RTU DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Frederick W. Taylor
I. Biography

Frederick W. Taylor, Full Frederick Winslow Taylor, (born March 20, 1856,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.— died March 21, 1915, Philadelphia), American

inventor and engineer known as the father of scientific administration. His industrial

management system has influenced the growth of virtually every country enjoying

the advantages of modern industry. Taylor was the son of a lawyer.

In 1872, he entered the Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, where he

scholastically led his class. He was forced to abandon matriculation plans after

completing Harvard's entrance exam, because his eyesight had suffered from night

training. With sight restored in 1875, he was apprenticed to learn the trades of

patternmaker and machinist at the Enterprise Hydraulic Works in Philadelphia.

Three years later he went to the Midvale Steel Company, where, starting as a

machine shop laborer, he became successively shop clerk, machinist, gang boss,

foreman, maintenance foreman, head of the drawing office, and chief engineer. In

1881, at age 25, he introduced time study at the Midvale plant. The profession of

time study was founded on the success of this project, which also formed the basis

of Taylor’s subsequent theories of management science. Essentially, Taylor

suggested that production efficiency in a shop or factory could be

greatly enhanced by close observation of the individual worker and elimination of

waste time and motion in his operation. Though the Taylor system provoked

resentment and opposition from labor when carried to extremes, its value in

rationalizing production was indisputable and its impact on the development of mass
 RTU DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
production techniques immense. Taylor retired at age 45 but continued to devote

time and money to promote the principles of scientific management through lectures

at universities and professional societies. From 1904 to 1914, with his wife and three

adopted children, Taylor lived in Philadelphia. The American Society of Mechanical

Engineers elected him president in 1906, the same year that he was awarded an

honorary doctor of science degree by the University of Pennsylvania. Many of his

influential publications first appeared in the Transactions of that society—namely,

“Notes on Belting” (1894), “A Piece-Rate System” (1895), “Shop Management”

(1903), and “On the Art of Cutting Metals” (1906). The Principles of Scientific

Management was published commercially in 1911.

II. The Work of Frederick W. Taylor

In 1909, Taylor published The Principles of Scientific Management. In this

book, he suggested that productivity would increase if jobs were optimized and

simplified. He also proposed matching a worker to a particular job that suited the

person’s skill level and then training the worker to do that job in a specific way.

Taylor first developed the idea of breaking down each job into component parts and

timing each part to determine the most efficient method of working. Soon afterward,

two management theorists, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, came up with the idea of

filming workers to analyze their motions. Their ideas have since been combined into

one process (called time and motion studies) for analyzing the most productive way

to complete a task.
 RTU DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
Scientific management has at its heart four core principles that also apply to

organizations today. They include the following:

 Look at each job or task scientifically to determine the “one best way” to

perform the job. This is a change from the previous “rule of thumb” method

where workers devised their own ways to do the job.

 Hire the right workers for each job, and train them to work at maximum

efficiency.

 Monitor worker performance, and provide instruction and training when

needed.

 Divide the work between management and labor so that management can plan

and train, and workers can execute the task efficiently.

Taylor designed his approach for use in places where the work could be quantified,

systemized, and standardized, such as in factories. In scientific management, there

is one right way to do a task; workers were not encouraged (in fact, they were

forbidden) to make decisions or evaluate actions that might produce a better result.

Taylor was concerned about the output more than worker satisfaction or motivation.

Taylor’s work introduced for the first time the idea of systematic training and

selection, and it encouraged business owners to work with employees to increase

productivity and efficiency. And he introduced a “first-class worker” concept to set

the standard for what a worker should be able to produce in a set period of time.
 RTU DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
Scientific management grew in popularity among big businesses because

productivity rose, proving that it worked.

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth

I. Biography

Lillian Evelyn Moller, (born May 24, 1878, Oakland, California, U.S.—died

January 2, 1972, Phoenix, Arizona), American psychologist and engineer who, with

her husband, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, developed methods to increase

the efficiency of industrial employees, most notably time-and-motion study. Moller

received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in literature from the University of

California, Berkeley, and had begun her doctoral studies when she married Frank

Gilbreth in 1904. She quickly adopted her husband’s enthusiasm for workplace

efficiency, and the two collaborated on applying the social sciences to industrial

management, emphasizing the worker rather than nonhuman factors. Their method

of time-and-motion study provided a systematic means of identifying and analyzing

the number of movements and the amount of time needed to complete a specific

task. Motion Study (1911) was the first important publication of their research. Lillian

switched the focus of her graduate study from literature to psychology and earned a

doctorate from Brown University in 1915. Her psychological expertise complemented

Frank’s physiological and mechanical insights in their later writings Fatigue

Study (1916) and Applied Motion Study (1917).

Frank Bunker Gilbreth, (born July 7, 1868, Fairfield, Maine, U.S.—died June

14, 1924, Montclair, N.J.), American engineer who, with his wife, Lillian Gilbreth,
 RTU DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
developed the method of time-and-motion study, as applied to the work habits of

industrial employees, to increase their efficiency and hence their output.

Gilbreth ended his formal education after high school and spent time as a bricklayer

and as a contracting engineer. After marrying Lillian Moller in 1904, he embarked on

a career in scientific industrial management. The two began a professional

partnership that focused on applying the social sciences to industry, with an

emphasis on streamlining the actions of the worker instead of making changes to

the work environment. The Gilbreths developed a method of time-and-motion study

that systematically investigated and analyzed the mechanics and timing of specific

tasks, and their research resulted in the publication of Motion Study in 1911. The

Gilbreths soon published two more books, Fatigue Study (1916) and Applied Motion

Study (1917). Frank formed a consulting business at Montclair, N.J., and lectured at

various universities in the United States and elsewhere. He was also the first to

apply motion-picture photography to the study of surgical operations.

The Gilbreths’ application of efficiency methods to their home was described by 2 of

their 12 children, Frank Bunker Gilbreth, Jr., and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, in their

humorous popular reminiscences Cheaper by the Dozen (1949; filmed 1950, 2003)

and Belles on Their Toes (1950; filmed 1952).

While Taylor was conducting his time studies, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were

completing their own work in motion studies to further scientific management. The

Gilbreth name may be familiar to anyone who has read the book Cheaper By The

Dozen, a biographical novel about the Gilbreth family, their twelve children, and the

often humorous attempts of the Gilbreths to apply their efficiency methods in their

own household.

The Gilbreths made use of scientific insights to develop a study method based on

the analysis of work motions, consisting in part of filming the details of a worker’s

activities while recording the time it took to complete those activities. The films

helped to create a visual record of how work was completed, and emphasized areas

for improvement. Secondly, the films also served the purpose of training workers

about the best way to perform their work.

This method allowed the Gilbreths to build on the best elements of the work flows

and create a standardized best practice. Time and motion studies are used together

to achieve rational and reasonable results and find the best practice for

implementing new work methods. While Taylor’s work is often associated with that

of the Gilbreths, there is a clear philosophical divide between the two scientific-

management theories. Taylor was focused on reducing process time, while the

Gilbreths tried to make the overall process more efficient by reducing the motions

involved. They saw their approach as more concerned with workers’ welfare than
 RTU DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
Taylorism, in which workers were less relevant than profit. The couple placed high

value on efficiency when managing an organization. Their management theory

outlined three main points:

1. Reduce the number of motions in a task.

Frank and Lillian coined the term "therbligs," or elemental motions

required for tasks in the workplace. They used these 18 units to analyze how

tasks were completed – searching for an object with eyes or hands, grasping

an object with hands, assembling and disassembling two parts, etc. From

there, they'd figure out which motions were necessary, then eliminate any

unnecessary motions to increase efficiency.

2. Focus on the incremental study of motions and time.

As engineers, Frank and Lillian closely studied motion and time to

calculate the most efficient way to complete a given task. Taking the scientific

approach, they measured time and motion to 1/2000 of a second to

understand what works best. Their insight was unlike that of most other

theorists, as they channeled physical science rather than psychology.

Your main goal as a leader should be increasing efficiency in each

individual employee, and in the organization as a whole. Not only will this

method save time, it will also afford you a higher profit and happier workers.

References:

British Library (2017). Father of Scientific Management Thinker. Retrieved

from:https://www.bl.uk/people/frederick-winslow-

taylor?fbclid=IwAR1VWeGTef9Vnv6fzSkWPe57Hn3xyw1osWcSr20ps_IN4TikS_M04jcn

7Ds.

Caramela, Sammi (2018). The Management Theory of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth.

Retrieved from: https://www.business.com/articles/management-theory-of-frank-and-

lillian-gilbreth/.

Mee, John (2018). Frederick Taylor-American Inventor and Engineer. Retrieved

from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-W-Taylor.

Lumen Learning (2016). Principles of Management. Retrieved from:

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-principlesofmanagement/chapter/scientific-

management/