Frederick Taylor
Frederick W. Taylor (1856～1915) was a famous American inventor and classical inventor
Management scientist, the founder of scientific management, is revered as the "Father of Scientific Management". Born on March 20, 1856 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA, into a wealthy lawyer family. Taylor attended schools in France and Germany, and later entered Harvard University's law department. But because he worked very hard, his vision and hearing were damaged, so he had to drop out of school.
After leaving Harvard University, he entered the metalworking shop of Enterprise Hydraulic Factory in Philadelphia as a pattern maker and machinist apprentice. In 1878, he entered Philadelphia's Meadville Steel Works as an ordinary worker. Due to his hard work, Taylor was promoted to clerk, and later to machinist squad leader, workshop foreman, and factory chief technician. Only six years passed in between. While at work, he participated in the part-time study class of Stevens Technical College in New Jersey
and obtained a mechanical degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey in 1883
degree in engineering, and in 1884 was promoted to chief engineer of the Meadville Iron Works.
When he came to work as a worker in the Meadville factory, Taylor had really begun to observe management issues. He found that many workers were slow and inefficient when working. This phenomenon aroused his strong concern. In order to improve management, he conducted various experiments at the Meadville Steel Plant and conducted research and analysis on the reasons for low output caused by workers' "slow work". Later, he
began to conduct research on working hours, hoping to provide reliable scientific basis for establishing work standards. At the same time, Taylor proposed the "differential piece rate system". Taylor served as general manager of a machinery manufacturing investment company in 1890. In 1893, he resigned from the company and started his own business as a management consultant.
From 1898 to 1901, he was employed by the Bethelion Steel Company in Pennsylvania as a management consultant. On the basis of a large number of experiments, his scientific management ideas were gradually formed. After retiring from Bethelion Steel, Taylor began promoting his scientific management system by writing articles and giving speeches. Starting in 1903, he lectured at Harvard University every week. Taylor died in 1915 at the age of 59.
Most of Taylor's articles were submitted to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the form of papers: in 1895, he published his first paper "Piecework" at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
"Wage System"; later published "Factory Management" in 1903; in 1906, he published a paper "On Metal Cutting" with great contribution; other works include "On Conveyor Belts", "Comparison of Discipline and Methods in Universities and Factories
", "Why Manufacturers Don't Like College Students", "The Gospel of Efficiency", "Principles and Methods of Scientific Management
" ( 1911), "Scientific Management" (1912), etc. Among them, "Principles and Methods of Scientific Management" and "Factory Management" (1903), published in 1911, are his masterpieces.
Taylor's scientific management experiments
■ Experiments in moving iron blocks
In 1898, Taylor began his experiments at the Bethlehem Steel Works. The raw materials of this factory were transported by a group of day laborers. The workers earned 1.15 US dollars a day, which was the standard wage at the time. The weight of the iron blocks transported every day was 12 to 13 tons.
The methods of reward and punishment for workers are to talk to workers or expel them. Sometimes, you can also select some better workers to work in the workshop to grade them
work and receive slightly higher wages.
Later, Taylor observed and studied 75 workers, selected four of them, studied these four individuals, investigated their background habits and ambitions, and finally selected one named Schmidt. Man, this man is very
loves money and is stingy. Taylor asked the man to work according to the new requirements and pay him $1.85 a day. By carefully
studying
various work factors, we can observe their impact on production efficiency. For example, sometimes the workers bent over to carry the goods, and sometimes they carried them straight. Later, he looked at walking speed, holding position and other variables. Through long-term observation and experiments, and a good combination of working time and rest time, the daily workload of workers can be increased to 47 tons, while not Feeling too tired. He also adopted a piece-rate wage system. After the workers moved 47 tons per day, their wages rose to US$1.85. After Schmidt started working, he finished moving 47.5 tons very early on the first day and received a salary of 1.85 US dollars. As a result, other workers gradually followed this method, and labor productivity increased a lot.
Taylor attributed the success of this experiment to four core points:
Carefully selected workers.
?Let workers understand the benefits of doing so and let them accept the new method.
?Train and help them so that they can acquire sufficient skills.
?Working according to scientific methods will save physical energy.
Taylor believed that even a job like moving iron blocks was a science and could be managed using scientific methods.
■ Excavation experiment of iron sand and coal
In the early days, workers in factories had to bring their own shovels. The sizes of shovels are also different, and the same tool is used when shoveling different raw materials. So if the weight is appropriate when shoveling coal and sand, it will be too heavy when shoveling iron sand.
Taylor's research found that the average load of each worker was 21 pounds. Later, he stopped letting workers bring their own tools, and instead prepared a number of different shovels, each with a different load. The shovels are only suitable for shoveling specific materials, which not only allows workers to load up to 21 pounds per shovel, but also allows different shovels to be suitable for different situations. To this end, he also built a large warehouse in which various tools were stored, each with a load of 21 pounds. At the same time, he also designed a card with two labels. One shows the tools the workers received in the tool room and where they should work, and the other shows what he did the day before. Work situation, which records the income from work
. When a worker gets a white paper card, it means he is doing a good job. When he gets a yellow paper card, it means he needs to work harder. Otherwise, he will be transferred.
Distributing different tools to different workers requires prior planning, someone must be specifically responsible for this work, and additional management personnel are required. However, despite this, The factory has also benefited greatly. It is said that this change can save the factory 80,000 US dollars per year
.
Taylor came up with a new idea because of this experiment:
?Introducing experimental methods into the field of business management.
?Separation of planning and execution.
?Standardized management.
?Using people to make the best use of their talents and materials is the best way to improve efficiency.
■ Metal cutting experiments
While at Midvale Company, Taylor conducted metal cutting experiments in order to solve the problem of worker slackness. He himself had some knowledge of metal cutting operations, so he studied the efficiency of the lathe and started a trial that was expected to take six months. When
working with lathes, drill presses, planers, etc., you must decide what kind of cutting tools and what speed to use to obtain the best processing efficiency
. This test was very complex and difficult. It was originally scheduled to take six months but actually took 26 years and cost a huge amount of money.
More than 800,000 tons of steel were consumed.
Finally, with the help of more than a dozen experts including Bass and White, significant progress was made. This experiment also resulted in an important by-product - the invention and patent of high-speed steel.
Taylor's three experiments can be said to have achieved great success. It was these scientific experiments that laid a solid foundation for his scientific management thought
and made management a real science, which will be important for the maturity and development of future management theories
< p> played a very big role in promoting.