Taylorism

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A system of production devised by F. W. Taylor (1911), and characterized by the division of factory work into the smallest and simplest jobs while closely co-ordinating the sequence of tasks in order to achieve maximum efficiency, as, for example, on a production line. As a result, skilled managers and technicians oversee semi-skilled or unskilled workers who are engaged in simple, repetitive chores. This system of production has had profound spatial implications, as large firms often allocate skilled and unskilled jobs to different locations, creating a division of labour. See Fordism.

Like Fordism, Taylorism emerged as an important concept in the quest for industrial efficiency in the United States in the early 20th century and proved influential in the rest of the industrialized world in for the next 50 years. First applied as a means of achieving efficiency on the factory floor, it was devised by Frederick Winslow Taylor through his analysis of the organization and sequencing of work operations by means of a series of ‘time and motion’ studies. These ideas were laid out in his book Principles of Scientific Management of 1911 and have impacted on several aspects of design such as labour-saving kitchens and more ergonomic domestic appliances. These included the writings of fellow American Christine Frederick who published Scientific Management in the Home in 1915 and the analyses of domestic efficiency by Lillian Gilbreth, who examined the notion of the kitchen as a site of industrial production for the Brooklyn Gas Company in 1930. Similar ideas were also explored in Frankfurt, Germany, by Grete Schütte-Lihotsky in her 1924 designs for the Frankfurt kitchen which was utilized in mass housing.

Taylorism, a system originated by Frederick Taylor and publicized in his book The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), was designed to increase industrial output by rationalizing the production process.

Over the course of the nineteenth century, unskilled workers and then machines had begun to replace skilled craftsmen. Yet because of their specialized knowledge, the more skilled workers continued to exert considerable control over the pace of work, the methods used, and the levels of output. Taylor, working as a foreman in the Midvale Steel Company in the 1880s, concluded that to increase production, managers must take control of the process, starting by doing time studies of each factory job. This involved observing workers meticulously, analyzing each step in terms of time spent and energy expended, and using the results to determine the best method for each task. This standard method would be required of every worker, with scaled piecework rates providing incentives for higher output.

After his methods had increased production significantly at Midvale, Taylor became a pioneer management consultant, publicizing his system and advising the nation's burgeoning corporations on how to use it. For workers, Taylorism brought a marked loss of autonomy, as managers supervised more and more closely the activities of the shop floor. Many workers felt that they knew more about production than the managers, planners, and experts now in charge; some asserted that the gains in incentive pay were a poor exchange for the increasing pressure and regimentation of working in a scientifically managed factory. But Taylorism fit with the trend to larger-scale, more mechanized production, and it appealed to the growing class of corporate managers who were distrustful of labor and intent on maximizing efficiency and profits. Other consultants, like Lillian and Frank Gilbreth and H. L. Gantt, pursued similar ideas. Taylor's doctrine was not always followed precisely by his converts, but by the 1920s his emphasis on standardization, close accounting, and managerial control had had a profound effect on industrial management throughout the United States.

See also Industrial Revolution; Science and Technology.