Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Method

Taylor adopted a different approach by introducing a step-by-step method to determine best practices or the “one best way” in performing a job and thereby establishing the proper pay-rates for the job. Taylor’s scientific method was of great influence to industrial companies and it completely revolutionized the organization of work in industrial organizations.

Taylor’s methodical approach to determine the “one best way” to perform a job consisted of the following steps:

1.Select a sample of skilled workers and carefully study the job being done.

2.Carefully list each operation including extensive detail on each task being performed.

3.Utilize a stopwatch to time each task being performed. Repeat this step over a period of time to obtain an average of the time it takes to perform each task.

4.Identify and eliminate any unnecessary tasks that are performed to finalize the job.

5.Identify any improvements, tools or techniques that can be adopted to reduce the time in performing the job.

6.Establish new and informed times and pay-rates for the job.

7.Lastly, all workers are trained to perform the job in the “one best way” identified.

3.Four principles of scientific management

Following Taylor’s experiments on the best way to increase productivity in industrial organizations, Taylor proposed his four principles of scientific management:

1.Study the ways jobs are performed now and determine new ways to do them.

Gather detailed time and motion information.

Try different methods to see which is best.

To discover the most efficient method of performing specific tasks, Taylor studied in great detail and measured the ways different workers went about performing their tasks. One of the main tools he used was a time-and-motion study, which involves the careful timing and recording of the actions taken to perform a particular task. Once Taylor understood the existing method of performing a task, he tried different methods of dividing and coordinating the various tasks necessary to produce a finished product. Usually this meant simplifying jobs and having each worker perform fewer, more routine tasks, as at the pin factory or on Ford’s car assembly line. Taylor also sought ways to improve each worker’s ability to per form a particular task—for example, by reducing the number of motions workers made to complete the task, by changing the layout of the work area or the type of tool workers used, or by experimenting with tools of different sizes.

2. Codify the new methods into rules.

Teach to all workers the new method.

Once the best method of performing a particular task was determined, Taylor specified that it should be recorded so that the procedures could be taught to all workers performing the same task. These rules could be used to standardize and simplify jobs further—essentially, to make jobs even more routine. In this way, efficiency could be increased throughout an organization.

3.Select workers whose skills match the rules.

To increase specialization, Taylor believed workers had to understand the tasks that were required and be thoroughly trained in order to perform the tasks at the required level. Workers who could not be trained to this level were to be transferred to a job where they were able to reach the minimum required level of proficiency.