SHB2034 – Management Guru & QualityChapter 1: Scientific Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OBJECTIVES........................................................................................................2ABSTRACT...........................................................................................................21.1 INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................31.2 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR.................................................................41.3 FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH.................................................................5Additional MATERIALS.........................................................................................6

OBJECTIVES

At the end of this topic, you will be able to: Enable learners to understand the lives, philosophies, ideas and contributions of

Scientific Management Gurus and Thinkers Enable learners to assess and evaluate the importance and impact of those ideas in

organizations and society Enable learners to relate the ideas to other management gurus from other disciplines of

knowledge Enable learners to apply the best and the most relevant concepts formulated by

management gurus and thinkers in behaviors and practices in daily lives.

ABSTRACT

Scientific Management is a classical management approach that emphasizes scientific methods to analyze and determine the "one best way" to complete production task.

1.1 INTRODUCTION

Scientific Management started in late Eighteenth Century as a result of the Industrial Revolution. This revolution created tremendous challenges to organization in order to deal with the management issues that involve large flows of material, people and information.

In order to solve these management issues, Frederick Winslow Taylor created a science of management of human behavior at work. He applied scientific methods to factory problems and urged the proper use of human labor, tools, and time. After that, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth added to Taylor's findings. They used time and motion studies to analyze workers' activities and remove unnecessary movements and causes of fatigue.

1.2 FREDERICK WINSLOW TAYLOR

F.W.Taylor is the initiator of scientific management and a major influence on the development of production management as a subject. He set out to systematize the study of workflow organization by breaking tasks into minute detail and devising ways to speed up their accomplishment.

Taylor aimed at a 'mental revolution' in order to break down the barriers to good labor relations between workers and management. His ideas on efficiency were propagated by his disciples after his death through an international movement to promote such management techniques.

Frederick Winslow TaylorFrederick Winslow Taylor (1865 - 1915), an engineer at the Midvale Steel Company in Pennsylvania.

Scientific ManagementThe main elements of the Scientific Management are:

Time studies Functional or specialized supervision Standardization of tools and implements Standardization of work methods Separate planning function Management by exception principle The use of "slide-rules and similar time-saving devices" Instruction cards for workmen Task allocation and large bonus for successful performance The use of the 'differential rate', Mnemonic systems for classifying products and

implements A routing system A modern costing system

Breaking TasksTaylor saw 'slacking' by workers as the main source of efficiency in industry. The laborer, he reasoned, would not exert himself; the manager would use guesswork. Both had to be guided towards rational behavior. To this end, he invented what he called a 'science of shoveling' while working in the steel industry in the early 1880s.

Mental RevolutionTo illustrate his notion of a fair day's work, he trained laborer called Schmidt to increase by four times his workload of loading moldings called 'pigs'; the latter gained a bonus of 50 per cent as a result of the rationalization of his job. Piecework rates were devised to boost motivation, with what Taylor liked to call 'first-class men' setting the pace. He believed his system was more than a mere efficiency device: it involved a complete 'mental revolution' on the part of management as well as workers, and involved a coming together of capital and labor, a delusion according to his critics.

Taylor also tried to extend the division of labor to management, believing that there should be no fewer than eight kinds of functional foremen, dealing with work speed and repairs. He believed that 'a good organization with a poor department was to play a pivotal role in Taylor's schema, as it would work out that detailed work schedules for the employees to follow in order to increase output.

1.3 FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH

One of the great husband-and-wife teams of science and engineering, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth collaborated on the development of motion study as an engineering and management technique. Frank Gilbreth was much concerned about the relationship between human beings and human effort.

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth continued their motion study and analysis in other fields and pioneered in the use of motion pictures for studying work and workers. They originated micro-motion study, a breakdown of work into fundamental elements now called therbligs (derived from Gilbreth spelled backwards). These elements were studied by means of a motion-picture camera and a timing device which indicated the time intervals on the film as it was exposed.

Frank and Lillian GilbrethFrank B. Gilbreth was born on July 7, 1868 in Fairfield, Maine. He was a bricklayer, a building contractor, and a management engineer. He was a member of the ASME, the Taylor Society (precursor to the SAM), and a lecturer at Purdue University. Frank died on June 14, 1924.

Lillian Gilbreth - First Lady of Engineering was born on May 24, 1878 in Oakland, California. She graduated from the University of California with a B.A. and M.A. and went on to earn a Ph.D. from Brown University. She earned membership in the ASME, and like her husband lectured at Purdue University. Lillian died on January 2, 1972. Frank and Lillian were married in 1904 and were parents of twelve children. Together they were partners in the management consulting firm of Gilbreth, Inc.

Natural Relationship between Human Beings and Human EffortFrank Gilbreth's well-known work in improving brick-laying in the construction trade is a good example of his approach. From his start in the building industry, he observed that workers developed their own peculiar ways of working and that no two used the same method.

In studying bricklayers, he noted that individuals did not always use the same motions in the course of their work. These observations led him to seek one best way to perform tasks. He developed many improvements in brick-laying. A scaffold he invented permitted quick adjustment of the working platform so that the worker would be at the most convenient level at all times. He equipped the scaffold with a shelf for the bricks and mortar, saving the effort formerly required by the workman to bend down and pick up each brick. He had the bricks stacked on wooden frames, by low-priced laborers, with the best side and end of each brick always in the same position, so that the bricklayer no longer had to turn the brick around and over to look for the best side to face outward. The bricks and mortar were so placed on the scaffold that the brick-layer could pick up a brick with one hand and mortar with the other. As a result of these and other improvements, he reduced the number of motions made in laying a brick from 18 to 4 1/2.  

 ADDITIONAL MATERIALS

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