent manager would hope to
obtain in any full measure the initiative of his workmen
unless he felt that he was giving them something more than
they usually receive from their employers. Only those
among the readers of this paper who have been managers
or who have worked themselves at a trade realize how far
the average workman falls short of giving his employer his
full initiative. It is well within the mark to state that in
nineteen out of twenty industrial establishments the
workmen believe it to be directly against their interests to
give their employers their best initiative, and that instead of
working hard to do the largest possible amount of work and
the best quality of work for their employers, they
deliberately work as slowly as they dare while they at the
same time try to make those over them believe that they
are working fast.
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Chapter 2: The Principles of Scientific Management
The writer repeats, therefore, that in order to have any
hope of obtaining the initiative of his workmen the manager
must give some special incentive to his men beyond that
which is given to the average of the trade. This incentive
can be given in several different ways, as, for example, the
hope of rapid promotion or advancement; higher wages,
either in the form of generous piece-work prices or of a
premium or bonus of some kind for good and rapid work;
shorter hours of labor; better surroundings and working
conditions than are ordinarily given, etc., and, above all,
this special incentive should be accompanied by that
personal consideration for, and friendly contact with, his
workmen which comes only from a genuine and kindly
interest in the welfare of those under him. It is only by
giving a special inducement or “incentive” of this kind that
the employer can hope even approximately to get the
“initiative” of his workmen. Under the ordinary type of
management the necessity for offering the workman a
special inducement has come to be so generally recognized
that a large proportion of those most interested in the
subject look upon the adoption of some one of the modern
schemes for paying men (such as piece work, the premium
plan, or the bonus plan, for instance) as practically the
whole system of management. Under scientific
management, however, the particular pay system which is
adopted is merely one of the subordinate elements.
Broadly speaking, then, the best type of management in
ordinary use may be defined as management in which the
workmen give their best initiative and in return receive
some special incentive from their employers. This type of
management will be referred to as the management of
“initiative and incentive” in contradistinction to scientific
management, or task management, with which it is to be
compared.
The writer hopes that the management of “initiative and
incentive” will be recognized as representing the best type
in ordinary use, and in fact he believes that it will be hard to
persuade the average manager that anything better exists
in the whole field than this type. The task which the writer
has before him, then, is the difficult one of trying to prove
in a thoroughly convincing way that there is another type of
management which is not only better but overwhelmingly
better than the management of “initiative and incentive.”
The universal prejudice in favor of the management of
“initiative and incentive” is so strong that no mere
theoretical advantages which can be pointed out will be
likely to convince the average manager that any other
system is better. It will be upon a series of practical
illustrations of the actual working of the two systems that
the writer will depend in his efforts to prove that scientific
management is so greatly superior to other types. Certain
elementary principles, a certain philosophy, will however be
recognized as the essence of that which is being illustrated
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in all of the practical examples which will be given. And the
broad principles in which the scientific system differs from
the ordinary or “rule-of-thumb” system are so simple in
their nature that it seems desirable to describe them before
starting with the illustrations.
Under the old type of management success depends almost
entirely upon getting the “initiative” of the workmen, and it
is indeed a rare case in which this initiative is really
attained. Under scientific management the “initiative” of the
workmen (that is, their hard work, their good-will, and their
ingenuity) is obtained with absolute uniformity and to a
greater extent than is possible under the old system; and in
addition to this improvement on the part of the men, the
managers assume new burdens, new duties, and
responsibilities never dreamed of in the past. The managers
assume, for instance, the burden of gathering together all of
the traditional knowledge which in the past has been
possessed by the workmen and then of classifying,
tabulating, and reducing this knowledge to rules, laws, and
formulae which are immensely helpful to the workmen in
doing their daily work. In addition to developing a science in
this way, the management take on three other types of
duties which involve new and heavy burdens for themselves.
These new duties are grouped under four heads:
First. They develop a science for each element of a man’s
work, which replaces the old rule-of.-thumb method.
Second. They scientifically select and then train, teach, and
develop the workman, whereas in the past he chose his own
work and trained himself as best he could.
Third. They heartily cooperate with the men so as to insure
all of the work being done in accordance with the principles
of the science which has been developed.
Fourth. There is an almost equal division of the work and
the responsibility between the management and the
workmen. The management take over all work for which
they are better fitted than the workmen, while in the past
almost all of the work and the greater part of the
responsibility were thrown upon the men.
It is this combination of the initiative of the workmen,
coupled with the new types of work done by the
management, that makes scientific management so much
more efficient than the old plan.
Three of these elements exist in many cases, under the
management of “initiative and incentive,” in a small and
rudimentary way, but they are, under this management, of
minor importance, whereas under scientific management
they form the very essence of the whole system.
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The fourth of these elements, “an almost equal division of
the responsibility between the management and the
workmen,” requires further explanation. The philosophy of
the management of initiative and incentive makes it
necessary for each workman to bear almost the entire
responsibility for the general plan as well as for each detail
of his work, and in many cases for his implements as well.
In addition to this he must do all of the actual physical
labor. The development of a science, on the other hand,
involves the establishment of many rules, laws, and
formulae which replace the judgment of the individual
workman and which can be effectively used only after
having been systematically recorded, indexed, etc. The
practical use of scientific data also calls for a room in which
to keep the books, records, etc., and a desk for the planner
to work at.
Thus all of the planning which under the old system was
done by the workman, as a result of his personal
experience, must of necessity under the new system be
done by the management in accordance with the laws of the
science; because even if the workman was well suited to
the development and use of scientific data, it would be
physically impossible for him to work at his machine and at
a desk at the same time. It is also clear that in most cases
one type of man is needed to plan ahead and an entirely
different type to execute the work.
The man in the planning room, whose specialty under
scientific management is planning ahead, invariably finds
that the work can be done better and more economically by
a subdivision of the labor; each act of each mechanic, for
example, should. be preceded by various preparatory acts
done by other men. And all of this involves, as we have
said, “an almost equal division of the responsibility and the
work between the management and the workman.”
To summarize: Under the management of “initiative and
incentive” practically the whole problem is “up to the
workman,” while under scientific management fully one-half
of the problem is “up to the management.”
Perhaps the most prominent single element in modern
scientific management is the task idea. The work of every
workman is fully planned out by the management at least
one day in advance, and each man receives in most cases
complete written instructions, describing in detail the task
which he is to accomplish, as well as the means to be used
in doing the work. And the work planned in advance in this
way constitutes a task which is to be solved, as explained
above, not by the workman alone, but in almost all cases by
the joint effort of the workman and the management. This
task specifies not only what is to be done but how it is to be
done and the exact time allowed for doing it. And whenever
the workman succeeds in doing his task right, and within
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the time limit specified, he receives an addition of from 30
per cent to 100 per cent to his ordinary wages. These tasks
are carefully planned, so that both good and careful work
are called for in their performance, but it should be
distinctly understood that in no case is the workman called
upon to work at a pace which would be injurious to his
health. The task is always so regulated that the man who is
well suited to his job will thrive while working at this rate
during a long term of years and grow happier and more
prosperous, instead of being overworked. Scientific
management consists very largely in preparing for and
carrying out these tasks.
The writer is fully aware that to perhaps most of the readers
of this paper the four elements which differentiate the new
management from the old will at first appear to be merely
high-sounding phrases; and he would again repeat that he
has no idea of convincing the reader of their value merely
through announcing their existence. His hope of carrying
conviction rests upon demonstrating the tremendous force
and effect of these four elements through a series of
practical illustrations. It will be shown, first, that they can
be applied absolutely to all classes of work, from the most
elementary to the most intricate; and second, that when
they are applied, the results must of necessity be
overwhelmingly greater than those which it is possible to
attain under the management of initiative and incentive.
The first illustration is that of handling pig iron, and this
work is chosen because it is typical of perhaps the crudest
and most elementary form of labor which is performed by
man. This work is done by men with no other implements
than their hands. The pig-iron handler stoops down, picks
up a pig weighing about 92 pounds, walks for a few feet or
yards and then drops it on to the ground or upon a pile.
This work is so crude and elementary in its nature that the
writer firmly believes that it would be possible to train an
intelligent, gorilla so as to become a more efficient pig-iron
handler than any man can be. Yet it will be shown that the
science of handling pig iron is so great and amounts to so
much that it is impossible for the man who is best suited to
this type of work to understand the principles of this
science, or even to work in accordance with these principles
without the aid of a man better educated than he is. And
the further illustrations to be given will make it clear that in
almost all of the mechanic arts the science which underlies
each workman’s act is so great and amounts to so much
that the workman who is best suited actually to do the work
is incapable (either through lack of education or through
insufficient mental capacity) of understanding this science.
This is announced as a general principle, the truth of which
will become apparent as one illustration after another is
given. After showing these four elements in the handling of
pig iron, several illustrations will be given of their
application to different kinds of work in the field of the
mechanic arts, at intervals in a rising scale, beginning with
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the simplest and ending with the more intricate forms of
labor.
One of the first pieces of work undertaken by us, when the
writer started to introduce scientific management into the
Bethlehem Steel Company, was to handle pig iron on task
work. The opening of the Spanish War found some 80,000
tons of pig iron placed in small piles in an open field
adjoining the works. Prices for pig iron had been so low that
it could not be sold at a profit, and it therefore had been
stored. With the opening of the Spanish War the price of pig
iron rose, and this large accumulation of iron was sold. This
gave us a good opportunity to show the workmen, as well
as the owners and managers of the works, on a fairly large
scale the advantages of task work over the old-fashioned
day work and piece work, in doing a very elementary class
of work.
The Bethlehem Steel Company had five blast furnaces, the
product of which had been handled by a pig-iron gang for
many years. This gang, at this time, consisted of about 75
men. They were good, average pig-iron handlers, were
under an excellent foreman who himself had been a pig-iron
handler, and the work was done, on the whole, about as
fast and as cheaply as it was anywhere else at that time.
A railroad switch was run out into the field, right along the
edge of the piles of pig iron. An inclined plank was placed
against the side of a car, and each man picked up from his
pile a pig of iron weighing about 92 pounds, walked up the
inclined plank and dropped it on the end of the car.
We found that this gang were loading on the average about
12 and a half long tons per man per day. We were surprised
to find, after studying the matter, that a first-class pig-iron
handler ought to handle between 47, and 48 long tons per
day, instead of 12 and a half tons. This task seemed to us
so very large that we were obliged to go over our work
several times before we were absolutely sure that we were
right. Once we were sure, however, that 47 tons was a
proper day’s work for a first-class pig-iron handler, the task
which faced us as managers under the modern scientific
plan was clearly before us. It was our duty to see that the
80,000 tons of pig iron was loaded on to the cars at the rate
of 47 tons per man per day, in place of 12 and a half tons,
at which rate the work was then being done. And it was
further our duty to see that this work was done without
bringing on a strike among the men, without any quarrel
with the men, and to see that the men were happier and
better contented when loading at the new rate of 47 tons
than they were when loading at the old rate of 12 and a half
tons.
Our first step was the scientific selection of the workman. In
dealing with workmen under this type of management, it is
an inflexible rule to talk to and deal with only one man at a
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time, since each workman has his own special abilities and
limitations, and since we are not dealing with men in
masses, but are trying to develop each individual man to his
highest state of efficiency and prosperity. Our first step was
to find the proper workman to begin with. We therefore
carefully watched and studied these 75 men for three or
four days, at the end of which time we had picked out four
men who appeared to be physically able to handle pig iron
at the rate of 47 tons per day. A careful study was then
made of each of these men. We looked up their history as
far back as practicable and thorough inquiries were made as
to the character, habits, and the ambition of each of them.
Finally we selected one from among the four as the most
likely man to start with. He was a little Pennsylvania
Dutchman who had been observed to trot back home for a
mile or so after his work in the evening about as fresh as he
was when he came trotting down to work in the morning.
We found that upon wages of $1.15 a day he had succeeded
in buying a small plot of ground, and that he was engaged
in putting up the walls of a little house for himself in the
morning before starting to work and at night after leaving.
He also had the reputation of being exceedingly “close,”
that is, of placing a very high value on a dollar. As one man
whom we talked to about him said, “A penny looks about
the size of a cart-wheel to him.” This man we will call
Schmidt.
The task before us, then, narrowed itself down to getting
Schmidt to handle 47 tons of pig iron per day and making
him glad to do it. This was done as follows. Schmidt was
called out from among the gang of pig-iron handlers and
talked to somewhat in this way:
“Schmidt, are you a high-priced man?”
“Vell, I don’t know vat you mean.”
“Oh yes, you do. What I want to know is whether you are a
high-priced man or not.”
“Vell, I don’t know vat you mean.”
“Oh, come now, you answer my questions. What I want to
find out is whether you are a high-priced man or one of
these cheap fellows here. What I want to find out is whether
you want to earn $1.85 a day or whether you are satisfied
with $1.15, just the same as all those cheap fellows are
getting.”
“Did I vant $1.85 a day? Vas dot a high-priced man? Vell,
yes, I vas a high-priced man.”
“Oh, you’re aggravating me. Of course you want $1.85 a
day–every one wants it! You know perfectly well that that
has very little to do with your being a high-priced man. For
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goodness’ sake answer my questions, and don’t waste any
more of my time. Now come over here. You see that pile of
pig iron?”
“Yes.”
“You see that car?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if you are a high-priced man, you will load that pig
iron on that car tomorrow for $1.85. Now do wake up and
answer my question. Tell me whether you are a high-priced
man or not.”
“Vell, did I got $1.85 for loading dot pig iron on dot car to-
morrow?”
“Yes, of course you do, and you get $1.85 for loading a pile
like that every day right through the year. That is what a
high-priced man does, and you know it just as well as I do.”
“Vell, dot’s all right. I could load dot pig iron on the car to-
morrow for $1.85, and I get it every day, don’t I?”
“Certainly you do–certainly you do.”
“Vell, den, I vas a high-priced man.”
“Now, hold on, hold on. You know just as well as I do that a
high-priced man has to do exactly as he’s told from morning
till night. You have seen this man here before, haven’t you?”
“No, I never saw him.”
“Well, if you are a high-priced man, you will do exactly as
this man tells you tomorrow, from morning till night. When
he tells you to pick up a pig and walk, you pick it up and
you walk, and when he tells you to sit down and rest, you
sit down. You do that right straight through the day. And
what’s more, no back talk. Now a high-priced man does just
what he’s told to do, and no back talk. Do you understand
that? When this man tells you to walk, you walk; when he
tells you to sit down, you sit down, and you don’t talk back
at him. Now you come on to work here to-morrow morning
and I’ll know before night whether you are really a high-
priced man or not.”
This seems to be rather rough talk. And indeed it would be
if applied to an educated mechanic, or even an intelligent
laborer. With a man of the mentally sluggish type of
Schmidt it is appropriate and not unkind, since it is effective
in fixing his attention on the high wages which he wants and
away from what, if it were called to his attention, he
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probably would consider impossibly hard work.
What would Schmidt’s answer be if he were talked to in a
manner which is usual under the management of “initiative
and incentive”? say, as follows:
“Now, Schmidt, you are a first-class pig-iron handler and
know your business well. You have been handling at the
rate of 12 and a half tons per day. I have given
considerable study to handling pig iron, and feel sure that
you could do a much larger day’s work than you have been
doing. Now don’t you think that if you really tried you could
handle 47 tons of pig iron per day, instead of 12 and a half
tons?”
What do you think Schmidt’s answer would be to this?
Schmidt started to work, and all day long, and at regular
intervals, was told by the man who stood over him with a
watch, “Now pick up a pig and walk. Now sit down and rest.
Now walk–now rest,” etc. He worked when he was told to
work, and rested when he was told to rest, and at half-past
five in the afternoon had his 47 and a half tons loaded on
the car. And he practically never failed to work at this pace
and do the task that was set him during the three years
that the writer was at Bethlehem. And throughout this time
he averaged a little more than $1.85 per day, whereas
before he had never received over $1.15 per day, which
was the ruling rate of wages at that time in Bethlehem. That
is, he received 60 per cent. higher wages than were paid to
other men who were not working on task work. One man
after another was picked out and trained to handle pig iron
at the rate of 47 and a half tons per day until all of the pig
iron was handled at this rate, and the men were receiving
60 per cent. more wages than other workmen around them.
The writer has given above a brief description of three of
the four elements which constitute the essence of scientific
management: first, the careful selection of the workman,
and, second and third, the method of first inducing and then
training and helping the workman to work according to the
scientific method. Nothing has as yet been said about the
science of handling pig iron. The writer trusts, however, that
before leaving this illustration the reader will be thoroughly
convinced that there is a science of handling pig iron, and
further that this science amounts to so much that the man
who is suited to handle pig iron cannot possibly understand
it, nor even work in accordance with the laws of this
science, without the help of those who are over him.
The writer came into the machine-shop of the Midvale Steel
Company in 1878, after having served an apprenticeship as
a pattern-maker and as a machinist. This was close to the
end of the long period of depression following the panic of
1873, and business was so poor that it was impossible for
many mechanics to get work at their trades. For this reason
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he was obliged to start as a day laborer instead of working
as a mechanic. Fortunately for him, soon after he came into
the shop the clerk of the shop was found stealing. There
was no one else available, and so, having more education
than the other laborers (since he had been prepared for
college) he was given the position of clerk. Shortly after this
he was given work as a machinist in running one of the
lathes, and, as he turned out rather more work than other
machinists were doing on similar lathes, after several
months was made gang boss over the lathes.
Almost all of the work of this shop had been done on piece
work for several years. As was usual then, and in fact as is
still usual in most of the shops in this country, the shop was
really run by the workmen, and not by the bosses. The
workmen together had carefully planned just how fast each
job should be done, and they had set a pace for each
machine throughout the shop, which was limited to about
one-third of a good day’s work. Every new workman who
came into the shop was told at once by the other men
exactly how much of each kind of work he was to do, and
unless he obeyed these instructions he was sure before long
to be driven out of the place by the men.
As soon as the writer was made gang-boss, one after
another of the men came to him and talked somewhat as
follows:
“Now, Fred we’re very glad to see that you’ve been made
gang-boss. You know the game all right, and we’re sure
that you’re not likely to be a piece-work hog. You come
along with us, and every-thing will be all right, but if you try
breaking any of these rates you can be mighty sure that
we’ll throw you over the fence.”
The writer told them plainly that he was now working on the
side of the management, and that he proposed to do
whatever he could to get a fair day’s work out of the lathes.
This immediately started a war; in most cases a friendly
war, because the men who were under him were his
personal friends, but none the less a war, which as time
went on grew more and more bitter. The writer used every
expedient to make them do a fair day’s work, such as
discharging or lowering the wages of the more stubborn
men who refused to make any improvement, and such as
lowering the piece-work price, hiring green men, and
personally teaching them bow to do the work, with the
promise from them that when they had learned how, they
would then do a fair day’s work. While the men constantly
brought such pressure to bear (both inside and outside the
works) upon all those who started to increase their output
that they were finally compelled to do about as the rest did,
or else quit. No one who has not had this experience can
have an idea of the bitterness which is gradually developed
in such a struggle. In a war of this kind the workmen have
one expedient which is usually effective. They use their
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ingenuity to contrive various ways in which the machines
which they are running are broken or damaged–apparently
by accident, or in the regular course of work–and this they
always lay at the door of the foreman, who has forced them
to drive the machine so hard that it is overstrained and is
being ruined. And there are few foremen indeed who are
able to stand up against the combined pressure of all of the
men in the shop. In this case the problem was complicated
by the fact that the shop ran both day and night.
The writer had two advantages, however, which are not
possessed by the ordinary foreman, and these came,
curiously enough, from the fact that he was not the son of a
working man.
First, owing to the fact that he happened not to be of
working parents, the owners of the company believed that
he had the interest of the works more at heart than the
other workmen, and they therefore had more confidence in
his word than they did in that of the machinists who were
under him. So that, when the machinists reported to the
Superintendent that the machines were being smashed up
because an incompetent foreman was overstraining them,
the Superintendent accepted the word of the writer when he
said that these men were deliberately breaking their
machines as a part of the piece-work war which was going
on, and he also allowed the writer to make the only
effective answer to this Vandalism on the part of the men,
namely: “There will be no more accidents to the machines
in this shop. If any part of a machine is broken the man in
charge of it must pay at least a part of the cost of its repair,
and the fines collected in this way will all be handed over to
the mutual beneficial association to help care for sick
workmen.” This soon stopped the willful breaking of
machines.
Second. If the writer had been one of the workmen, and
had lived where they lived, they would have brought such
social pressure to bear upon him that it would have been
impossible to have stood out against them. He would have
been called “scab” and other foul names every time he
appeared on the street, his wife would have been abused,
and his children would have been stoned. Once or twice he
was begged by some of his friends among the workmen not
to walk home, about two and a half miles along the lonely
path by the side of the railway. He was told that if he
continued to do this it would be at the risk of his life. In all
such cases, however, a display of timidity is apt to increase
rather than diminish the risk, so the writer told these men
to say to the other men in the shop that he proposed to
walk home every night right up that railway track; that he
never had carried and never would carry any weapon of any
kind, and that they could shoot and be d——.
After about three years of this kind of struggling, the output
of the machines had been materially increased, in many
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cases doubled, and as a result the writer had been
promoted from one gang-boss-ship to another until he
became foreman of the shop. For any right-minded man,
however, this success is in no sense a recompense for the
bitter relations which he is forced to maintain with all of
those around him. Life which is one continuous struggle
with other men is hardly worth living. His workman friends
came to him continually and asked him, in a personal,
friendly way, whether he would advise them, for their own
best interest, to turn out more work. And, as a truthful
man, he had to tell them that if he were in their place he
would fight against turning out any more work, just as they
were doing, because under the piece-work system they
would be allowed to earn no more wages than they had
been earning, and yet they would be made to work harder.
Soon after being made foreman, therefore, he decided to
make a determined effort to in some way change the
system of management, so that the interests of the
workmen and the management should become the same,
instead of antagonistic. This resulted, some three years
later, in the starting of the type of management which is
described in papers presented to the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers entitled “A Piece-Rate System” and
“Shop Management.”
In preparation for this system the writer realized that the
greatest obstacle to harmonious cooperation between the
workmen and the management lay in the ignorance of the
management as to what really constitutes a proper day’s
work for a workman. He fully realized that although he was
foreman of the shop, the combined knowledge and skill of
the workmen who were under him was certainly ten times
as great as his own. He therefore obtained the permission
of Mr. William Sellers, who was at that time the President of
the Midvale Steel Company, to spend some money in a
careful, scientific study of the time required to do various
kinds of work.
Mr. Sellers allowed this more as a reward for having, to a
certain extent, “made good” as foreman of the shop in
getting more work out of the men, than for any other
reason. He stated, however, that he did not believe that any
scientific study of this sort would give results of much value.
Among several investigations which were undertaken at this
time, one was an attempt to find some rule, or law, which
would enable a foreman to know in advance how much of
any kind of heavy laboring work a man who was well suited
to his job ought to do in a day; that is, to study the tiring
effect of heavy labor upon a first-class man. Our first step
was to employ a young college graduate to look up all that
had been written on the subject in English, German, and
French. Two classes of experiments had been made: one by
physiologists who were studying the endurance of the
human animal, and the other by engineers who wished to
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determine what fraction of a horse-power a man-power
was. These experiments had been made largely upon men
who were lifting loads by means of turning the crank of a
winch from which weights were suspended, and others who
were engaged in walking, running, and lifting weights in
various ways. However, the records of these investigations
were so meager that no law of any value could be deduced
from them. We therefore started a series of experiments of
our own.
Two first-class laborers were selected, men who had proved
themselves to be physically powerful and who were also
good steady workers. These men were paid double wages
during the experiments, and were told that they must work
to the best of their ability at all times, and that we should
make certain tests with them from time to time to find
whether they were “soldiering” or not, and that the moment
either one of them started to try to deceive us he would be
discharged. They worked to the best of their ability
throughout the time that they were being observed.
Now it must be clearly understood that in these experiments
we were not trying to find the maximum work that a man
could do on a short spurt or for a few days, but that our
endeavor was to learn what really constituted a full day’s
work for a first-class man; the best day’s work that a man
could properly do, year in and year out, and still thrive
under. These men were given all kinds of tasks, which were
carried out each day under the close observation of the
young college man who was conducting the experiments,
and who at the same time noted with a stop-watch the
proper time for all of the motions that were made by the
men. Every element in any way connected with the work
which we believed could have a bearing on the result was
carefully studied and recorded. What we hoped ultimately to
determine was what fraction of a horse-power a man was
able to exert, that is, how many foot-pounds of work a man
could do in a day.
After completing this series of experiments, therefore, each
man’s work for each day was translated into foot-pounds of
energy, and to our surprise we found that there was no
constant or uniform relation between the foot-pounds of
energy which the man exerted during a day and the tiring
effect of his work. On some kinds of work the man would be
tired out when doing perhaps not more than one-eighth of a
horse-power, while in others he would be tired to no greater
extent by doing half a horse-power of work.
We failed, therefore, to find any law which was an accurate
guide to the maximum day’s work for a first-class workman.
A large amount of very valuable data had been obtained,
which enabled us to know, for many kinds of labor, what
was a proper day’s work. It did not seem wise, however, at
this time to spend any more money in trying to find the
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exact law which we were after. Some years later, when
more money was available for this purpose, a second series
of experiments was made, similar to the first, but some
what more thorough.
This, however, resulted as the first experiments, in
obtaining valuable information but not in the development
of a law. Again, some years later, a third series of
experiments was made, and this time no trouble was spared
in our endeavor to make the work thorough. Every minute
element which could in anyway affect the problem was
carefully noted and studied, and two college men devoted
about three months to the experiments. After this data was
again translated into foot-pounds of energy exerted for each
man each day, it became perfectly clear that there is no
direct relation between the horse-power which a man exerts
(that is, his foot-pounds of energy per day) and the tiring
effect of the work on the man. The writer, however, was
quite as firmly convinced as ever that some definite, clear-
cut law existed as to what constitutes a full day’s work for a
first-class laborer, and our data had been so carefully
collected and recorded that he felt sure that the necessary
information was included somewhere in the records. The
problem of developing this law from the accumulated facts
was therefore handed over to Mr. Carl G. Barth, who is a
better mathematician than any of the rest of us, and we
decided to investigate the problem in a new way, by
graphically representing each element of the work through
plotting curves, which should give us, as it were, a bird’s-
eye view of every element. In a comparatively short time
Mr. Barth had discovered the law governing the tiring effect
of heavy labor on a first-class man. And it is so simple in its
nature that it is truly remarkable that it should not have
been discovered and clearly understood years before. The
law which was developed is as follows:
The law is confined to that class of work in which the limit of
a man’s capacity is reached because he is tired out. It is the
law of heavy laboring, corresponding to the work of the cart
horse, rather than that of the trotter. Practically all such
work consists of a heavy pull or a push on the man’s arms,
that is, the man’s strength is exerted by either lifting or
pushing something which he grasps in his hands. And the
law is that for each given pull or push on the man’s arms it
is possible for the workman to be under load for only a
definite percentage of the day. For example, when pig iron
is being handled (each pig weighing 92 pounds), a first-
class workman can only be under load 43 per cent of the
day. He must be entirely free from load during 57 per cent
of the day. And as the load becomes lighter, the percentage
of the day under which the man can remain under load
increases. So that, if the workman is handling a half-pig,
weighing 46 pounds, he can then be under load 58 per cent
of the day, and only has to rest during 42 per cent. As the
weight grows lighter the man can remain under load during
a larger and larger percentage of the day, until finally a load
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is reached which he can carry in his hands all day long
without being tired out. When that point has been arrived at
this law ceases to be useful as a guide to a laborer’s
endurance, and some other law must be found which
indicates the man’s capacity for work.
When a laborer is carrying a piece of pig iron weighing 92
pounds in his hands, it tires him about as much to stand still
under the load as it does to walk with it, since his arm
muscles are under the same severe tension whether he is
moving or not. A man, however, who stands still under a
load is exerting no horse-power whatever, and this accounts
for the fact that no constant relation could be traced in
various kinds of heavy laboring work between the foot-
pounds of energy exerted and the tiring effect of the work
on the man. It will also be clear that in all work of this kind
it is necessary for the arms of the workman to be
completely free from load (that is, for the workman to rest)
at frequent intervals. Throughout the time that the man is
under a heavy load the tissues of his arm muscles are in
process of degeneration, and frequent periods of rest are
required in order that the blood may have a chance to
restore these tissues to their normal condition.
To return now to our pig-iron handlers at the Bethlehem
Steel Company. If Schmidt had been allowed to attack the
pile of 47 tons of pig iron without the guidance or direction
of a man who understood the art, or science, of handling
pig iron, in his desire to earn his high wages he would
probably have tired himself out by 11 or 12 o’clock in the
day. He would have kept so steadily at work that his
muscles would not have had the proper periods of rest
absolutely needed for recuperation, and he would have been
completely exhausted early in the day. By having a man,
however, who understood this law, stand over him and
direct his work, day after day, until he acquired the habit of
resting at proper intervals, he was able to work at an even
gait all day long without unduly tiring himself.
Now one of the very first requirements for a man who is fit
to handle pig iron as a regular occupation that he shall be
so stupid and so phlegmatic that he more nearly resembles
in his mental make-up the ox than any other type. The man
who is mentally alert and intelligent is for this very reason
entirely unsuited to what would, for him, be the grinding
monotony of work of this character. Therefore the workman
who is best suited to handling pig iron is unable to
understand the real science of doing this class of work. He
is so stupid that the word “percentage” has no meaning to
him, and he must consequently be trained by a man more
intelligent than himself into the habit of working in
accordance with the laws of this science before he can be
successful.
The writer trusts that it is now clear that even in the case of
the most elementary form of labor that is known, there is a
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science, and that when the man best suited to this class of
work has been carefully selected, when the science of doing
the work has been developed, and when the carefully
selected man has been trained to work in accordance with
this science, the results obtained must of necessity be
overwhelmingly greater than those which are possible under
the plan of “initiative and incentive.”
Let us, however, again turn to the case of these pig-iron
handlers, and see whether, under the ordinary type of
management, it would not have been possible to obtain
practically the same results.
The writer has put the problem before many good
managers, and asked them whether, under premium work,
piece work, or any of the ordinary plans of management,
they would be likely even to approximate 47 tons per man
per day, and not a man has suggested that an output of
over 18 to 25 tons could be attained by any of the ordinary
expedients. It will be remembered that the Bethlehem men
were loading only 12 1/2 tons per man.
To go into the matter in more detail, however: As to the
scientific selection of the men, it is a fact that in this gang
of 75 pig-iron handlers only about one man in eight was
physically capable of handling 47 1/2 tons per day. With the
very best of intentions, the other seven out of eight men
were physically unable to work at this pace. Now the one
man in eight who was able to do this work was in no sense
superior to the other men who were working on the gang.
He merely happened to be a man of the type of the ox,–no
rare specimen of humanity, difficult to find and therefore
very highly prized. On the contrary, he was a man so stupid
that he was unfitted to do most kinds of laboring work,
even. The selection of the man, then, does not involve
finding some extraordinary individual, but merely picking
out from among very ordinary men the few who are
especially suited to this type of work. Although in this
particular gang only one man in eight was suited to doing
the work, we had not the slightest difficulty in getting all the
men who were needed–some of them from inside of the
works and others from the neighboring country–who were
exactly suited to the job.
Under the management of “initiative and incentive” the
attitude of the management is that of “putting the work up
to the workmen.” What likelihood would there be, then,
under the old type of management, of these men properly
selecting themselves for pig-iron handling? Would they be
likely to get rid of seven men out of eight from their own
gang and retain only the eighth man? No! And no expedient
could be devised which would make these men properly
select themselves. Even if they fully realized the necessity
of doing so in order to obtain high wages (and they are not
sufficiently intelligent properly to grasp this necessity), the
fact that their friends or their brothers who were working
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right alongside of them would temporarily be thrown out of
a job because they were not suited to this kind of work
would entirely prevent them from properly selecting
themselves, that is, from removing the seven out of eight
men on the gang who were unsuited to pig-iron handling.
As to the possibility, under the old type of management, of
inducing these pig-iron handlers (after they had been
properly selected) to work in accordance with the science of
doing heavy laboring, namely, having proper scientifically
determined periods of rest in close sequence to periods of
work. As has been indicated before, the essential idea of the
ordinary types of management is that each workman has
become more skilled in his own trade than it is possible for
any one in the management to be, and that, therefore, the
details of how the work shall best be done must be left to
him. The idea, then, of taking one man after another and
training him under a competent teacher into new working
habits until he continually and habitually works in
accordance with scientific laws, which have been developed
by some one else, is directly antagonistic to the old idea
that each workman can best regulate his own way of doing
the work. And besides this, the man suited to handling pig
iron is too stupid properly to train himself. Thus it will be
seen that with the ordinary types of management the
development of scientific knowledge to replace rule of
thumb, the scientific selection of the men, and inducing the
men to work in accordance with these scientific principles
are entirely out of the question. And this because the
philosophy of the old management puts the entire
responsibility upon the workmen, while the philosophy of
the new places a great part of it upon the management.
With most readers great sympathy will be aroused because
seven out of eight of these pig-iron handlers were thrown
out of a job. This sympathy is entirely wasted, because
almost all of them were immediately given other jobs with
the Bethlehem Steel Company. And indeed it should be
understood that the removal of these men from pig-iron
handling, for which they were unfit, was really a kindness to
themselves, because it was the first step toward finding
them work for which they were peculiarly fitted, and at
which, after receiving proper training, they could
permanently and legitimately earn higher wages.
Although the reader may be convinced that there is a
certain science back of the handling of pig iron, still it is
more than likely that he is still skeptical as to the existence
of a science for doing other kinds of laboring. One of the
important objects of this paper is to convince its readers
that every single act of every workman can be reduced to a
science. With the hope of fully convincing the reader of this
fact, therefore, the writer proposes to give several more
simple illustrations from among the thousands which are at
hand.
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For example, the average man would question whether
there is much of any science in the work of shoveling. Yet
there is but little doubt, if any intelligent reader of this
paper were deliberately to set out to find what may be
called the foundation of the science of shoveling, that with
perhaps 15 to 20 hours of thought and analysis he would be
almost sure to have arrived at the essence of this science.
On the other hand, so completely are the rule-of-thumb
ideas still dominant that the writer has never met a single
shovel contractor to whom it had ever even occurred that
there was such a thing as the science of shoveling. This
science is so elementary as to be almost self-evident.
For a first-class shoveler there is a given shovel load at
which he will do his biggest day’s work. What is this shovel
load? Will a first-class man do more work per day with a
shovel load of 5 pounds, 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20, 25, 30,
or 40 pounds? Now this is a question which can be
answered only through carefully made experiments. By first
selecting two or three first-class shovelers, and paying them
extra wages for doing trustworthy work, and then gradually
varying the shovel load and having all the conditions
accompanying the work carefully observed for several
weeks by men who were used to experimenting, it was
found that a first-class man would do his biggest day’s work
with a shovel load of about 21 pounds. For instance, that
this man would shovel a larger tonnage per day with a 21-
pound load than with a 24-pound load or than with an 18-
pound load on his shovel. It is, of course, evident that no
shoveler can always take a load of exactly 21 pounds on his
shovel, but nevertheless, although his load may vary 3 or 4
pounds one way or the other, either below or above the 21
pounds, he will do his biggest day’s work when his average
for the day is about 21 pounds.
The writer does not wish it to be understood that this is the
whole of the art or science of shoveling. There are many
other elements, which together go to make up this science.
But he wishes to indicate the important effect which this
one piece of scientific knowledge has upon the work of
shoveling.
At the works of the Bethlehem Steel Company, for example,
as a result of this law, instead of allowing each shoveler to
select and own his own shovel, it became necessary to
provide some 8 to 10 different kinds of shovels, etc., each
one appropriate to handling a given type of material not
only so as to enable the men to handle an average load of
21 pounds, but also to adapt the shovel to several other
requirements which become perfectly evident when this
work is studied as a science. A large shovel tool room was
built, in which were stored not only shovels but carefully
designed and standardized labor implements of all kinds,
such as picks, crowbars, etc. This made it possible to issue
to each workman a shovel which would hold a load of 21
pounds of whatever class of material they were to handle: a
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small shovel for ore, say, or a large one for ashes. Iron ore
is one of the heavy materials which are handled in a works
of this kind, and rice coal, owing to the fact that it is so
slippery on the shovel, is one of the lightest materials. And
it was found on studying the rule-of-thumb plan at the
Bethlehem Steel Company, where each shoveler owned his
own shovel, that he would frequently go from shoveling ore,
with a load of about 30 pounds per shovel, to handling rice
coal, with a load on the same shovel of less than 4 pounds.
In the one case, he was so overloaded that it was
impossible for him to do a full day’s work, and in the other
case he was so ridiculously underloaded that it was
manifestly impossible to even approximate a day’s work.
Briefly to illustrate some of the other elements which go to
make tip the science of shoveling, thousands of stop-watch
observations were made to study just how quickly a laborer,
provided in each case with the proper type of shovel, can
push his shovel into the pile of materials and then draw it
out properly loaded. These observations were made first
when pushing the shovel into the body of the pile. Next
when shoveling on a dirt bottom, that is, at the outside
edge of the pile, and next with a wooden bottom, and finally
with an iron bottom. Again a similar accurate time study
was made of the time required to swing the shovel
backward and then throw the load for a given horizontal
distance, accompanied by a given height. This time study
was made for various combinations of distance and height.
With data of this sort before him, coupled with the law of
endurance described in the case of the pig-iron handlers, it
is evident that the man who is directing shovelers can first
teach them the exact methods which should be employed to
use their strength to the very best advantage, and can then
assign them daily tasks which are so just that the workman
can each day be sure of earning the large bonus which is
paid whenever he successfully performs this task.
There were about 600 shovelers and laborers of this general
class in the yard of the Bethlehem Steel Company at this
time. These men were scattered in their work over a yard
which was, roughly, about two miles long and half a mile
wide. In order that each workman should be given his
proper implement and his proper instructions for doing each
new job, it was necessary to establish a detailed system for
directing men in their work, in place of the old plan of
handling them in large groups, or gangs, under a few yard
foremen. As each workman came into the works in the
morning, he took out of his own special pigeonhole, with his
number on the outside, two pieces of paper, one of which
stated just what implements he was to get from the tool
room and where he was to start to work, and the second of
which gave the history of his previous day’s work; that is, a
statement of the work which he had done, how much he
had earned the day before, etc. Many of these men were
foreigners and unable to read and write, but they all knew
at a glance the essence of this report, because yellow paper
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showed the man that he had failed to do his full task the
day before, and informed him that he had not earned as
much as $1.85 a day, and that none but high-priced men
would be allowed to stay permanently with this gang. The
hope was further expressed that he would earn his full
wages on the following day. So that whenever the men
received white slips they knew that everything was all right,
and whenever they received yellow slips they realized that
they must do better or they would be shifted to some other
class of work.
Dealing with every workman as a separate individual in this
way involved the building of a labor office for the
superintendent and clerks who were in charge of this
section of the work. In this office every laborer’s work was
planned out well in advance, and the workmen were all
moved from place to place by the clerks with elaborate
diagrams or maps of the yard before them, very much as
chessmen are moved on a chess-board, a telephone and
messenger system having been installed for this purpose. In
this way a large amount of the time lost through having too
many men in one place and too few in another, and through
waiting between jobs, was entirely eliminated. Under the
old system the workmen were kept day after day in
comparatively large gangs, each under a single foreman,
and the gang was apt to remain of pretty nearly the same
size whether there was much or little of the particular kind
of work on hand which this foreman had under his charge,
since each gang had to be kept large enough to handle
whatever work in its special line was likely to come along.
When one ceases to deal with men in large gangs or groups,
and proceeds to study each workman as an individual, if the
workman fails to do his task, some competent teacher
should be sent to show him exactly how his work can best
be done, to guide, help, and encourage him, and, at the
same time, to study his possibilities as a workman. So that,
under the plan which individualizes each workman, instead
of brutally discharging the man or lowering his wages for
failing to make good at once, he is given the time and the
help required to make him proficient at his present job, or
he is shifted to another class of work for which he is either
mentally or physically better suited.
All of this requires the kindly cooperation of the
management, and involves a much more elaborate
organization and system than the old-fashioned herding of
men in large gangs. This organization consisted, in this
case, of one set of men, who were engaged in the
development of the science of laboring through time study,
such as has been described above; another set of men,
mostly skilled laborers themselves, who were teachers, and
who helped and guided the men in their work; another set
of tool-room men who provided them with the proper
implements and kept them in perfect order, and another set
of clerks who planned the work well in advance, moved the
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men with the least loss of time from one place to another,
and properly recorded each man’s earnings, etc. And this
furnishes an elementary illustration of what has been
referred to as cooperation between the management and
the workmen.
The question which naturally presents itself is whether an
elaborate organization of this sort can be made to pay for
itself; whether such an organization is not top-heavy. This
question will best be answered by a statement of the results
of the third year of working under this plan.
Old Plan
New Plan Task
Work
The number of yard laborers
was reduced
from 400-600 down to 140
Average number of tons per
man per day
16 59
Average earnings per man
per day
$1.15 $1.88
Average cost of handling a
ton of 2240 lbs
$0.072 $0.033
And in computing the low cost of $0.033 per ton, the office
and tool-room expenses, and the wages of all labor
superintendents, foremen, clerks, time-study men, etc., are
included.
During this year the total saving of the new plan over the
old amounted to $36,417.69, and during the six months
following, when all of the work of the yard was on task
work, the saving was at the rate of between $75,000 and
$80,000 per year.
Perhaps the most important of all the results attained was
the effect on the workmen themselves. A careful inquiry
into the condition of these men developed the fact that out
of the 140 workmen only two were said to be drinking men.
This does not, of course, imply that many of them did not
take an occasional drink. The fact is that a steady drinker
would find it almost impossible to keep up with the pace
which was set, so that they were practically all sober. Many,
if not most of them, were saving money, and they all lived
better than they had before. These men constituted the
finest body of picked laborers that the writer has ever seen
together, and they looked upon the men who were over
them, their bosses and their teachers, as their very best
friends; not as nigger drivers, forcing them to work extra
hard for ordinary wages, but as friends who were teaching
them and helping them to earn much higher wages than
they had ever earned before.
It would have been absolutely impossible for any one to
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have stirred up strife between these men and their
employers. And this presents a very simple though effective
illustration of what is meant by the words “prosperity for
the employee, coupled with prosperity for the employer,”
the two principal objects of management. It is evident also
that this result has been brought about by the application of
the four fundamental principles of scientific management.
As another illustration of the value of a scientific study of
the motives which influence workmen in their daily work,
the loss of ambition and initiative will be cited, which takes
place in workmen when they are herded into gangs instead
of being treated as separate individuals. A careful analysis
had demonstrated the fact that when workmen are herded
together in gangs, each man in the gang becomes far less
efficient than when his personal ambition is stimulated; that
when men work in gangs, their individual efficiency falls
almost invariably down to or below the level of the worst
man in the gang; and that they are all pulled down instead
of being elevated by being herded together. For this reason
a general order had been issued in the Bethlehem Steel
Works that not more than four men were to be allowed to
work in a labor gang without a special permit, signed by the
General Superintendent of the works, this special permit to
extend for one week only. It was arranged that as far as
possible each laborer should be given a separate individual
task. As there were about 5000 men at work in the
establishment, the General Superintendent had so much to
do that there was but little time left for signing these special
permits.
After gang work had been by this means broken up, an
unusually fine set of ore shovelers had been developed,
through careful selection and individual, scientific training.
Each of these men was given a separate car to unload each
day, and his wages depended upon his own personal work.
The man who unloaded the largest amount of ore was paid
the highest wages, and an unusual opportunity came for
demonstrating the importance of individualizing each
workman. Much of this ore came from the Lake Superior
region, and the same ore was delivered both in Pittsburgh
and in Bethlehem in exactly similar cars. There was a
shortage of ore handlers in Pittsburgh, and hearing of the
fine gang of laborers that had been developed at
Bethlehem, one of the Pittsburgh steel works sent an agent
to hire the Bethlehem men. The Pittsburgh men offered 4
9/10 cents a ton for unloading exactly the same ore, with
the same shovels, from the same cars, that were unloaded
in Bethlehem for 3 2/10 cents a ton. After carefully
considering this situation, it was decided that it would be
unwise to pay more than 3 2/10 cents per ton for unloading
the Bethlehem cars, because, at this rate, the Bethlehem
laborers were earning a little over $1.85 per man per day,
and this price was 60 per cent more than the ruling rate of
wages around Bethlehem.
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A long series of experiments, coupled with close
observation, had demonstrated the fact that when workmen
of this caliber are given a carefully measured task, which
calls for a big day’s work on their part, and that when in
return for this extra effort they are paid wages up to 60 per
cent beyond the wages usually paid, that this increase in
wages tends to make them not only more thrifty but better
men in every way; that they live rather better, begin to
save money, become more sober, and work more steadily.
When, on the other hand, they receive much more than a
60 per cent increase in wages, many of them will work
irregularly and tend to become more or less shiftless,
extravagant, and dissipated. Our experiments showed, in
other words, that it does not do for most men to get rich
too fast.
After deciding, for this reason, not to raise the wages of our
ore handlers, these men were brought into the office one at
a time, and talked to somewhat as follows:
“Now, Patrick, you have proved to us that you are a high-
priced man. You have been earning every day a little more
than $1.85, and you are just the sort of man that we want
to have in our ore-shoveling gang. A man has come here
from Pittsburgh, ho is offering 4 9/10 cents per ton for
handling ore while we can pay only 3 9/10 cents per ton. I
think, therefore, that you had better apply to this man for a
job. Of course, you know we are very sorry to have you
leave us, but you have proved yourself a high-priced man,
and we are very glad to see you get this chance of earning
more money. Just remember, however, that at any time in
the future, when you get out of a job, you can always come
right back to us. There will always be a job for a high-priced
man like you in our gang here.”
Almost all of the ore handlers took this advice, and went to
Pittsburgh, but in about six weeks most of them were again
back in Bethlehem unloading ore at the old rate of 3 2/10
cents a ton. The writer had the following talk with one of
these men after he had returned:
“Patrick, what are you doing back here? I thought we had
gotten rid of you.”
“‘Well, Sir, I’ll tell you how it was. When we got out there
Jimmy and I were put on to a car with eight other men. We
started to shovel the ore out just the same as we do here.
After about half an hour I saw a little devil alongside of me
doing pretty near nothing, so I said to him, ‘Why don’t you
go to work? Unless we get the ore out of this car we won’t
get any money on pay-day.’ He turned to me and said,
‘Who in —— are you?’
“‘Well,’ I said, ‘that’s none of your business’; and the little
devil stood up to me and said, ‘You’ll be minding your own
business, or I’ll throw you off this car!’ ‘Well, I could have
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spit on him and drowned him, but the rest of the men put
down their shovels and looked as if they were going to back
him up; so I went round to Jimmy and said (so that the
whole gang could hear it), ‘Now, Jimmy, you and I will
throw a shovel full whenever this little devil throws one, and
not another shovel full.’ So we watched him, and only
shoveled when he shoveled.
“When pay-day came around, though, we had less money
than we got here at Bethlehem. After that Jimmy and I
went in to the boss, and asked him for a car to ourselves,
the same as we got at Bethlehem, but he told us to mind
our own business. And when another pay-day came around
we had less money than we got here at Bethlehem, so
Jimmy and I got the gang together and brought them all
back here to work again.”
When working each man for himself, these men were able
to earn higher wages at 3 2/10 cents a ton than they could
earn when they were paid 4 9/10 cents a ton on gang work;
and this again shows the great gain which results from
working according to even the most elementary of scientific
principles. But it also shows that in the application of the
most elementary principles it is necessary for the
management to do their share of the work in cooperating
with the workmen. The Pittsburgh managers knew just how
the results had been attained at Bethlehem, but they were
unwilling to go to the small trouble and expense required to
plan ahead and assign a separate car to each shoveler, and
then keep an individual record of each man’s work, and pay
him just what he had earned.
Bricklaying is one of the oldest of our trades.
For hundreds of years there has been little or no
improvement made in the implements and materials used in
this trade, nor in fact in the method of laying bricks. In spite
of the millions of men who have practiced this trade, no
great improvement has been evolved for many generations.
Here, then, at least one would expect to find but little gain
possible through scientific analysis and study. Mr. Frank B.
Gilbreth, a member of our Society, who had himself studied
bricklaying in his youth, became interested in the principles
of scientific management, and decided to apply them to the
art of bricklaying. He made an intensely interesting analysis
and study of each movement of the bricklayer, and one
after another eliminated all unnecessary movements and
substituted fast for slow motions. He experimented with
every minute element which in any way affects the speed
and the tiring of the bricklayer.
He developed the exact position which each of the feet of
the bricklayer should occupy with relation to the wall, the
mortar box, and the pile of bricks, and so made it
unnecessary for him to take a step or two toward the pile of
bricks and back again each time a brick is laid.
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He studied the best height for the mortar box and brick pile,
and then designed a scaffold, with a table on it, upon which
all of the materials are placed, so as to keep the bricks, the
mortar, the man, and the wall in their proper relative
positions. These scaffolds are adjusted, as the wall grows in
height, for all of the bricklayers by a laborer especially
detailed for this purpose, and by this means the bricklayer
is saved the exertion of stooping down to the level of his
feet for each brick and each trowel full of mortar and then
straightening up again. Think of the waste of effort that has
gone on through all these years, with each bricklayer
lowering his body, weighing, say, 150 pounds, down two
feet and raising it up again every time a brick (weighing
about 5 pounds) is laid in the wall! And this each bricklayer
did about one thousand times a day.
As a result of further study, after the bricks are unloaded
from the cars, and before bringing them to the bricklayer,
they are carefully sorted by a laborer, and placed with their
best edge up on a simple wooden frame, constructed so as
to enable him to take hold of each brick in the quickest time
and in the most advantageous position. In this way the
bricklayer avoids either having to turn the brick over or end
for end to examine it before laying it, and he saves, also,
the time taken in deciding which is the best edge and end to
place on the outside of the wall. In most cases, also, he
saves the time taken in disentangling the brick from a
disorderly pile on the scaffold. This “pack” of bricks (as Mr.
Gilbreth calls his loaded wooden frames) is placed by the
helper in its proper position on the adjustable scaffold close
to the mortar box.
We have all been used to seeing bricklayers tap each brick
after it is placed on its bed of mortar several times with the
end of the handle of the trowel so as to secure the right
thickness for the joint. Mr. Gilbreth found that by tempering
the mortar just right, the bricks could be readily bedded to
the proper depth by a downward pressure of the hand with
which they are laid. He insisted that his mortar mixers
should give special attention to tempering the mortar, and
so save the time consumed in tapping the brick.
Through all of this minute study of the motions to be made
by the bricklayer in laying bricks under standard conditions,
Mr. Gilbreth has reduced his movements from eighteen
motions per brick to five, and even in one case to as low as
two motions per brick. He has given all of the details of this
analysis to the profession in the chapter headed “Motion
Study,” of his book entitled “Bricklaying System,” published
by Myron C. Clerk Publishing Company, New York and
Chicago; E. F. N. Spon, of London.
An analysis of the expedients used by Mr. Gilbreth in
reducing the motions of his bricklayers from eighteen to five
shows that this improvement has been made in three
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different ways:
First. He has entirely dispensed with certain movements
which the bricklayers in the past believed were necessary,
but which a careful study and trial on his part have shown
to be useless.
Second. He has introduced simple apparatus, such as his
adjustable scaffold and his packets for holding the bricks, by
means of which, with a very small amount of cooperation
from a cheap laborer, he entirely eliminates a lot of
tiresome and time-consuming motions which are necessary
for the brick-layer who lacks the scaffold and the packet.
Third. He teaches his bricklayers to make simple motions
with both hands at the same time, where before they
completed a motion with the right hand and followed it later
with one from the left hand.
For example, Mr. Gilbreth teaches his brick-layer to pick up
a brick in the left hand at the same instant that he takes a
trowel full of mortar with the right hand. This work with two
hands at the same time is, of course, made possible by
substituting a deep mortar box for the old mortar board (on
which the mortar spread out so thin that a step or two had
to be taken to reach it) and then placing the mortar box and
the brick pile close together, and at the proper height on his
new scaffold.
These three kinds of improvements are typical of the ways
in which needless motions can be entirely eliminated and
quicker types of movements substituted for slow
movements when scientific motion study, as Mr. Gilbreth
calls his analysis, time study, as the writer has called similar
work, are, applied in any trade.
Most practical men would (knowing the opposition of almost
all tradesmen to making any change in their methods and
habits), however, be skeptical as to the possibility of
actually achieving any large results from a study of this
sort. Mr. Gilbreth reports that a few months ago, in a large
brick building which he erected, he demonstrated on a
commercial scale the great gain which is possible from
practically applying his scientific study. With union
bricklayers, in laying a factory wall, twelve inches thick,
with two kinds of brick, faced and ruled joints on both sides
of the wall, he averaged, after his selected workmen had
become skilful in his new methods, 350 bricks per man per
hour; whereas the average speed of doing this work with
the old methods was, in that section of the country, 120
bricks per man per hour. His bricklayers were taught his
new method of bricklaying by their foreman. Those who
failed to profit by their teaching were dropped, and each
man, as he became proficient under the new method,
received a substantial (not a small) increase in his wages.
With a view to individualizing his workmen and stimulating
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each man to do his best, Mr. Gilbreth also developed an
ingenious method for measuring and recording the number
of bricks laid by each man, and for telling each workman at
frequent intervals how many bricks he had succeeded in
laying.
It is only when this work is compared with the conditions
which prevail under the tyranny of some of our misguided
bricklayers’ unions that the great waste of human effort
which is going on will be realized. In one foreign city the
bricklayers’ union have restricted their men to 275 bricks
per day on work of this character when working for the city,
and 375 per day when working for private owners. The
members of this union are probably sincere in their belief
that this restriction of output is a benefit to their trade. It
should be plain to all men, however, that this deliberate
loafing is almost criminal, in that it inevitably results in
making every workman’s family pay higher rent for their
housing, and also in the end drives work and trade away
from their city, instead of bringing it to it.
Why is it, in a trade which has been continually practiced
since before the Christian era, and with implements
practically the same as they now are, that this simplification
of the bricklayer’s movements, this great gain, has not been
made before?
It is highly likely that many times during all of these years
individual bricklayers have recognized the possibility of
eliminating each of these unnecessary motions. But even if,
in the past, he did invent each one of Mr. Gilbreth’s
improvements, no bricklayer could alone increase his speed
through their adoption because it will be remembered that
in all cases several bricklayers work together in a row and
that the walls all around a building must grow at the same
rate of speed. No one bricklayer, then, can work much
faster than the one next to him. Nor has any one workman
the authority to make other men cooperate with him to do
faster work. It is only through enforced standardization of
methods, enforced adoption of the best implements and
working conditions, and enforced cooperation that this
faster work can be assured. And the duty of enforcing the
adoption of standards and of enforcing-this cooperation
rests with the management alone. The management must
supply continually one or more teachers to show each new
man the new and simpler motions, and the slower men
must be constantly watched and helped until they have
risen to their proper speed. All of those who, after proper
teaching, either will not or cannot work in accordance with
the new methods and at the higher speed must be
discharged by the management. The management must
also recognize the broad fact that workmen will not submit
to this more rigid standardization and will not work extra
hard, unless they receive extra pay for doing it.
All of this involves an individual study of and treatment for
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each man, while in the past they have been handled in large
groups.
The management must also see that those who prepare the
bricks and the mortar and adjust the scaffold, etc., for the
bricklayers, cooperate with them by doing their work just
right and always on time; and they must also inform each
bricklayer at frequent intervals as to the progress he is
making, so that he may not unintentionally fall off in his
pace. Thus it will be seen that it is the assumption by the
management of new duties and new kinds of work never
done by employers in the past that makes this great
improvement possible, and that, without this new help from
the management, the workman even with full knowledge of
the new methods and with the best of intentions could not
attain these startling results.
Mr. Gilbreth’s method of bricklaying furnishes a simple
illustration of true and effective cooperation. Not the type of
cooperation in which a mass of workmen on one side
together cooperate with the management; but that in which
several men in the management (each one in his own
particular way) help each workman individually, on the one
hand, by studying his needs and his shortcomings and
teaching him better and quicker methods, and, on the other
hand, by seeing that all other workmen with whom he
comes in contact help and cooperate with him by doing their
part of the work right and fast.
The writer has gone thus fully into Mr. Gilbreth’s method in
order that it may be perfectly clear that this increase in
output and that this harmony could not have been attained
under the management of “initiative and incentive” (that is,
by putting the problem up to the workman and leaving him
to solve it alone) which has been the philosophy of the past.
And that his success has been due to the use of the four
elements which constitute the essence of scientific
management.
First. The development (by the management, not the
workman) of the science of bricklaying, with rigid rules for
each motion of every man, and the perfection and
standardization of all implements and working conditions.
Second. The careful selection and subsequent training of the
bricklayers into first-class men, and the elimination of all
men who refuse to or are unable to adopt the best methods.
Third. Bringing the first-class bricklayer and the science of
bricklaying together, through the constant help and
watchfulness of the management, and through paying each
man a large daily bonus for working fast and doing what he
is told to do.
Fourth. An almost equal division of the work and
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responsibility between the workman and the management.
All day long the management work almost side by side with
the men, helping, encouraging, and smoothing the way for
them, while in the past they stood one side, gave the men
but little help, and threw on to them almost the entire
responsibility as to methods, implements, speed, and
harmonious cooperation.
Of these four elements, the first (the development of the
science of bricklaying) is the most interesting and
spectacular. Each of the three others is, however, quite as
necessary for success.
It must not be forgotten that back of all this, and directing
it, there must be the optimistic, determined, and hard-
working leader who can wait patiently as well as work.
In most cases (particularly when the work to be done is
intricate in its nature) the “development of the science” is
the most important of the four great elements of the new
management. There are instances, however, in which the
“scientific selection of the workman” counts for more than
anything else.
A case of this type is well illustrated in the very simple
though unusual work of inspecting bicycle
balls.
When the bicycle craze was at its height some years ago
several million small balls made of hardened steel were
used annually in bicycle bearings. And among the twenty or
more operations used in making steel balls, perhaps the
most important was that of inspecting them after final
polishing so as to remove all fire-cracked or otherwise
imperfect balls before boxing.
The writer was given the task of systematizing the largest
bicycle ball factory in this country. This company had been
running for from eight to ten years on ordinary day work
before he undertook its reorganization, so that the one
hundred and twenty or more girls who were inspecting the
balls were “old bands” and skilled at their jobs.
It is impossible even in the most elementary work to change
rapidly from the old independence of individual day work to
scientific cooperation.
In most cases, however, there exist certain imperfections in
working conditions which can at once be improved with
benefit to all concerned.
In this instance it was found that the inspectors (girls) were
working ten and one-half hours per day (with a Saturday
half holiday.)
Their work consisted briefly in placing a row of small
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polished steel balls on the back of the left hand, in the
crease between two of the fingers pressed together, and
while they were rolled over and over, they were minutely
examined in a strong light, and with the aid of a magnet
held in the right hand, the defective balls were picked out
and thrown into especial boxes. Four kinds of defects were
looked for-dented, soft, scratched, and fire-cracked–and
they were mostly so minute as to be invisible to an eye not
especially trained to this work. It required the closest
attention and concentration, so that the nervous tension of
the inspectors was considerable, in spite of the fact that
they were comfortably seated and were not physically tired.
A most casual study made it evident that a very
considerable part of the ten and one-half hours during
which the girls were supposed to work was really spent in
idleness because the working period was too long. It is a
matter of ordinary common sense to plan working hours so
that the workers can really “work while they work” and
“play while they play,” and not mix the two.
Before the arrival of Mr. Sanford E. Thompson, who
undertook a scientific study of the whole process, we
decided, therefore, to shorten the working hours.
The old foreman who had been over the inspecting room for
years was instructed to interview one after another of the
better inspectors and the more influential girls and persuade
them that they could do just as much work in ten hours
each day as they had been doing in ten and one-half hours.
Each girl was told that the proposition was to shorten the
day’s work to ten hours and pay them the same day’s pay
they were receiving for the ten and one-half hours.
In about two weeks the foreman reported that all of the
girls he had talked to agreed that they could do their
present work just as well in ten hours as in ten and one-half
and that they approved of the change.
The writer had not been especially noted for his tact so he
decided that it would be wise for him to display a little more
of this quality by having the girls vote on the new
proposition. This decision was hardly justified, however, for
when the vote was taken the girls were unanimous that 10
1/2 hours was good enough for them and they wanted no
innovation of any kind.
This settled the matter for the time being. A few months
later tact was thrown to the winds and the working hours
were arbitrarily shortened in successive steps to 10 hours, 9
1/2, 9, and 8 1/2 (the pay per day remaining the same);
and with each shortening of the working day the output
increased instead of diminishing.
The change from the old to the scientific method in this
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department was made under the direction of Mr. Sanford E.
Thompson, perhaps the most experienced man in motion
and time study in this country, under the general
superintendence of Mr. H. L. Gantt.
In the Physiological departments of our universities
experiments are regularly conducted to determine what is
known as the “personal coefficient” of the man tested. This
is done by suddenly bringing some object, the letter A or B
for instance, within the range of vision of the subject, who,
the instant he recognizes the letter has to do some definite
thing, such as to press a particular electric button. The time
which elapses from the instant the letter comes in view until
the subject presses the button is accurately recorded by a
delicate scientific instrument.
This test shows conclusively that there is a great difference
in the “personal coefficient” of different men. Some
individuals are born with unusually quick powers of
perception accompanied by quick responsive action. With
some the message is almost instantly transmitted from the
eye to the brain, and the brain equally quickly responds by
sending the proper message to the hand.
Men of this type are said to have a low “personal
coefficient,” while those of slow perception and slow action
have a high “personal coefficient.”
Mr. Thompson soon recognized that the quality most
needed for bicycle ball inspectors was a low personal
coefficient. Of course the ordinary qualities of endurance
and industry were also called for.
For the ultimate good of the girls as well as the company,
however, it became necessary to exclude, all girls who
lacked a low “personal coefficient.” And unfortunately this
involved laying off many of the most intelligent, hardest
working, and most trustworthy girls merely because they
did not possess the quality of quick perception followed by
quick action.
While the gradual selection of girls was going on other
changes were also being made.
One of the dangers to be guarded against, when the pay of
the man or woman is made in any way to depend on the
quantity of the work done, is that in the effort to increase
the quantity the quality is apt to deteriorate.
It is necessary in almost all cases, therefore, to take
definite steps to insure against any falling off in quality
before moving in any way towards an increase in quantity.
In the work of these particular girls quality was the very
essence. They were engaged in picking out all defective
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balls.
The first step, therefore, was to make it impossible for them
to slight their work without being, found out. This was
accomplished through what is known as over-inspection,
Each one of four of the most trust-worthy girls was given
each day a lot of balls to inspect which had been examined
the day before by one of the regular inspectors; the number
identifying the lot to be over-inspected having been
changed by the foreman so that none of the over-inspectors
knew whose work they were examining. In addition to this
one of the lots inspected by the four over-inspectors was
examined on the following day by the chief inspector,
selected on account of her especial accuracy and integrity.
An effective expedient was adopted for checking the
honesty and accuracy of the over-inspection. Every two or
three days a lot of balls was especially prepared by the
foreman, who counted out a definite number of perfect
balls, and added a recorded number of defective balls of
each kind. Neither the inspectors nor the over-inspectors
had any means of distinguishing this prepared lot from the
regular commercial lots. And in this way all temptation to
slight their work or make false returns was removed.
After insuring in this way against deterioration in quality,
effective means were at once adopted to increase the
output. Improved day work was substituted for the old
slipshod method. An accurate daily record was kept both as
to the quantity and quality of the work done in order to
guard against any personal prejudice on the part of the
foreman and to insure absolute impartiality and justice for
each inspector. In a comparatively short time this record
enabled the foreman to stir the ambition of all the
inspectors by increasing the wages of those who turned out
a large quantity and good quality, while at the same time
lowering the pay of those who did indifferent work and
discharging others who proved to be incorrigibly slow or
careless. A careful examination was then made of the way
in which each girl spent her time and an accurate time
study was undertaken, through the use of a stop-watch and
record blanks, to determine how fast each kind of inspection
should be done, and to establish the exact conditions under
which each girl could do her quickest and best work, while
at the same time guarding against giving her a task so
severe that there was danger from over fatigue or
exhaustion. This investigation showed that the girls spent a
considerable part of their time either in partial idleness,
talking and half working, or in actually doing nothing.
Even when the hours of labor had been shortened from 10
1/2 to 8 1/2 hours a close observation of the girls showed
that after about an hour and one-half of consecutive work
they began to get nervous. They evidently needed a rest. It
is wise to stop short of the point at which overstrain begins,
so we arranged for them to have a ten minutes period for
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recreation at the end of each hour and one quarter. During
these recess periods (two of ten minutes each in the
morning and two in the afternoon) they were obliged to
stop work and were encouraged to leave their seats and get
a complete change of occupation by walking around and
talking, etc.
In one respect no doubt some people will say that these
girls were brutally treated. They were seated so far apart
that they could not conveniently talk while at work.
Shortening their hours of labor, however, and providing so
far as we knew the most favorable working conditions made
it possible for them to really work steadily instead of
pretending to do so.
And it is only after this stage in the reorganization is
reached, when the girls have been properly selected and on
the one hand such precautions have been taken as to guard
against the possibility of over-driving them, while, on the
other hand, the temptation to slight their work has been
removed and the most favorable working conditions have
been established, that the final step should be taken which
insures them what they most want, namely, high wages,
and the employers what they most want, namely, the
maximum output and best quality of work, -which means a
low labor cost.
This step is to give each girl each day a carefully measured
task which demands a full day’s work from a competent
operative, and also to give her a large premium or bonus
whenever she accomplishes this task.
This was done in this case through establishing what is
known as differential rate piece work. Under this system the
pay of each girl was increased in proportion to the quantity
of her output and also still more in proportion to the
accuracy of her work.
As will be shown later, the differential rate (the lots
inspected by the over-inspectors forming the basis for the
differential) resulted in a large gain in the quantity of work
done and at the same time in a marked improvement in the
quality.
Before they finally worked to the best advantage it was
found to be necessary to measure the output of each girl as
often as once every hour, and to send a teacher to each
individual who was found to be falling behind to find what
was wrong, to straighten her out, and to encourage and
help her to catch up.
There is a general principle back of this which should be
appreciated by all of those who are especially interested in
the management of men.
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A reward, if it is to be effective in stimulating men to do
their best work, must come soon after the work has been
done. But few men are able to look forward for more than a
week or perhaps at most a month, and work hard for a
reward which they are to receive at the end of this time.
The average workman must be able to measure what he
has accomplished and clearly see his reward at the end of
each day if he is to do his best. And more elementary
characters, such as the young girls inspecting bicycle balls,
or children, for instance, should have proper
encouragement either in the shape of personal attention
from those over them or an actual reward in sight as often
as once an hour.
This is one of the principal reasons why cooperation or
“profit-sharing” either through selling stock to the
employees or through dividends on wages received at the
end of the year, etc., have been at the best only mildly
effective in stimulating men to work hard. The nice time
which they are sure to have to-day if they take things easily
and go slowly proves more attractive than steady hard work
with a possible reward to be shared with others six months
later. A second reason for the inefficiency of profit-sharing
schemes had been that no form of cooperation has yet been
devised in which each individual is allowed free scope for his
personal ambition. Personal ambition always has been and
will remain a more powerful incentive to exertion than a
desire for the general welfare. The few misplaced drones,
who do the loafing and share equally in the profits, with the
rest, under cooperation are sure to drag the better men
down toward their level.
Other and formidable difficulties in the path of cooperative
schemes are, the equitable division of the profits, and the
fact that, while workmen are always ready to share the
profits, they are neither able nor willing to share the losses.
Further than this, in many cases, it is neither right nor just
that they should share either the profits or the losses, since
these may be due in great part to causes entirely beyond
their influence or control, and to which they do not
contribute.
To come back to the girls inspecting bicycle balls, however,
the final outcome of all the changes was that thirty-five girls
did the work formerly done by one hundred and twenty.
And that the accuracy of the work at the higher speed was
two-thirds greater than at the former slow speed.
The good that came to the girls was, First. That they
averaged from 80 to 100 per cent higher wages than they
formerly received.
Second. Their hours of labor were shortened from 10 1/2 to
8 1/2 per day, with a Saturday half holiday. And they were
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given four recreation periods properly distributed through
the day, which made overworking impossible for a healthy
girl.
Third. Each girl was made to feel that she was the object of
especial care and interest on the part of the management,
and that if anything went wrong with her she could always
have a helper and teacher in the management to lean upon.
Fourth. All young women should be given two consecutive
days of rest (with pay) each month, to be taken whenever
they may choose. It is my impression that these girls were
given this privilege, although I am not quite certain on this
point.
The benefits which came to the company from these
changes were:
First. A substantial improvement in the quality of the
product.
Second. A material reduction in the cost of inspection, in
spite of the extra expense involved in clerk work, teachers,
time study, over-inspectors, and in paying higher wages.
Third. That the most friendly relations existed between the
management and the employees, which rendered labor
troubles of any kind or a strike impossible.
These good results were brought about by many changes
which substituted favorable for unfavorable working
conditions. It should be appreciated, however, that the one
element which did more than all of the others was, the
careful selection of girls with quick perception to replace
those whose perceptions were slow–(the substitution of
girls with a low personal coefficient for those whose
personal coefficient was high)–the scientific selection of the
workers.
The illustrations have thus far been purposely confined to
the more elementary types of work, so that a very strong
doubt must still remain as to whether this kind of
cooperation is desirable in the case of more intelligent
mechanics, that is, in the case of men who are more
capable of generalization, and who would therefore be more
likely, of their own volition, to choose the more scientific
and better methods. The following illustrations will be given
for the purpose of demonstrating the fact that in the higher
classes of work the scientific laws which are developed are
so intricate that the high-priced mechanic needs (even more
than the cheap laborer) the cooperation of men better
educated than himself in finding the laws, and then in
selecting, developing, and training him to work in
accordance with these laws. These illustrations should make
perfectly clear our original proposition that in practically all
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of the mechanic arts the science which underlies each
workman’s act is so great and amounts to so much that the
workman who is best suited to actually doing the work is
incapable, either through lack of education or through
insufficient mental capacity, of understanding this science.
A doubt, for instance, will remain in the minds perhaps of
most readers (in the case of an establishment which
manufactures the same machine, year in and year out, in
large quantities, and in which, therefore, each mechanic
repeats the same limited series of operations over and over
again), whether the ingenuity of each workman and the
help which he from time to time receives from his foreman
will not develop such superior methods and such a personal
dexterity that no scientific study which could be made would
result in a material increase in efficiency.
A number of years ago a company employing about three
hundred men, which had been manufacturing the same
machine for ten to fifteen years, sent for us to report as to
whether any gain could be made through the introduction of
scientific management. Their shops had been run for many
years under a good superintendent and with excellent
foremen and workmen, on piece work. The whole
establishment was, without doubt, in better physical
condition than the average machine-shop in this country.
The superintendent was distinctly displeased when told that
through the adoption of task management the output, with
the same number of men and machines, could be more than
doubled. He said that he believed that any such statement
was mere boasting, absolutely false, and instead of inspiring
him with confidence, he was disgusted that any one should
make such an impudent claim. He, however, readily
assented to the proposition that he should select any one of
the machines whose output he considered as representing
the average of the shop, and that we should then
demonstrate on this machine that through scientific
methods its output could be more than doubled.
The machine selected by him fairly represented the work of
the shop. It had been run for ten or twelve years past by a
first-class mechanic who was more than equal in his ability
to the average workmen in the establishment. In a shop of
this sort in which similar machines are made over and over
again, the work is necessarily greatly subdivided, so that no
one man works upon more than a comparatively small
number of parts during the year. A careful record was
therefore made, in the presence of both parties, ox the time
actually taken in finishing each of the parts which this man
worked upon. The total time required by him to finish each
piece, as well as the exact speeds and feeds which he took,
were noted and a record was kept of the time which he took
in setting the work in the machine and removing it. After
obtaining in this way a statement of what represented a fair
average of the work done in the shop, we applied to this
one machine the principles of scientific management.
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By means of four quite elaborate slide-rules, which have
been especially made for the purpose of determining the all-
round capacity of metal-cutting machines, a careful analysis
was made of every element of this machine in its relation to
the work in hand. Its Pulling power at its various speeds, its
feeding capacity, and its proper speeds were determined by
means of the slide-rules, and changes were then made in
the countershaft and driving pulleys so as to run it at its
proper speed. Tools, made of high-speed steel, and of the
proper shapes, were properly dressed, treated, and ground.
(It should be understood, however, that in this case the
high-speed steel which had heretofore been in general use
in the shop was also used in our demonstration.) A large
special slide-rule was then made, by means of which the
exact speeds and feeds were indicated at which each kind of
work could be done in the shortest possible time in this
particular lathe. After preparing in this way so that the
workman should work according to the new method, one
after another, pieces of work were finished in the lathe,
corresponding to the work which had been done in our
preliminary trials, and the gain in time made through
running the machine according to scientific principles
ranged from two and one-half times the speed in the
slowest instance to nine times the speed in the highest.
The change from rule-of-thumb management to scientific
management involves, however, not only a study of what is
the proper speed for doing the work and a remodeling of
the tools and the implements in the shop, but also a
complete change in the mental attitude of all the men in the
shop toward their work and toward their employers. The
physical improvements in the machines necessary to insure
large gains, and the motion, study followed by minute study
with a stop-watch of the time in which each workman
should do his work, can be made comparatively quickly. But
the change in the mental attitude and in the habits of the
three hundred or more workmen can be brought about only
slowly and through a long series of object-lessons, which
finally demonstrates to each man the great advantage
which he will gain by heartily cooperating in his every-day
work with the men in the management. Within three years,
however, in this shop, the output had been more than
doubled per man and per machine. The men had been
carefully selected and in almost all cases promoted from a
lower to a higher order of work, and so instructed by their
teachers (the functional foremen) that they were able to
earn higher wages than ever before. The average increase
in the daily earnings of each man was about 35 per cent.,
while, at the same time, the sum total of the wages paid for
doing a given amount of work was lower than before. This
increase in the speed of doing the work, of course, involved
a substitution of the quickest hand methods for the old
independent rule-of-thumb methods, and an elaborate
analysis of the hand work done by each man. (By hand
work is meant such work as depends upon the manual
dexterity and speed of a workman, and which is
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independent of the work done by the machine.) The time
saved by scientific hand work was in many cases greater
even than that saved in machine-work.
It seems important to fully explain the reason why, with the
aid of a slide-rule, and after having studied the art of
cutting metals, it was possible for the scientifically equipped
man, who had never before seen these particular jobs, and
who had never worked on this machine, to do work from
two and one-half to nine times as fast as it had been done
before by a good mechanic who had spent his whole time
for some ten to twelve years in doing this very work upon
this particular machine. In a word, this was possible
because the art of cutting metals involves a true science of
no small magnitude, a science, in fact, so intricate that it is
impossible for any machinist who is suited to running a
lathe year in and year out either to understand it or to work
according to its laws without the help of men who have
made this their specialty. Men who are un-familiar with
machine-shop work are prone to look upon the manufacture
of each piece as a special problem, independent of any
other kind of machine-work. They are apt to think, for
instance, that the problems connected with making the
parts of an engine require the especial study, one may say
almost the life study, of a set of engine-making mechanics,
and that these problems are entirely different from those
which would be met with in machining lathe or planer parts.
In fact, however, a study of those elements which are
peculiar either to engine parts or to lathe parts is trifling,
compared with the great study of the art, or science, of
cutting metals, upon a knowledge of which rests the ability
to do really fast machine-work of all kinds.
The real problem is how to remove chips fast from a casting
or a forging, and how to make the piece smooth and true in
the shortest time, and it matters but little whether the piece
being worked upon is part, say, of a marine engine, a
printing-press, or an automobile. For this reason, the man
with the slide rule, familiar with the science of cutting
metals, who had never before seen this particular work, was
able completely to distance the skilled mechanic who had
made the parts of this machine his specialty for years.
It is true that whenever intelligent and educated men find
that the responsibility for making progress in any of the
mechanic arts rests with them, instead of upon the
workmen who are actually laboring at the trade, that they
almost invariably start on the road which leads to the
development of a science where, in the past, has existed
mere traditional or rule-of-thumb knowledge. When men,
whose education has given them the habit of generalizing
and everywhere looking for laws, find themselves
confronted with a multitude of problems, such as exist in
every trade and which have a general similarity one to
another, it is inevitable that they should try to gather these
problems into certain logical groups, and then search for
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some general laws or rules to guide them in their solution.
As has been pointed out, however, the underlying principles
of the management of “initiative and incentive,” that is, the
underlying philosophy of this management, necessarily
leaves the solution of all of these problems in the hands of
each individual workman, while the philosophy of scientific
management places their solution in the hands of the
management. The workman’s whole time is each day taken
in actually doing the work with his hands, so that, even if he
had the necessary education and habits of generalizing in
his thought, he lacks the time and the opportunity for
developing these laws, because the study of even a simple
law involving say time study requires the cooperation of two
men, the one doing the work while the other times him with
a stop-watch. And even if the workman were to develop
laws where before existed only rule-of-thumb knowledge,
his personal interest would lead him almost inevitably to
keep his discoveries secret, so that he could, by means of
this special knowledge, personally do more work than other
men and so obtain higher wages.
Under scientific management, on the other hand, it
becomes the duty and also the pleasure of those who are
engaged in the management not only to develop laws to
replace rule of thumb, but also to teach impartially all of the
workmen who are under them the quickest ways of
working. The useful results obtained from these laws are
always so great that any company can well afford to pay for
the time and the experiments needed to develop them.
Thus under scientific management exact scientific
knowledge and methods are everywhere, sooner or later,
sure to replace rule of thumb, whereas under the old type of
management working in accordance with scientific laws is
an impossibility. The development of the art or science of
cutting metals is an apt illustration of this fact. In the fall of
1880, about the time that the writer started to make the
experiments above referred to, to determine what
constitutes a proper day’s work for a laborer, he also
obtained the permission of Mr. William Sellers, the President
of the Midvale Steel Company, to make a series of
experiments to determine what angles and shapes of tools
were the best for cutting steel, and also to try to determine
the proper cutting speed for steel. At the time that these
experiments were started it was his belief that they would
not last longer than six months, and, in fact, if it had been
known that a longer period than this would be required, the
permission to spend a considerable sum of money in
making them would not have been forthcoming.
A 66-inch diameter vertical boring-mill was the first
machine used in making these experiments, and large
locomotive tires, made out of hard steel of uniform quality,
were day after day cut up into chips in gradually learning
how to make, shape, and use the cutting tools so that they
would do faster work. At the end of six months sufficient
practical information had been obtained to far more than
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repay the cost of materials and wages which had been
expended in experimenting. And yet the comparatively
small number of experiments which had been made served
principally to make it clear that the actual knowledge
attained was but a small fraction of that which still remained
to be developed, and which was badly needed by us, in our
daily attempt to direct and help the machinists in their tasks.
Experiments in this field were carried on, with occasional
interruption, through a period of about 26 years, in the
course of which ten different experimental machines were
especially fitted up to do this work. Between 30,000 and
50,000 experiments were carefully recorded, and many
other experiments were made, of which no record was kept.
In studying these laws more than 800,000 pounds of steel
and iron was cut up into chips with the experimental tools,
and it is estimated that from $150,000 to $200,000 was
spent in the investigation.
Work of this character is intensely interesting to any one
who has any love for scientific research. For the purpose of
this paper, however, it should be fully appreciated that the
motive power which kept these experiments going through
many years, and which supplied the money and the
opportunity for their accomplishment, was not an abstract
search after scientific knowledge, but was the very practical
fact that we lacked the exact information which was needed
every day, in order to help our machinists to do their work
in the best way and in the quickest time.
All of these experiments were made to enable us to answer
correctly the two questions which face every machinist each
time that he does a piece of work in a metal-cutting
machine, such as a lathe, planer, drill press, or miring
machine. These two questions are:
In order to do the work in the quickest time, At what cutting
speed shall I run my machine? and
What feed shall I use?
They sound so simple that they would appear to call for
merely the trained judgment of any good mechanic. In fact,
however, after working 26 years, it has been found that the
answer in every case involves the solution of an intricate
mathematical problem, in which the effect of twelve
independent variables must be determined.
Each of the twelve following variables has an important
effect upon the answer. The figures which are given with
each of the variables represent the effect of this element
upon the cutting speed.
For example, after the first variable (A) we quote,
“The proportion is as I in the case of semi-hardened steel or
chilled iron to 100 in the case of a very soft, low-carbon
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steel.” The meaning of this quotation is that soft steel can
be cut 100 times as fast as the hard steel or chilled iron.
The ratios which are given, then, after each of these
elements, indicate the wide range of judgment which
practically every machinist has been called upon to exercise
in the past in determining the best speed at which to run
the machine and the best feed to use.
(A) The quality of the metal which is to be cut; i.e., its
hardness or other qualities which affect the cutting speed.
The proportion is as 1 in the case of semi-hardened steel or
chilled iron to 100 in the case of very soft, low-carbon steel.
(B) The chemical composition of the steel from which the
tool is made, and the heat treatment of the tool. The
proportion is as 1 in tools made from tempered carbon steel
to 7 in the best high-speed tools.
(C) The thickness of the shaving, or, the thickness of the
spiral strip or band of metal which is to be removed by the
tool. The proportion is as 1 with thickness of shaving 3/16
of an inch to 3 1/2 with thickness of shaving 1/64 of an inch.
(D) The shape or contour of the cutting edge of the tool.
The proportion is as 1 in a thread tool to 6 in a broad-nosed
cutting tool.
(E) Whether a copious stream of water or other cooling
medium is used on the tool. The proportion is as 1 for tool
running dry to 1.41 for tool cooled by a copious stream of
water.
(F) The depth of the cut. The proportion is as 1 with 1/2
inch depth of cut to 1.36 with 1/8 inch depth of cut.
(G) The duration of the cut, i.e., the time which a tool must
last under pressure of the shaving without being reground.
The proportion is as 1 when tool is to be ground every 1 1/2
hours to 1.20 when tool is to be ground every 20 minutes.
(H) The lip and clearance angles of the tool. The proportion
is as 1 with lip angle of 68 degrees to 1.023 with lip angle of
61 degrees.
(J) The elasticity of the work and of the tool on account of
producing chatter. The proportion is as 1 with tool
chattering to 1.15 with tool running smoothly.
(K) The diameter of the casting or forging which is being cut.
(L) The pressure of the chip or shaving upon the cutting
surface of the tool.
(M) The pulling power and the speed and feed changes of
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the machine.
It may seem preposterous to many people that it should
have required a period of 26 years to investigate the effect
of these twelve variables upon the cutting speed of metals.
To those, however, who have had personal experience as
experimenters, it will be appreciated that the great difficulty
of the problem lies in the fact that it contains so many
variable elements. And in fact the great length of time
consumed in making each single experiment was caused by
the difficulty of holding eleven variables constant and
uniform throughout the experiment, while the effect of the
twelfth variable was being investigated. Holding the eleven
variables constant was far more difficult than the
investigation of the twelfth element.
As, one after another, the effect upon the cutting speed of
each of these variables was investigated, in order that
practical use could be made of this knowledge, it was
necessary to find a mathematical formula which expressed
in concise form the laws which had been obtained. As
examples of the twelve formulae which were developed, the
three following are given:
P = 45,000 D 14/15 F 3/4
V = 90/T 1/8
V = 11.9/ (F 0.665(48/3 D) 0.2373 + (2.4 / (18 + 24D))
After these laws had been investigated and the various
formulae which mathematically expressed them had been
determined, there still remained the difficult task of how to
solve one of these complicated mathematical problems
quickly enough to make this knowledge available for every-
day use. If a good mathematician who had these formula
before Mm were to attempt to get the proper answer (i.e.,
to get the correct cutting speed and feed by working in the
ordinary way) it would take him from two to six hours, say,
to solve a single problem; far longer to solve the
mathematical problem than would be taken in most cases
by the workmen in doing the whole job in his machine. Thus
a task of considerable magnitude which faced us was that of
finding a quick solution of this problem, and as we made
progress in its solution, the whole problem was from time to
time presented by the writer to one after another of the
noted mathematicians in this country. They were offered
any reasonable fee for a rapid, practical method to be used
in its solution. Some of these men merely glanced at it;
others, for the sake of being courteous, kept it before them
for some two or three weeks. They all gave us practically
the same answer: that in many cases it was possible to,
solve mathematical problems which contained four
variables, and in some cases problems with five or six
variables, but that it was manifestly impossible to solve a
problem containing twelve variables in any other way than
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by the slow process of “trial and error.”
A quick solution was, however, so much of a necessity in
our every-day work of running machine-shops, that in spite
of the small encouragement received from the
mathematicians, we continued at irregular periods, through
a term of fifteen years, to give a large amount of time
searching for a simple solution. Four or five men at various
periods gave practically their whole time to this work, and
finally, while we were at the Bethlehem Steel Company, the
slide-rule was developed which is illustrated on Folder No.
11 of the paper “On the Art of Cutting Metals,” and is
described in detail in the paper presented by Mr. Carl G.
Barth to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers,
entitled “Slide-rules for the Machine-shop, as a part of the
Taylor System of Management” (Vol. XXV of The
Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical
Engineers). By means of this slide-rule, one of these
intricate problems can be solved in less than a half minute
by any good mechanics whether he understands anything
about mathematics or not, thus making available for every-
day, practical use the years of experimenting on the art of
cutting metals. This is a good illustration of the fact that
some way can always be found of making practical,
everyday use of complicated scientific data, which appears
to be beyond the experience and the range of the technical
training of ordinary practical men. These slide-rules have
been for years in constant daily use by machinists having no
knowledge of mathematics.
A glance at the intricate mathematical formula (see page
109) which represent the laws of cutting metals should
clearly show the reason why it is impossible for any
machinist, without the aid of these laws, and who depends
upon his personal experience, correctly to guess at the
answer to the two questions,
What speed shall I use?
What feed shall I use?
even though he may repeat the same piece of work many
times.
To return to the case of the machinist who had been
working for ten to twelve years in machining the same
pieces over and over again, there was but a remote chance
in any of the various kinds of work which this man did that
he should hit upon the one best method of doing each piece
of work out of the hundreds of possible methods which lay
before him. In considering this typical case, it must also be
remembered that the metal-cutting machines throughout
our machine-shops have practically all been speeded by
their makers by guesswork, and without the knowledge
obtained through a study of the art of cutting metals. In the
machine-shops systematized by us we have found that
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there is not one machine in a hundred which is speeded by
its makers at anywhere near the correct cutting speed. So
that, in order to compete with the science of cutting metals,
the machinist, before he could use proper speeds, would
first have to put new pulleys on the countershaft of his
machine, and also make in most cases changes in the
shapes and treatment of his tools, etc. Many of these
changes are matters entirely beyond his control, even if he
knows what ought to be done.
If the reason is clear to the reader why the rule-of-thumb
knowledge obtained by the machinist who is engaged on
repeat work cannot possibly compete with the true science
of cutting metals, it should be even more apparent why the
high-class mechanic, who is called upon to do a great
variety of work from day to day, is even less able to
compete with this science. The high-class mechanic who
does a different kind of work each day, in order to do each
job in the quickest time, would need, in addition to a
thorough knowledge of the art of cutting metals, a vast
knowledge and experience in the quickest way of doing
each kind of hand work. And the reader, by calling to mind
the gain which was made by Mr. Gilbreth through his motion
and time study in laying bricks, will appreciate the great
possibilities for quicker methods of doing all kinds of hand
work which lie before every tradesman after he has the help
which comes from a scientific motion and time study of his
work.
For nearly thirty years past, time-study men connected with
the management of machine-shops have been devoting
their whole time to a scientific motion study, followed by
accurate time study, with a stop-watch, of all of the
elements connected with the machinist’s work. When,
therefore, the teachers, who form one section of the
management, and who are cooperating with the working
men, are in possession both of the science of cutting metals
and of the equally elaborate motion-study and time-study
science connected with this work, it is not difficult to
appreciate why even the highest class mechanic is unable to
do his best work without constant daily assistance from his
teachers. And if this fact has been made clear to the reader,
one of the important objects in writing this paper will have
been realized.
It is hoped that the illustrations which have been given
make it apparent why scientific management must
inevitably in all cases produce overwhelmingly greater
results, both for the company and its employees, than can
be obtained with the management of “initiative and
incentive.” And it should also be clear that these results
have been attained, not through a marked superiority in the
mechanism of one type of management over the
mechanism of another, but rather through the substitution
of one set of underlying principles for a totally different set
of principles, by the substitution of one philosophy for
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another philosophy in industrial management.
To repeat then throughout all of these illustrations, it will be
seen that the useful results have hinged mainly upon (1)
the substitution of a science for the individual judgment of
the workman; (2) the scientific selection and development
of the workman, after each man has been studied, taught,
and trained, and one may say experimented with, instead of
allowing the workmen to select themselves and develop in a
haphazard way; and (3) the intimate cooperation of the
management with the workmen, so that they together do
the work in accordance with the scientific laws which have
been developed, instead of leaving the solution of each
problem in the hands of the individual workman. In applying
these new principles, in place of the old individual effort of
each workman, both sides share almost equally in the daily
performance of each task, the management doing that part
of the work for which they are best fitted, and the workmen
the balance.
It is for the illustration of this philosophy that this paper has
been written, but some of the elements involved in its
general principles should be further discussed.
The development of a science sounds like a formidable
undertaking, and in fact anything like a thorough study of a
science such as that of cutting metals necessarily involves
many years of work. The science of cutting metals,
however, represents in its complication, and in the time
required to develop it, almost an extreme case in the
mechanic arts. Yet even in this very intricate science, within
a few months after starting, enough knowledge had been
obtained to much more than pay for the work of
experimenting. This holds true in the case of practically all
scientific development in the mechanic arts. The first laws
developed for cutting metals were crude, and contained
only a partial knowledge of the truth, yet this imperfect
knowledge was vastly better than the utter lack of exact
information or the very imperfect rule of thumb which
existed before, and it enabled the workmen, with the help
of the management, to do far quicker and better work.
For example, a very short time was needed to discover one
or two types of tools which, though imperfect as compared
with the shapes developed years afterward, were superior
to all other shapes and kinds in common use. These tools
were adopted as standard and made possible an immediate
increase in the speed of every machinist who used them.
These types were superseded in a comparatively short time
by still other tools which remained standard until they in
their turn made way for later improvements.
The science which exists in most of the mechanic arts is,
however, far simpler than the science of cutting metals. In
almost all cases, in fact, the laws or rules which are
developed are so simple that the average man would hardly
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dignify them with the name of a science. In most trades,
the science is developed through a comparatively simple
analysis and time study of the movements required by the
workmen to do some small part of his work, and this study
is usually made by a man equipped merely with a stop-
watch and a properly ruled notebook. Hundreds of these
“time-study men” are now engaged in developing
elementary scientific knowledge where before existed only
rule of thumb. Even the motion study of Mr. Gilbreth in
bricklaying (described on pages 77 to 84) involves a much
more elaborate investigation than that which occurs in most
cases. The general steps to be taken in developing a simple
law of this class are as follows:
First. Find, say, 10 or 15 different men (preferably in as
many separate establishments and different parts of the
country) who are especially skilful in doing the particular
work to be analyzed.
Second. Study the exact series of elementary operations or
motions which each of these men uses in doing the work
which is being investigated, as well as the implements each
man uses.
Third. Study with a stop-watch the time required to make
each of these elementary movements and then select the
quickest way of doing each element of the work.
Fourth. Eliminate all false movements, slow movements,
and useless movements.
Fifth. After doing away with all unnecessary movements,
collect into one series the quickest and best movements as
well as the best implements.
This one new method, involving that series of motions which
can be made quickest and best, is then substituted in place
of the ten or fifteen inferior series which were formerly in
use. This best method becomes standard, and remains
standard, to be taught first to the teachers (or functional
foremen) and by them to every workman in the
establishment until it is superseded by a quicker and better
series of movements. In this simple way one element after
another of the science is developed.
In the same way each type of implement used in a trade is
studied. Under the philosophy of the management of
“initiative and incentive” each work-man is called upon to
use his own best judgment, so as to do the work in the
quickest time, and from this results in all cases a large
variety in the shapes and types of implements which are
used for any specific purpose. Scientific management
requires, first, a careful investigation of each of the many
modifications of the same implement, developed under rule
of thumb; and second, after a time study has been made of
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the speed attainable with each of these implements, that
the good points of several of them shall be united in a single
standard implement, which will enable the workman to work
faster and with greater ease than he could before. This one
implement, then, is adopted as standard in place of the
many different kinds before in use, and it remains standard
for all workmen to use until superseded by an implement
which has been shown, through motion and time study, to
be still better.
With this explanation it will be seen that the development of
a science to replace rule of thumb is in most cases by no
means a formidable under-taking, and that it can be
accomplished by ordinary, every-day men without any
elaborate scientific training; but that, on the other hand, the
successful use of even the simplest improvement of this
kind calls for records, system, and cooperation where in the
past existed only individual effort.
There is another type of scientific investigation which has
been referred to several times in this paper, and which
should receive special attention, namely, the accurate study
of the motives which influence men. At first it may appear
that this is a matter for individual observation and
judgment, and is not a proper subject for exact scientific
experiments. It is true that the laws which result from
experiments of this class, owing to the fact that the very
complex organism–the human being–is being
experimented with, are subject to a larger number of
exceptions than is the case with laws relating to material
things. And yet laws of this kind, which apply to a large
majority of men, unquestionably exist, and when clearly
defined are of great value as a guide in dealing with men. In
developing these laws, accurate, carefully planned and
executed experiments, extending through a term of years,
have been made, similar in a general way to the
experiments upon various other elements which have been
referred to in this paper. Perhaps the most important law
belonging to this class, in its relation to scientific
management, is the effect which the task idea has upon the
efficiency of the workman. This, in fact, has become such an
important element of the mechanism of scientific
management, that by a great number of people scientific
management has come to be known as “task management.”
There is absolutely nothing new in the task idea. Each one
of us will remember that in his own case this idea was
applied with good results in his school-boy days. No efficient
teacher would think of giving a class of students an
indefinite lesson to learn. Each day a definite, clear-cut task
is set by the teacher before each scholar, stating that he
must learn just so much of the subject; and it is only by this
means that proper, systematic progress can be made by the
students. The average boy would go very slowly if, instead
of being given a task, he were told to do as much as he
could. All of us are grown-up children, and it is equally true
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that the average workman will work with the greatest
satisfaction, both to himself and to his employer, when he is
given each day a definite task which he is to perform in a
given time, and which constitutes a proper day’s work for a
good workman. This furnishes the workman with a clear-cut
standard, by which he can throughout the day measure his
own progress, and the accomplishment of which affords him
the greatest satisfaction.
The writer has described in other papers a series of
experiments made upon workmen, which have resulted in
demonstrating the fact that it is impossible, through any
long period of time, to get work-men to work much harder
than the average men around them, unless they are
assured a large and a permanent increase in their pay. This
series of experiments, however, also proved that plenty of
workmen can be found who are willing to work at their best
speed, provided they are given this liberal increase in
wages. The workman must, however, be fully assured that
this increase beyond the average is to be permanent. Our
experiments have shown that the exact percentage of
increase required to make a workman work at his highest
speed depends upon the kind of work which the man is
doing.
It is absolutely necessary, then, when workmen are daily
given a task which calls for a high rate of speed on their
part, that they should also be insured the necessary high
rate of pay whenever they are successful. This involves not
only fixing for each man his daily task, but also paying him
a large bonus, or premium, each time that he succeeds in
doing his task in the given time. It is difficult to appreciate
in full measure the help which the proper use of these two
elements is to the workman in elevating him to the highest
standard of efficiency and speed in his trade, and then
keeping him there, unless one has seen first the old plan
and afterward the new tried upon the same man. And in
fact until one has seen similar accurate experiments made
upon various grades of workmen engaged in doing widely
different types of work. The remarkable and almost
uniformly good results from the correct application of the
task and the bonus must be seen to be appreciated.
These two elements, the task and the bonus (which, as has
been pointed out in previous papers, can be applied in
several ways), constitute two of the most important
elements of the mechanism of scientific management. They
are especially important from the fact that they are, as it
were, a climax, demanding before they can be used almost
all of the other elements of the mechanism; such as a
planning department, accurate time study, standardization
of methods and implements, a routing system, the training
of functional foremen or teachers, and in many cases
instruction cards slide-rules, etc. (Referred to later in rather
more detail on page 129.)
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The necessity for systematically teaching workmen how to
work to the best advantage has been several times referred
to. It seems desirable, therefore, to explain in rather more
detail how this teaching is done. In the case of a machine-
shop which is managed under the modern system, detailed
written instructions are the best way of doing each piece of
work are prepared in advance, by men in the planning
department. These instructions represent the combined
work of several men in the planning room, each of whom
has his own specialty, or function. One of them, for
instance, is a specialist on the proper speeds and cutting
tools to be used. He uses the slide-rules which have been
above described as an aid, to guide him in obtaining proper
speeds, etc. Another man analyzes the best and quickest
motions to be made by the workman in setting the work up
in the machine and removing it, etc. Still a third, through
the time-study records which have been accumulated,
makes out a timetable giving the proper speed for doing
each element of the work. The directions of all of these
men, however, are written on a single instruction card, or
sheet.
These men of necessity spend most of their time in the
planning department, because they must be close to the
records and data which they continually use in their work,
and because this work requires the use of a desk and
freedom from interruption. Human nature is such, however,
that many of the workmen, if left to themselves, would pay
but little attention to their written instructions. It is
necessary, therefore, to provide teachers (called functional
foremen) to see that the workmen both understand and
carry out these written instructions.
Under functional management, the old-fashioned single
foreman is superseded by eight different men, each one of
whom has his own special duties, and these men, acting as
the agents for the planning department (see paragraph 234
to 245 of the paper entitled “Shop Management”), are the
expert teachers, who are at all times in the shop, helping,
and directing the workmen. Being each one chosen for his
knowledge and personal skill in his specialty, they are able
not only to tell the workman what he should do, but in case
of necessity they do the work themselves in the presence of
the workman, so as to show him not only the best but also
the quickest methods.
One of these teachers (called the inspector) sees to it that
he understands the drawings and instructions for doing the
work. He teaches him how to do work of the right quality;
how to make it fine and exact where it should be fine, and
rough and quick where accuracy is not required,–the one
being just as important for success as the other. The second
teacher (the gang boss) shows him how to set up the job in
his machine, and teaches him to make all of his personal
motions in the quickest and best way. The third (the speed
boss) sees that the machine is run at the best speed and
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that the proper tool is used in the particular way which will
enable the machine to finish its product in the shortest
possible time. In addition to the assistance given by these
teachers, the workman receives orders and help from four
other men; from the “repair boss” as to the adjustment,
cleanliness, and general care of his machine, belting, etc.;
from the “time clerk,” as to everything relating to his pay
and to proper written reports and returns; from the “route
clerk,” as to the order in which he does his work and as to
the movement of the work from one part of the shop to
another; and, in case a workman gets into any trouble with
any of his various bosses, the “disciplinarian” interviews him.
It must be understood, of course, that all workmen engaged
on the same kind of work do not require the same amount
of individual teaching and attention from the functional
foremen. The men who are new at a given operation
naturally require far more teaching and watching than those
who have been a long time at the same kind of jobs.
Now, when through all of this teaching and this minute
instruction the work is apparently made so smooth and easy
for the workman, the first impression is that this all tends to
make him a mere automaton, a wooden man. As the
workmen frequently say when they first come under this
system, “Why, I am not allowed to think or move without
some one interfering or doing it for me!” The same criticism
and objection, however, can be raised against all other
modern subdivision of labor. It does not follow, for example,
that the modern surgeon is any more narrow or wooden a
man than the early settler of this country. The frontiersman,
however, had to be not only a surgeon, but also an
architect, house-builder, lumberman, farmer, soldier, and
doctor, and he had to settle his law cases with a gun. You
would hardly say that the life of the modern surgeon is any
more narrowing, or that he is more of a wooden man than
the frontiersman. The many problems to be met and solved
by the surgeon are just as intricate and difficult and as
developing and broadening in their way as were those of the
frontiersman.
And it should be remembered that the training of the
surgeon has been almost identical in type with the teaching
and training which is given to the workman under scientific
management. The surgeon, all through his early years, is
under the closest supervision of more experienced men,
who show him in the minutest way how each element of his
work is best done. They provide him with the finest
implements, each one of which has been the subject of
special study and development, and then insist upon his
using each of these implements in the very best way. AR of
this teaching, however, in no way narrows him. On the
contrary he is quickly given the very best knowledge of his
predecessors; and, provided (as he is, right from the start)
with standard implements and methods which represent the
best knowledge of the world up to date, he is able to use his
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own originality and ingenuity to make real additions to the
world’s knowledge, instead of reinventing things which are
old. In a similar way the workman who is cooperating with
his many teachers under scientific management has an
opportunity to develop which is at least as good as and
generally better than that which he had when the whole
problem was “up to him” and he did his work entirely
unaided.
If it were true that the workman would develop into a larger
and finer man without all of this teaching, and without the
help of the laws which have been formulated for doing his
particular job, then it would follow that the young man who
now comes to college to have the help of a teacher in
mathematics, physics, chemistry, Latin, Greek, etc., would
do better to study these things unaided and by himself. The
only difference in the two cases is that students come to
their teachers, while from the nature of the work done by
the mechanic under scientific management, the teachers
must go to him. What really happens is that, with the aid of
the science which is invariably developed, and through the
instructions from his teachers, each workman of a given
intellectual capacity is enabled to do a much higher, more
interesting, and finally more developing and more profitable
kind of work than he was before able to do. The laborer who
before was unable to do anything beyond, perhaps,
shoveling and wheeling dirt from place to place, or carrying
the work from one part of the shop to another, is in many
cases taught to do the more elementary machinist’s work,
accompanied by the agreeable surroundings and the
interesting variety and higher wages which go with the
machinist’s trade. The cheap machinist or helper, who
before was able to run perhaps merely a drill press, is
taught to do the more intricate and higher priced lathe and
planer work, while the highly skilled and more intelligent
machinists become functional foremen and teachers. And so
on, right up the line.
It may seem that with scientific management there is not
the same incentive for the workman to use his ingenuity in
devising new and better methods of doing the work, as well
as in improving his implements, that there is with the old
type of management. It is true that with scientific
management the workman is not allowed to use whatever
implements and methods he sees fit in the daily practice of
his work. Every encouragement, however, should be given
him to suggest improvements, both in methods and in
implements. And whenever a workman proposes an
improvement, it should be the policy of the management to
make a careful analysis of the new method, and if
necessary conduct a series of experiments to determine
accurately the relative merit of the new suggestion and of
the old standard. And whenever the new method is found to
be markedly superior to the old, it should be adopted as the
standard for the whole establishment. The workman should
be given the full credit for the improvement, and should be
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paid a cash premium as a reward for his ingenuity. In this
way the true initiative of the workmen is better attained
under scientific management than under the old individual
plan.
The history of the development of scientific, management
up to date, however, calls for a word of warning. The
mechanism of management must not be mistaken for its
essence, or underlying philosophy. Precisely the same
mechanism will in one case produce disastrous results and
in another the most beneficent. The same mechanism which
will produce the finest results when made to serve the
underlying principles of scientific management, will lead to
failure and disaster if accompanied by the wrong spirit in
those who are using it. Hundreds of people have already
mistaken the mechanism of this system for its essence.
Messrs. Gantt, Barth and the writer have presented papers
to, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers on the
subject of scientific management. In these papers the
mechanism which is used has been described at some
length. As elements of this mechanism may be cited:
Time study, with the implements and methods for properly
making it.
Functional or divided foremanship and its superiority to the
old-fashioned single foreman.
The standardization of all tools and implements used in the
trades, and also of the acts or movements of workmen for
each class of work.
The desirability of a planning room or department.
The “exception principle” in management.
The use of slide-rules and similar timesaving implements.
Instruction cards for the workman.
The task idea in management, accompanied by a large
bonus for the successful performance of the task.
The “differential rate.”
Mnemonic systems for classifying manufactured products as
well as implements used in manufacturing.
A routing system.
Modern cost system, etc., etc.
These are, however, merely the elements or details of the
mechanism of management. Scientific management, in its
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essence, consists of a certain philosophy, which results, as
before stated, in a combination of the four great underlying
principles of management:
First. The development of a true science.
Second, The scientific selection of the workman.
Third. His scientific education and development.
Fourth. Intimate friendly cooperation between the
management and the men.
When, however the elements of this mechanism, such as
time study, functional foremanship etc., are used without
being accompanied by the true philosophy of management,
the results are in many cases disastrous. And,
unfortunately, even when men who are thoroughly in
sympathy with the principles of scientific management
undertake to change too rapidly from the old type to the
new, without heeding the warnings of those who have had
years of experience in making this change, they frequently
meet with serious troubles, and sometimes with strikes,
followed by failure.
The writer, in his paper on “Shop Management,” has called
especial attention to the risks which managers run in
attempting to change rapidly from the old to the new
management. in many cases, however, this warning has not
been heeded. The physical changes which are needed, the
actual time study which has to be made, the standardization
of all implements connected with the work, the necessity for
individually studying each machine and placing it in perfect
order, all take time, but the faster these elements of the
work are studied and improved, the better for the
undertaking. On the other hand, the really great problem
involved in a change from the management of “initiative
and incentive” to scientific management consists in a
complete revolution in the mental attitude and the habits of
all of those engaged in the management, as well of the
workmen. And this change can be brought about only
gradually and through the presentation of many object-
lessons to the workman, which, together with the teaching
which he receives, thoroughly convince him of the
superiority of the new over the old way of doing the work.
This change in the mental attitude of the workman
imperatively demands time. It is impossible to hurry it
beyond a certain speed. The writer has over and over again
warned those who contemplated making this change that it
was a matter, even in a simple establishment, of from two
to three years, and that in some cases it requires from four
to five years.
The first few changes which affect the workmen should be
made exceedingly slowly, and only one workman at a time
should be dealt with at the start. Until this single man has
been thoroughly convinced that a great gain has come to
him from the new method, no further change should be
made. Then one man after another should be tactfully
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changed over. After passing the point at which from one.-
fourth to one-third of the men in the employ of the
company have been changed from the old to the new, very
rapid progress can be made, because at about this time
there is, generally, a complete revolution in the public
opinion of the whole establishment and practically all of the
workmen who are working under the old system become
desirous to share in the benefits which they see have been
received by those working under the new plan.
Inasmuch as the writer has personally retired from the
business of introducing this system of management (that is,
from all work done in return for any money compensation),
he does not hesitate again to emphasize the fact that those
companies are indeed fortunate who can secure the services
of experts who have had the necessary practical experience
in introducing scientific management, and who have made a
special study of its principles. It is not enough that a man
should have been a manager in an establishment which is
run under the new principles. The man who undertakes to
direct the steps to be taken in changing from the old to the
new (particularly in any establishment doing elaborate
work) must have had personal experience in overcoming
the especial difficulties which are always met with, and
which are peculiar to this period of transition. It is for this
reason that the writer expects to devote the rest of his life
chiefly to trying to help those who wish to take up this work
as their profession, and to advising the managers and
owners of companies in general as to the steps which they
should take in making this change.
As a warning to those who contemplate adopting scientific
management, the following instance is given. Several men
who lacked the extended experience which is required to
change without danger of strikes, or without interference
with the success of the business, from the management of
“initiative and incentive” to scientific management,
attempted rapidly to increase the output in quite an
elaborate establishment, employing between three
thousand and four thousand men. Those who undertook to
make this change were men of unusual ability, and were at
the same time enthusiasts and I think had the interests of
the workmen truly at heart. They were, however, warned by
the writer, before starting, that they must go exceedingly
slowly, and that the work of making the change in this
establishment could not be done in less than from three to
five years. This warning they entirely disregarded. They
evidently believed that by using much of the mechanism of
scientific management, in combination with the principles of
the management of “initiative and incentive,” instead of
with these principles of scientific management, that they
could do, in a year or two, what had been proved in the
past to require at least double this time. The knowledge
obtained from accurate time study, for example, is a
powerful implement, and can be used, in one case to
promote harmony between the workmen and the
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management, by gradually educating, training, and leading
the workmen into new and better methods of doing the
work, or, in the other case, it may be used more or less as
a club to drive the workmen into doing a larger day’s work
for approximately the same pay that they received in the
past. Unfortunately the men who had charge of this work
did not take the time and the trouble required to train
functional foremen, or teachers, who were fitted gradually
to lead and educate the workmen. They attempted, through
the old-style foreman, armed with his new weapon
(accurate time study), to drive the workmen, against their
wishes, and without much increase in pay, to work much
harder, instead of gradually teaching and leading them
toward new methods, and convincing them through object-
lessons that task management means for them somewhat
harder work, but also far greater prosperity. The result of all
this disregard of fundamental principles was a series of
strikes, followed by the down-fall of the men who attempted
to make the change, and by a return to conditions
throughout the establishment far worse than those which
existed before the effort was made.
This instance is cited as an object-lesson of the futility of
using the mechanism of the new management while leaving
out its essence, and also of trying to shorten a necessarily
long operation in entire disregard of past experience. It
should be emphasized that the men who undertook this
work were both able and earnest, and that failure was not
due to lack of ability on their part, but to their undertaking
to do the impossible. These particular men will not again
make a similar mistake, and it is hoped that their
experience may act as a warning to others.
In this connection, however, it is proper to again state that
during the thirty years that we have been engaged in
introducing scientific management there has not been a
single strike from those who were working in accordance
with its principles, even during the critical period when the
change was being made from the old to the new. If proper
methods are used by men who have had experience in this
work, there is absolutely no danger from strikes or other
troubles.
The writer would again insist that in no case should the
managers of an establishment ‘, the work of which is
elaborate, undertake to change from the old to the new
type unless the directors of the company fully understand
and believe in the fundamental principles of scientific
management and unless they appreciate all that is involved
in making this change, particularly the time required, and
unless they want scientific management greatly.
Doubtless some of those who are especially interested in
working men will complain because under scientific
management the workman, when he is shown how to do
twice as much work as he formerly did, is not paid twice his
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former wages, while others who are more interested in the
dividends than the workmen will complain that under this
system the men receive much higher wages than they did
before.
It does seem grossly unjust when the bare statement is
made that the competent pig-iron handler, for instance,
who has been so trained that he piles 3 6/10 times as much
iron as the incompetent man formerly did, should receive an
increase of only 60 per cent in wages.
It is not fair, however, to form any final judgment until all of
the elements in the case have been considered. At the first
glance we see only two parties to the transaction, the
workmen and their employers. We overlook the third great
party, the whole people,–the consumers, who buy the
product of the first two and who ultimately pay both the
wages of the workmen and the profits of the employers.
The rights of the people are therefore greater than those of
either employer or employee. And this third great party
should be given its proper share of any gain. In fact, a
glance at industrial history shows that in the end the whole
people receive the greater part of the benefit coming from
industrial improvements. In the past hundred years, for
example, the greatest factor tending toward increasing the
output, and thereby the prosperity of the civilized world,
has been the introduction of machinery to replace hand
labor. And without doubt the greatest gain through this
change has come to the whole people–the consumer.
Through short periods, especially in the case of patented
apparatus, the dividends of those who have introduced new
machinery have been greatly increased, and in many cases,
though unfortunately not universally, the employees have
obtained materially higher wages, shorter hours, and better
working conditions. But in the end the major part of the
gain has gone to the whole people.
And this result will follow the introduction of scientific
management just as surely as it has the introduction of
machinery.
To return to the case of the pig-iron handler. We must
assume, then, that the larger part of the gain which has
come from his great increase in output will in the end go to
the people in the form of cheaper pig-iron. And before
deciding upon how the balance is to be divided between the
workmen and the employer, as to what is just and fair
compensation for the man who does the piling and what
should be left for the company as profit, we must look at
the matter from all sides.
First. As we have before stated, the pig-iron handler is not
an extraordinary man difficult to find, he is merely a man
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more or less of the type of the ox, heavy both mentally and
physically.
Second. The work which this man does tires him no more
than any healthy normal laborer is tired by a proper day’s
work. (If this man is overtired by his work, then the task
has been wrongly set and this is as far as possible from the
object of scientific management.)
Third. It was not due to this man’s initiative or originality
that he did his big day’s work, but to the knowledge of the
science of pig-iron handling developed and taught him by
some one else.
Fourth. It is just and fair that men of the same general
grade (when their all-round capacities are considered)
should be paid about the same wages when they are all
working to the best of their abilities. (It would be grossly
unjust to other laborers, for instance, to pay this man 3
6/10 as high wages as other men of his general grade
receive for an honest full day’s work.)
Fifth. As is explained (page 74), the 60 per cent increase in
pay which he received was not the result of an arbitrary
judgment of a foreman or superintendent, it was the result
of a long series of careful experiments impartially made to
determine what compensation is really for the man’s true
and best interest when all things are considered.
Thus we see that the pig-iron handler with his 60 per cent
increase in wages is not an object for pity but rather a
subject for congratulation.
After all, however, facts are in many cases more convincing
than opinions or theories, and it is a significant fact that
those workmen who have come under this system during
the past thirty years have invariably been satisfied with the
increase in pay, which they have received, while their
employers have been equally pleased with their increase in
dividends.
The writer is one of those who believes that more and more
will the third party (the whole people), as it becomes
acquainted with the true facts, insist that justice shall be
done to all three parties. It will demand the largest
efficiency from both employers and employees. It will no
longer tolerate the type of employer who has his eye on
dividends alone, who refuses to do his full share of the work
and who merely cracks his whip over the heads of his
workmen and attempts to drive them into harder work for
low pay. No more will it tolerate tyranny on the part of labor
which demands one increase after another in pay and
shorter hours while at the same time it becomes less
instead of more efficient.
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And the means which the writer firmly believes will be
adopted to bring about, first, efficiency both in employer
and employs and then an equitable division of the profits of
their joint efforts will be scientific management, which has
for its sole aim the attainment of justice for all three parties
through impartial scientific investigation of all the elements
of the problem. For a time both sides will rebel against this
advance. The workers will resent any interference with their
old rule-of-thumb methods, and the management will
resent being asked to take on new duties and burdens; but
in the end the people through enlightened public opinion will
force the new order of things upon both employer and
employee.
It will doubtless be claimed that in all that has been said no
new fact has been brought to light that was not known to
some one in the past. Very likely this is true. Scientific
management does not necessarily involve any great
invention, nor the discovery of new or startling facts. It
does, however, involve a certain combination of elements
which have not existed in the past, namely, old knowledge
so collected, analyzed, grouped, and classified into laws and
rules that it constitutes a science; accompanied by a
complete change in the mental attitude of the working men
as well as of those on the side of the management, toward
each other, and toward their respective duties and
responsibilities. Also, a new division of the duties between
the two sides and intimate, friendly cooperation to an
extent that is impossible under the philosophy of the old
management. And even all of this in many cases could not
exist without the help of mechanisms which have been
gradually developed.
It is no single element, but rather this whole combination,
that constitutes scientific management, which may be
summarized as:
Science, not rule of thumb.
Harmony, not discord.
Cooperation, not individualism.
Maximum output, in place of restricted output.
The development of each man to his greatest efficiency and
prosperity.
The writer wishes to again state that: “The time is fast
going by for the great personal or individual achievement of
any one man standing alone and without the help of those
around him. And the time is coming when all great things
will be done by that type of cooperation in which each man
performs the function for which he is best suited, each man
preserves his own individuality and is supreme in his
particular function, and each man at the same time loses
none of his originality and proper personal initiative, and yet
is controlled by and must work harmoniously with many
other men.”
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The examples given above of the increase in output realized
under the new management fairly represent the gain which
is possible. They do not represent extraordinary or
exceptional cases, and have been selected from among
thousands of similar illustrations which might have been
given.
Let us now examine the good which would follow the
general adoption of
these principles.
The larger profit would come to the whole world in general.
The greatest material gain which those of the present
generation have over past generations has come from the
fact that the average man in this generation, with a given
expenditure of effort, is producing two times, three times,
even four times as much of those things that are of use to
man as it was possible for the average man in the past to
produce. This increase in the productivity of human effort is,
of course, due to many causes, besides the increase in the
personal dexterity of the man. It is due to the discovery of
steam and electricity, to the introduction of machinery, to
inventions, great and small, and to the progress in science
and education. But from whatever cause this increase in
productivity has come, it is to the greater productivity of
each individual that the whole country owes its greater
prosperity.
Those who are afraid that a large increase in the
productivity of each workman will throw other men out of
work, should realize that the one element more than any
other which differentiates civilized from uncivilized
countries–prosperous from poverty–stricken peoples–is
that the average man in the one is five or six times as
productive as the other. It is also a fact that the chief cause
for the large percentage of the unemployed in England
(perhaps the most virile nation in the world), is that the
workmen of England, more than in any other civilized
country, are deliberately restricting their output because
they are possessed by the fallacy that it is against their best
interest for each man to work as hard as he can.
The general adoption of scientific management would
readily in the future double the productivity of the average
man engaged in industrial work. Think of what this means
to the whole country. Think of the increase, both in the
necessities and luxuries of life, which becomes available for
the whole country, of the possibility of shortening the hours
of labor when this is desirable, and of the increased
opportunities for education, culture, and recreation which
this implies. But while the whole world would profit by this
increase in production, the manufacturer and the workman
will be far more interested in the especial local gain that
comes to them and to the people immediately around them.
Scientific management will mean, for the employers and the
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workmen who adopt it–and particularly for those who adopt
it first–the elimination of almost all causes for dispute and
disagreement between them. What constitutes a fair day’s
work will be a question for scientific investigation, instead of
a subject to be bargained and haggled over. Soldiering will
cease because the object for soldiering will no longer exist.
The great increase in wages which accompanies this type of
management will largely eliminate the wage question as a
source of dispute. But more than all other causes, the close,
intimate cooperation, the constant personal contact
between the two sides, will tend to diminish friction and
discontent. It is difficult for two people whose interests are
the same, and who work side by side in accomplishing the
same object, all day long, to keep up a quarrel.
The low cost of production which accompanies a doubling of
the output will enable the companies who adopt this
management, particularly those who adopt it first, to
compete far better than they were able to before, and this
will so enlarge their markets that their men will have almost
constant work even in dull times, and that they will earn
larger profits at all times.
This means increase in prosperity and diminution in
poverty, not only for their men but for the whole community
immediately around them.
As one of the elements incident to this great gain in output,
each workman has been systematically trained to his
highest state of efficiency, and has been taught to do a
higher class of work than he was able to do under the old
types of management; and at the same time he has
acquired a friendly mental attitude toward his employers
and his whole working conditions, whereas before a
considerable part of his time was spent in criticism,
suspicious watchfulness, and sometimes in open warfare.
This direct gain to all of those working under the system is
without doubt the most important single element in the
whole problem.
Is not the realization of results such as these of far more
importance than the solution of most of the problems which
are now agitating both the English and American peoples?
And is it not the duty of those who are acquainted with
these facts, to exert themselves to make the whole
community realize this importance?
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